Songs of the past – “what was I thinking?”

Songs of the past – “what was I thinking?”

Perception changes over time. When you’re caught up in the moment it’s not always easy to everything clearly, it can also effect other things. With songs, I’ve noticed, our tastes seem to change. Sometimes I think we are just over exposed to a song which can mean we either start to dislike it (or get bored with it) or we start to like it (or more likely get used to it). When we look back we can often be surprised (and a little disgusted) at the songs we used to like. There is that “what was a thinking” moment.

Songs are very emotive and we connect songs with times in our lives and a certain way we felt. We get attached to songs we may not like at all because it reminds us of a good time in our past. We continue to listen to it to reminisce. When we hear a song we haven’t heard for a long time it can conjure up images and feelings from the past, I think we can sometimes mistake the enjoyment of that feeling for enjoyment of the song.

I’m starting to wonder how much this also impacts us in a church setting. I’ve certainly seen songs anointed for “a time” and others, like Amazing Grace, appear to be timeless. Are there also songs that worship leaders, worship bands and churches cling to because of feelings from the past it brings up? Is God still anointing these songs or are worshipping that moment in our past rather than him.

Festivals are often something most of us can easily link a song with. When I hear songs like “Praise You” by Martyn Layzell and “Beautiful One” by Tim Hughes they remind me of being at Soul Survivor in 2002 with a large group of friends from church. It was a really enjoyable time but some of the songs were for that time and others we continue to use now. There are songs I think I’ve used in worship, probably incorrectly, because I personally have more of a connection with them. It might not be something the church shares which isn’t good when you’re meant to be leading the church into worship. I’ve also seen churches continue to use old hymns that God really did not appear to be using in services anymore. They continued to use them because the Church has a connection with them rather than what God wants them to be singing.

There’s something Mike Pilavachi said that this reminds me of; it was something like  “the anointing isn’t in the act, it’s in the obedience”. He was talking about when God told Moses to hit the rock with his staff to produce water. He obeyed. The second time God told him to speak to the rock. This time Moses hit the rock with his staff and water flowed again. God then told Moses “because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them”. (Numbers 20)

The act Moses carried out still brought the same results but he put his faith in the act rather than in God. We need to be aware in the church of how much we rely on acts/songs/preaches/structures etc… that have worked before and make sure God is still calling us to use them.