Music is a Gift

The saying “if music be the food of love play on” is a famous line from one of Shakespeare’s plays, 12th Night. It refers to the idea that music can fill a person’s heart and make them stop feeling heartbroken. Just like food can fill a person’s stomach and make them stop feeling hungry.

When the idea for Cross Rhythms was conceived back in the early 80’s, its’ genesis was birthed at a time in my life when I was seriously searching within myself for the meaning of life. At the time, my heart was broken, and my soul was in tatters. A song from Bob Dylan’s album Slow Train Coming called ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, released in the late 70’s, had a profound impact on my life.

It was beyond inspirational. It was at a time when Bob Dylan was expressing his Christian faith and the lyrics powerfully impacted me as Providence was compelling me to explore the deeper spiritual meaning of life.

For me music is a gift from Creator God. The Intelligent Designer who expresses and demonstrates the power and influence of music within creation through ancient scripture and how it can inspire and encourage the human heart and soul like nothing else. I can list songs that ‘speak deeply’ to me from classical music that does the same without lyrics to classic pop music with amazing lyrics, which like the opening quote in this article can satisfy and replenish deeply.

A serious exploration of faith is hard to undertake without truth of the inner personal/individual condition being part of the process. We may believe now that all truth is relative to the individual’s worldview and beliefs. In a way that can be true. For a Christian, however, who believes by experience that there is an Absolute Truth, and He is 100% Divine, and 100% human this can be awesome. His name is Jesus Christ, and He has come to give us true freedom. Like Pontius Pilate when facing Jesus, we all can ask, ‘and what is truth’. That is a question God asks of us all if we are searching for the bigger questions of ‘why life and what is the point of existence’? The answer begins when we are truthful with ourselves. These are very deep questions and they take us on a life changing journey.

During the 60’s and 70’s a spiritual revival hit parts of the Western World called the Jesus People Movement. The profound impact of this ‘spiritual awakening’ were the conversions of many mainstream musicians, like Bob Dylan. They used their gifts and influence to speak into society about some of the cultural challenges of the time. The sixties were a time of cultural revolution that would change the Western World forever.

Much of this musical history is documented on the Cross Rhythms website and one of our young presenters on Cross Rhythms Plymouth, Esther Cole, has found herself propelled to prominence with her appearance on ‘The Voice’.

I can assure you that behind her experience on TV her motivation is still at heart her faith in God who has nurtured and upheld her in the good and bad times of life. I am so proud of her as her dad, but not as proud as her Heavenly Father is because he sees the depth of who she truly is and the choices she has made even at such a young age in the challenging times. For me she is a winner in life.