Music that gives me Hope

I need Christian music in my life.

There’s a part of me that wants to rebel against even writing that but it’s the truth. I think I need it in the same way I need books that grapple with faith, and more often than not those books end up getting called Christian fiction.

I am a person of Christian faith. It’s the faith I was raised in, and while I’ve had periods in my life when I was farther away from it than others, the truth is that I’m happiest and most at peace when I am at peace with being a Christian, or at peace with God, so to say. Therefore, I like to see the very real struggles and hopes of my faith reflected in the art I choose to engage with.

Life is difficult and it doesn’t turn out the way we want it to. Sometimes it feels overwhelmingly mundane and then suddenly something terrible happens that tears into the fabric of our ordered worlds and makes us desperate to grasp onto the mundane as much as we can. It’s so full of hurt, disappointment, and pain. The moments when we feel joy can be so fleeting–you know those moments when you hurt in a way that feels good and right because your heart cannot contain its happiness.

I’m a pretty melancholy person and prone to depression. I have to fight against meaningless addictions of my mind all the time by which I mean becoming consumed with thinking about one thing that has no impact on my actual life, but isn’t harmful either, in and of itself. Blogging might be a good example of this.

Sometimes, music is the only thing that can coax me out the darkness. In the same way that music sometimes becomes a friend in the low places, it also can be a light out. A gentle voice reminding me.

Unfortunately there’s such a limited amount of Christian music that really moves me. Obviously, you all know I love Andrew Peterson. I also really like Shane and Shane for the times when I need be gently reminded that there’s something more. There’s some emotional depth to their music I connect with even though I think that their lyrics don’t always quite deliver. Jeremy Casella is a more recent addition. And Fernando Ortega.

One of my favorites is actually the old hymn, This is My Father’s World, which for some reason makes me teary almost every time. It’s so sweet and full of hope. And this week, it was this song, “Take Heart My Friend.” It’s funny because it kind of sounds like a typical CCM song, yet it is exactly what I need to hear sometimes. It’s the only truth I really need to know…I can take heart because God is with me still, just as He always been. It’s the one real promise I have–not that life will turn out beautifully, not that I’ll know happiness or worldly success..but that I’ll never be alone.

I’ve included both songs below…because they gave me hope this week, a feeling I almost sometimes prefer to kill:

PS I have no idea what happened with my theme. 😦 When I upgraded I lost some of the formatting so I had to switch themes for the time being. When I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll do more with this blog.