Day 5

Welcome Back!

I am currently in the midst of a 30 day challenge to listen to only Christian music, and it is going well so far! If this is your first time reading my blog, I suggest that you check back on my very first post. That will give you an overview of my “Why” and what I am looking for from this challenge. And if you are wondering if the songs I have been listening to have had any effect on me, I suggest you read either of my last two posts. Anyways, let’s get into today’s post.

Throughout the course of this challenge, I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of songs I have heard that have reminded me of my childhood. You see, after my parents got divorced when I was 9, the only thing that my Dad would ever let us listen to while we were around him was Christian music. So because of that, my siblings and I grew to love Christian music, so much so that it got to the point where it was all that we would listen to. I remember when my mom finally got remarried when I was in 6th grade, I met me future stepbrother (who was 2 days older than me) and he made fun of me for not knowing who Sean Paul was. After that remarriage, my (and my siblings’) love for Christian music started to dwindle a little at a time until neither my brother or sister would even dare to listen to Christian music, and I only sparingly listen to it. Now, a large part of this had to do with how abusive and demonstrative our father was in the way he would treat us, and then justify his behavior with the Bible, yet I still occasionally listened. I did not really get back into the Christian music until I tore my ACL during my senior season in high school. After that, I started to give God another chance, and that is why my faith started to grow. Because of those two time periods, I actually have a large amount of music that I can go and look back on fondly, and that is just what I was doing today when I was scrolling through my library.

It is kind of amazing how a song can take us back to a place and time that has long since past. It’s like your memory of an event is locked away in a song, and each time you play it, you get sent back to that place and you are right there again. It is one of the most amazing feelings, and it is not something that is reserved only for Christian music. I am sure that you have a song in mind that takes you back to a different place and time, and that is beautiful! One of the songs that does that for me, and a song that I heard today, is called “Washed by the Water” by NEEDTOBREATHE. Now, full disclaimer here, this is by far my favorite band in the world. I love this band so much that it went in my Tinder profile when I had Tinder.. (yes.. I know. But hey, it worked out!) This song was actually the first song of theirs that I had ever heard, and I remember exactly how I found it. I was in the 7th or 8th grade, and I was scrolling through this website called NewMusicNews? or something like that. Anyways, the whole purpose of the website was to talk about new Christian music, and they had a spotlight section on the website that would play the highlighted song, and then tell you a little bit about the band. Well, as you can probably guess, that song was the highlighted song for the week, and so I naturally clicked on the thumbnail to listen to it. What I heard next changed my life forever. From the very first moment the song comes on, you are greeted with what might be the most calming, lovely, and beautiful piano tune you can ever here. It is one of those tunes that you instantly know when you hear it, and will stick with you forever. This intro to the song is so iconic to me, that I got literal chills rolling down my spine when I heard that piano come in for the first time on the live version of this song that was just included on the band’s live album that was released earlier this year.

The song itself is not the most lyrically challenging song that you will hear me talk about, but it is one that just screams real, soulful, gospel love. If I had to describe the song in terms of clothing items, “Washed by the Water” would be your favorite sweater that fits you perfectly, and leaves you feeling warm and cozy after putting it on. The song talks about the band’s formation, and a little bit about who they are, and then it talks about how “even when the rain falls, even when the floods start rising, even when the storm comes, I am washed by the water.” Now, what they are not saying is that the flood waters or the rains that are coming down around them are the water that is washing over them. They are using the floods and rains as a metaphor for the struggles in life that we face (such as someone talking bad about your family) to say that even when bad things happen to you, you will make it through because God is with you. You are washed by a different kind of water, that will protect you from the things of this world that try to bring us down. From the very first moment I heard this song, I loved that metaphor, and I still love it to this day. This song, and many others like it, constantly take me back in time to a simpler day, where I didn’t have to worry about bills or my job, or my finances. I could just worry about being me, and learning about cool new songs that I found on the internet. I hope that God is able to bring a song back into your life soon that takes you back to a place and time where things were good for you. I truly believe that God can use anything to help show us something that we need to see, and that includes bringing a song back into our lives. So if that is you, I pray that God reveal himself to you through an old song made new for you, and I pray that God be with you for the rest of your day.

That is going to be the end of this blog. I am sorry if the quality is not as good as some of the other blogs I have written. I am literally writing this from my bed as I am about to fall asleep, so I am not sure if everything I said was coherent or made any sense. If not, I will try to be better tomorrow. Anyways, thank you for your time, and God bless you.