A friend sent an email about Lady Gaga's satanic background and her songs, etc. Being a person who loves music, music holds a very special place in my heart. It is to be respected and used in the right spirit.
Personally, music is a beautiful gift - a gift from God for us to use to worship Him. Anything that defers from this purpose does not have the right to be classified as music. Thus, I call them noise.
Noise has one effect - they create chaos. Just imagine sitting in a primary school canteen (in an all boys school) during recess and you'll understand what this means. If you remain in such a canteen for too long, you'll find it irritatingly deafening. You'll experience nothing peaceful. Such is the effect of all these "music" in the secularised world. They create chaos in our minds simply because it does not leave us going away being more at peace with ourselves, our lives or with God. It excites our senses. If we look deep into most sins, they all give pleasure to our senses, e.g. sexual sins, gluttony, greed, pride, sleeping in and missing morning Mass, etc. When we pay attention to the senses, which is our exterior and superficial self, we will slowly but surely lose touch with our deeper spiritual self and thereby, our connection with God, who is NOT found in any of these "music".
The reason why I say that music can excite our senses is because this is precisely the unique thing about music. We can listen to a piece of music sung in a completely foreign language and be able to guess the mood of the song in which it was originally written. This is why we have Music Therapy as a way of easing the pain of cancer patients and those ill and dying. This is why Praise and Worship always begins with upbeat songs, then mellows down to the slower and more reflective and then to those that elicit the deep emotions, and then goes back up on the beat again.
Music has the ability to manipulate us, even without our knowing. I used to listen to certain pop songs in my younger days when I'm feeling down and I love to set the mode to "repeat all". After some time, I found that I was sinking deeper into depression and the emotions were just spiralling down and down. It started off with the most innocent and simple reason that the songs suited my mood at that time and so I listened to it, thinking it will make me feel better. And for a moment, it did. But not for long. That's how satan works. He is the "father of lies". He lies to us that listening to these "music" is alright, harmless, makes us feel better, comforts us, makes us feel happy, and the list goes on. Then, when we put our guards down, that's when he will do what he had already set out to do with us from the beginning. And we will be caught - unaware, defenceless and helpless, like a turtle overturned on its shell.
Why listen to something when it is not life-giving and does not bring any good to anyone for that matter? If our hearts truly seek goodness, then we will know what to fill our lives with. We will not waste our time or allow ourselves the avenues that do not lead to goodness. Whatever music we will never play to a newborn baby, why should we play to our own ears? If a music is wholesome enough for a baby, it will be wholesome for us adults. If it is not, then why should it be okay for us adults to listen to it? But we do... because our hearts are no longer as pure as that of a baby. Pride tells us we are "old enough to handle", etc. And who is the father of pride? Who's deceiving us here? There's no "neutral" force in this world - it's either good or bad, God or evil. What does not lead to goodness, leads to evil. In the bible, Jesus Himself made this fact known when He said, "For he that is not against us is for us." Mk 9:40 There's no sitting on the fence. If there were a 3rd option, Jesus would have cautioned His disciples and would not have said what He had said in Mark 9:40.
Like Joe's email warned, if we are not aware of the doors to which satan uses to subtly enter our lives, we can be sure we will fall prey and we will be easy prey. satan does not come, says "hi" and enters our lives with a loud bang. He comes silently and without us knowing - after all, I'm sure he does not want to be found out lest we get rid of him! The first question is - Are we even willing to search and identify with eyes and hearts wide opened the doors satan uses to get into our lives? If we call God our God and say we love Him, then we have to be willing to be dead honest with ourselves, and love Jesus enough to stand with Him on guard against His enemy. God, who sees our hearts, knows how much we love or do not love Him. If we sincerely seek Him, then we must seek everything of Him - His values, His ways, His teachings, His commandments, etc. Love all He loves and detest all He detests. Isn't that what people do when they first fall in love? Someone who hates eating vegetables might just start eating it and finding it not so disgusting after all! Let's ask Jesus to help us to love Him more and more each day. Here's a song to share...
Friday 15 April 2011
10.15pm
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