Heart and Mind

The other day I was listening to Christian radio and heard a song I was not familiar with—“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray. As I thought about the lyrics they made me distinctly uneasy. One line that is repeated several times is “It’s gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in; more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance.” The story behind the song (found here) clarifies his intent somewhat, but I still have problems with the message. Gray said,

“I think we’re in danger of making our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today. The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters.”

While that may be true to some degree, I don’t think that is the predominant problem with American Christianity. It seems to me that we are far more likely to pursue some kind of emotional response that may have very little to do with the facts of who Jesus was and is. Yes, faith is more than an intellectual exercise, but it is also more than a love affair. Gray’s lyrics set up a false dichotomy. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Faith requires engagement of both heart and mind.

In his chapter in Standing on the Promises, Larry Knowles wrote:

“Let it be said again that worship ought to engage the mind and the emotions. Careful wording and cerebral agreement alone do not a worshiper make… There is no doubt that the love of God is something the Christian will want to internalize personally and celebrate with emotive affection… Our concern with heavily romantic or sensory lyrics is that they communicate God’s love as primarily a subjective phenomenon, grasped mainly by its emotional and personal impact. Granted, these words may come from the genuine experience of a lyricist. But the glut of choruses that talk about ‘falling in love with Jesus’ finds no correlate in Scripture” (178-179).

Someone may say, “True, but Christian radio is not worship.” The average listener is drawn to songs that stir their emotions, not necessarily those that clearly represent scriptural truths. That’s one reason I rarely listen to the radio. Listeners tends to identify artists they like, and then listen indiscriminately to anything that artist wrote. A large percentage of the new songs that get introduced in churches start out on the radio, and many church music leaders don’t evaluate songs by their theology. Church leaders should be cautious about “endorsing” artists who are not consistently presenting solid theology.

I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to music used in worship services. In many churches the music is unbiblical, unsingable, or (often) unrelated to the day’s sermon. Since Jesus proclaimed that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23b), those who plan the worship service and choose the music have a responsibility to lead in spirit and truth. Alistair Begg gave three guidelines on worship music:

1. It is biblical, being grounded in the truth of Scripture.
2. It is rational in that it engages our minds.
3. It is clearly spiritual in that it involves the very core of our being.

Begg also quoted from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s helpful guidelines from 5 Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. Their first point, “Begin with the pastor,” states:

“Ultimately the buck stops with him in congregational worship. Every pastor must be intimately involved in the language being placed in the congregation’s mouth, for that singing ultimately affects how they think, how they feel, how they pray, and how they live.”

In Christian freedom, we can each listen to whatever we like on the radio or online, and churches are free to use whatever music seems to best fit their context. But personally, I have found that “taking every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) is closely linked to “making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2). Our ears and eyes are the two primary methods of input to our thoughts and beliefs. If we aren’t paying attention for ourselves, no one else is likely to do it for us.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.