Day 27

Welcome Back!

I am currently finishing up a 30 day challenge to listen to nothing but Christian Music for 30 days. The challenge has been amazing, and life changing, and I am SO SO SO glad that I have undertaken the challenge. If you are curious as to what inspired me to take the challenge, then I suggest that you go read my very first blog. And if you are wondering as to how the challenge has changed me, then I suggest that you read any of my other blogs. Now, let’s get into today’s blog.

We did it! I told you that I would be all caught up by Wednesday, and today is Wednesday! So here you are, my ON TIME blog post for today. Now, I only have a few more blog posts to make, so I want to really make sure that the songs that I choose are the highest quality messages that I can find. So for today’s message, I am going to be spotlighting another titan of the Christian Music industry, and that is Matthew West. I do not think that I have spotlighted any of his music yet, and that was something that desperately need to change. I am proud to say that I am one of the millions of people in the world who have been positively impacted by Matthew’s music, and I would even go so far as to say that his music has helped me to become the person AND Christian that I am today. Matthew West has sooooo many hit songs that I can spotlight today, and to be honest, I could probably do this entire blog over again and dedicate it to only explaining Matthew West songs, and it would be JUST as good as what I have been doing. However, the song that I want to highlight today might be his best song, and it is the one that has had the biggest impact on my life. That song is “More” This song is probably the most impactful song of his in my life because it is the first song that I hear of his, and it is one of the first songs that made me fall in love with Christian music. On top of that, it gave me a glimpse as to how much God actually does love me at a very early and impressionable age.

The song starts off with a very unique combination of a piano, electric music (I think?), and maybe a violin as well as some drums. I don’t quite know how to explain the sounds that I am hearing, but from the very first moment I hear them, I knew that I was mesmerized by them. However, this song is more about the lyrics than it is about the music, and the lyrics start: “Take a look at the mountain, stretching a mile high, take a the ocean, far as your eye can see. And think of me, take a look at the desert, do you feel like a grain of sand? I am with you wherever, where you go is where I am. And I’m always thinking of you, take a look around you, I’m spelling it out one by one.” Now, if you have never heard this song before, and you are just reading these lyrics right now, you might be confused as to who is talking to who in this song. And I will be honest with you, I also was confused about that the first few times that I heard it! But them all of a sudden, a light bulb went off in my mind, and the entire song changed for me. I apologize if it was obvious to you what perspective the song was being sang from, but I am trying to paint the picture of how surprised and amazed I was when I was 12 years old and hearing this song for the first time. THE PERSPECTIVE OF THIS SONG IS GOD’S, AND HE IS SINGING ABOUT HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU!!!!! This was the first time that I had ever heard ANYONE sing from God’s perspective, but I thought that it was the coolest thing in the world! And to be honest, I still think that it is pretty cool, because even after 15 years of being released, there still aren’t that many songs that take this perspective! So with that in mind, you have to hear about how much God loves you in the main chorus of this song.

The main chorus comes in loud and proud, as “God” (Obviously it’s Matthew West singing from God’s perspective, but I like to think that this song was just God speaking through Matthew to us) sings: “I love you more than the sun, and the stars that I taught how to shine, you are mine, and you shine for me too. I love you yesterday and today and tomorrow, I’ll say it again and again, I love you MORE.” Read those words again, because those are the words of your God in heaven! The God who made the son and the stars, the God who made the mountain and the ocean, the God who made every wonderful thing in this world loves you MORE than all of those amazing things that he created. He loves you more than anything else he created because you are special to him, and you are his! I once read a book called “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, and if you haven’t read it, I highly suggest that you do. Anyways, there is a chapter in the book that talks about the reason why God loves you more than all those created things, and that reason is because of all the things in the entire universe, you are the only thing that can CHOOSE to worship God. If god wanted us to be toy soldiers that just followed his every order and blindly followed him, then he wouldn’t have given us free will. But he did give us that free will, because he wants us to CHOOSE him back, because he has chosen to love us more than any other thing that he created. There is nothing that you can do to separate yourself from that great love the God has for you, and there is nowhere you can run to escape from his great love for you! So I pray that you bask in the wonder of the lyrics of this song, knowing full well that someday when we join our Father in heaven, he will be there waiting for us, singing this song to us! Because he does love us MORE! Thank you for reading, and God bless you.