Day 25

Welcome Back!

I am almost done with a journey that has changed my life, and hopefully forever, and I am glad that you have come along for the ride. This journey that I am talking about is the journey to listen to nothing by Christian music for 30 days, and if you want to know about what inspired me to do this journey, then I suggest that you go read my very first blog. If you want to read more about how this journey has changed my life forever, then I suggest that you read any of my other blogs. Now, let’s get into today’s blog.

For today’s song, I would like to shine the spotlight on a guy who hasn’t been blessed with a lot of hit songs, although he definitely should have been, but who has been blessed with the opportunity to make songs that really hit deep. This guy that I am talking about is Jimmy Needham, and if you don’t know who he is, then you need to look him up right now. He is one of the best definitions of guys who have a heart for Jesus. Now, I don’t know this for certain, but I can’t help but feel as though Jimmy’s career has not been as successful as some of the other Christian artists out there because he doesn’t write songs that don’t have the word of God in them. Now don’t get me wrong, Jimmy is definitely a successful artist! But he isn’t a household name in my opinion because he hasn’t had a lot of songs played on radio stations like K-Love. Anyways, as a I mentioned, Jimmy is one of those artists that you hear and you just can’t help but say “Wow, this guy has a heart that is after the Lord” Everything that this guy writes and sings about is something that is designed to please the Lord only, and that is awesome. When I first heard about Jimmy, I was in high school, and I thought that his songs were really good. However, I didn’t quite understand how deep they were at the time, I just knew that I loved his voice and the way his songs sounded. I continued to follow Jimmy’s career into college, which is when I realized that Jimmy has stopped releasing music. I don’t know why he stopped, but whatever the reason was, I sure it was because God led him to do so. The song that I am spotlighting today is Jimmy’s most popular song, but I will be honest, I didn’t like it much when I first heard it! I thought that it was too slow, and the message behind the song went right over my head. It wasn’t until this past summer that I rediscovered the song, and truly HEARD it for the first time. And let me tell you, it changed me. This song is a very convicting song, and it is something that will not shy away from pointing out how we are supposed to be living our lives according to God’s will. The song is called “Clear the Stage”, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

The song as I mentioned before, is a very slow song, and the reason for that is because the only instrument in the whole song is a piano I believe. There may be a violin that comes in during the main chorus, but that is it. The meat of the song is not the music itself, the focus of the song is the lyrics, and boy are these some convicting and challenging lyrics. The song starts off by saying: “Clear the stage, and set the sounds and lights ablaze if that’s the measure you must take to crush the idols. Jerk the pews and all the decorations, too until the congregations few, then have revival. Tell your friends that this is where the party ends, until you’re broken for your sins you can’t be social. Then seek the Lord and wait for what he has in store, and know that great is your reward so just be hopeful.” …… Now that you have read through those lyrics, I want you to read through them again, and analyze each line, because that is what we are going to do. The first line says that we need to clear the stage and set ablaze all the lights and sounds if that is what it takes to crush our idols. If you don’t know what Jimmy is talking about, he is saying that we need to get rid of all the pompous, showy stages that so many churches have for their worship bands because many of those stages have just turned into idols of entertainment and self-promotion. Of course there are other ways to interpret that first line, but I tend to follow that line of thinking because of the next line in the verse, which talks about “jerking” the pews and decorations until the few people that are left in the congregation have revival. For those of you who don’t know what “jerking” the pews means, it means to tear up and remove. So what Jimmy is saying is that if you remove all the pretty things in a church, then the people who are left are going to be the people who actually experience true revival. It is in the third line that I think Jimmy starts talking to the individual, and it is this line that really convicted me when I first truly heard it. This is the line where he says that until you are broken for your sins, you shouldn’t be social. What Jimmy is saying is that you should be so torn up about your sins that you won’t want to do anything with anyone. And I don’t know about you, but I have rarely felt that upset about my sins, which I realized was a problem. And finally, the last line talks about how you need to seek the Lord when you get to that point, and wait for what he has in store for you, because you know that whatever he has in store for you, it is going to be for your good and his glory. Now, let’s move onto the main chorus, because it is only going to continue to get more confrontational to many people’s beliefs on religion and church as the song progresses.

The main chorus goes like this: “Cause you can, sing all you want to. You can, sing all you want to. Yes you can, sing all you want to, and still get it wrong… Cause worship is more than a song.” If you are anything like me, the worship section of each church service is probably your favorite part. So when I first truly heard that message, I was like “dang… that’s probably me.” Just because you are singing songs of praise to God, and you are in his house of worship, it does not mean that you are actually worshiping him. God has stated numerous times in the Bible how he hates when his people sings songs to him, and follow rules for him, but have their hearts nowhere near him, and this is the message behind this main chorus. This is a musical artist, singing about how worship is more than a song. If that doesn’t jump out at you, then you are missing the point here. That would be like a chef telling you not to eat his food because he knows that you are prone to eating to much of it and ruining the purpose of his creation. For a musician to speak about the Biblical truth of empty praise coming in the form of music is something that speaks to me. So when Jimmy tells you that you can sing all you want to, and still get it wrong, I think he qualifies as someone credible to believe. Jimmy, and more accurately God through Jimmy, is trying to tell us that for our songs to have meaning, our hearts have to be in the right place to worship God. God is always calling out for the people to have their hearts to be seeking him, and then he will accept their worship. God doesn’t want your empty worship, because it is insulting to his glory.

The last part of the song that I want to talk about is the bridge, and that is because it is the most convicting part of the song. The bridge goes like this: “We must not worship something that’s not even worth it. Clear the stage, make some space for the one who deserves it. Anything I put before my God, is an idol. Anything I want with all my heart, is an idol. Anything I can’t stop thinking of, is an idol. Anything that I give all my love, is an idol.” As you are reading those words, I am sure that you had something come to mind that you cherish in your life. It might not be an insidious thing, heck, it might not even be a bad thing at all! But whatever it was you thought about, I am sure you had the same thought as me “What? No, he can’t be talking about that. There is no way that ________ is an idol. It is a good thing!” Well I have some tough news.. It is. What came to mind for me when I heard the song first was football. Football is not a bad thing, and in fact, it is the way that God has chosen to use me to spread his good news! However, over time I have grown to realize that I sometimes let football take too much of my life, and it blocks out the time and attention that I could be giving to God. The best example of this was my obsession with the football video game, Madden. I spent way to much time thinking about it, and obsessing over it, and it definitely was an idol in my life. For you, it may be something different. Maybe for you, it is the new job that you have been coveting. Or maybe it is an object that you think will make your life better. Or maybe it is something else. But whatever it is, if you are putting it before God, it is an idol, and it is impeding you from having a true and meaningful relationship with God. As I have mentioned in this blog previously, I have given up playing Madden for good, and I can say with 100% confidence that since making that decision, I have noticed a substantial and significant growth in my relationship with God. So whatever you have as an idol in your life, I want to simply challenge you to removed it from your life and see the kind of impact it can have. No matter what that idol is, you need to get it out of the way, and trust that what God has in store for you next is going to be better than anything else that you could have imagined. Thank you for reading this blog, and I ask that you give a few more Jimmy Needham songs a listen because he really is a truly special artist. I recommend Forgiven and Loved, as well as Hurricane. Finally, I pray that you will give God a chance, and removed whatever idol you have in between you and him, so that you can truly receive the blessing that God has planned for you. Don’t let your praise, but empty worship. Seek the Lord with all your heart, and just see how he uses you. Thank you, and may God bless you.