What Are You Listening To?

There are two ways to take that question. The first would be more generically, as in, what kind of music are you listening to? Who is on your iPod? What albums, artists, songs are you absolutely in love with and want to tell everyone about? But more specifically, who are you listening to? Who has your ear, your heart? Who speaks (or in this case, sings) and it pierces your soul?

Is is the world? That massive, ominous, vague entity that some of us have been told to fear and hate, while others have embraced it with open arms. Perhaps it is the flesh. The things you want to be real and true about you, about your life... the idols, dreams and expectations that shape your heart and lead you to hope for what can never be real. I suppose it's a cliche to talk about the Devil's music... I don't know that Satan has a particular genre of music (other than that which is explicitly Satanic). But I do think there are things that open the door for our sin and for the one who lies to us whisper to our heart those things that we are apt to believe, that pull our eyes from the Lord.

Maybe you are listening to something worthwhile, edifying, glorifying? Perhaps your music of choice reminds you of God's majesty, greatness and glory! There are pieces of music, artists and songs who whisper truth so loudly that it is overwhelming to my heart and reminds me of who I am... and who God is, my Creator, Father, Husband, Savior, Lord and Redeemer.

You want some examples?

One of the best songs I have been listening to lately is The Avett Brothers "Laundry Room" from their album "I and Love and You" that debuted last September. Watch this video from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Or this video from the NPR Tiny Desk Concert Series (thanks for sharing, Adam!). I like this song because it captures something that we talk about all the time, but often do not attempt to define or understand: longing. It's deep in the music, you can hear it in their voices and in the style, but what caught me specifically were these lyrics:

Last night I dreamt the whole night long/I woke with a head full of songs/I spent the whole day/I wrote ‘em down/but it’s a shame/Tonight I'll burn the lyrics/’cause every chorus was your name (oh!)

I say that we don't define longing because we might tend to think of it merely in terms of something we get rid of, a desire that is satiated by the consumption of our desire, be it food, sex, coffee, TV, sleep, etc. But sometimes longing only continues in the groaning of desire. I'm thinking specifically about the words of Romans 8, where Paul says that the creation has been groaning in in the pains of childbirth (that is, process of redemption, to be fulfilled in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ). But not only the Creation, but we groan in anticipation for that day of redemption. And not only do we groan, Paul says, but the Spirit groans as he intercedes for us... a groaning too deep for words.

Maybe you aren't like this, but all too often I try to cover that groaning with something else. I try to feed myself, medicate myself, sleep myself, read myself, move myself away from that longing, that groaning. But I wonder if, instead of covering up our longing, our desire, our groaning, we were to groan loudly (groan, not grumble) and with the Spirit, that we would grow in this way: that we would groan for the Lord. That we would long for him, long for an eternity were we are free from the bondage to sin and brokenness, where the wounds of others inflicted upon us, and our own depravity, would be healed. And in longing for Christ, looking to him for our satiation we would grown more in his likeness.

No, that's not what The Avett Brothers are singing about, so far as I can tell. But it's what it stirs up in me. And I long for marriage, for friendship, for community, for love and acceptance... and that is what they seem to be singing about. It is something that we all long for, something that will only truly be met in Jesus Christ.