Secret songs for God

I happened to come across an article today that not only interested me, but made me stop and think. In the past its been a fun hobby of mine to take songs I listen to and change them up to become worship songs. The article (posted below) is of 10 regular songs that might have double meanings (Godly and worldly). Do you agree with the writer that these songs could actually be about God (or what God wants us to hear)? Can you think of any other songs that might be about Our Heavenly father?  


The "This Is Too Easy Because I Already Imagine God Singing Them To Me" Division
10. OneDirection -- "What Makes You Beautiful"
Best Line: "You don't know you're beautiful. If only you saw what I can see..."
I really don't like OneDirection, and this song seems both too sappy and manufactured for pre-teen girls. That said, I can't fight a good message, and this is one we simply cannot hear enough. We are loved into being by God, and yet we can hate ourselves for our flaws. If only we could see what God can see, we'd know that we actually are beautiful. *When you look at the song in this context it gives it a deeper meaning and it doesn't seem so sappy.

9. Drake ft. Rihanna -- "Take Care"
Best Line: "I know you've been hurt by someone else. If you let me, here's what I'll do: I'll take care of you. When you're ready, just say you're ready."
Understatement of the year alert: not all of Rihanna's songs are easy to pray with. But I have to admit that a few of her songs lend themselves to ruminating on messages I have to think God wants us to internalize. Because we have been hurt. We have built walls to protect ourselves. Without coercing us God simply whispers, "You are precious; you are mine. Just say you're ready and let yourself be loved by me." *It's hard for me to look at this song in a Christian aspect simply because of the line "It's my birthday I'll get high if I want to, can't deny that I want you but I'll lie if I have to." Don't you agree? 

The "Did They Steal That Line From Scripture? No, Really, Did They?" Division
8.vTaylor Swift -- "Eyes Open"
Best Line: "The night goes dark. Keep your eyes open. Everybody's waiting for you to break down. Everybody's watching to see the fallout. Even when you're sleeping, keep your eyes open."
Was Taylor meditating on the Gospel of Matthew while singing this song for the "Hunger Games" soundtrack? Because she sounds an awful lot like Matthew 25:13, "stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
Taylor also might be discovering Ignatian spirituality, because there are some odd parallels between her admonitions about what to do when "the night goes dark" and Ignatius' instructions for what to do when we're in desolation and feel far from God. Whenever we're immersed in desolation and tempted to give up on God, that is exactly the time to "keep [our] eyes open" and to fight such a temptation. *I'm pretty sure this song was written specifically for the Hunger Games soundtrack and meant to go along with the theme of the books, but I like looking at it from the Gospel of Matthew perspective.

7. Fun. -- "We Are Young"
Best Line: "Tonight we are young, so let's set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the sun."
I sure as heck hope there is some sort of Gospel message in this song considering that I (and the rest of the country) have spend the last few months having these words tattooed onto our ear drums. Fortunately, I think there is. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, "You are the light of the world ... Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:14-16). Ignatius thought this was so important that, legend has it, they were the last words he ever spoke to his close friend (and fellow saint) Francis Xavier as Xavier was leaving for the Indies. "Ite inflammate omnia," Ignatius is to have said, or, "Go, and set the world on fire."
Let's have some Fun. setting the world on fire. *This is another one that's kind of hard for me to think of as being a "Gospel centered song", but who knows?

6. Katy Perry -- "Firework"
Best Line: "'Cause baby you're a firework. Come on, show 'em what you're worth. Make 'em go oh oh oh as you shoot across the sky. ...You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine. Just own the night like the 4th of July."
While Katy has strayed far from her Christian music beginnings, she nails this Gospel message even better than Fun. If Jesus were around today, he likely would not talk about covering one's light under a bushelbasket but instead "own[ing] the night like the 4th of July" for your heavenly Father. *Seeing how the Jkidz performed this song with Pastors Austin and Matt during the Jkidz takeover I REALLY love the idea of it being a song about shining our lights for God!

The "Unintentional Catechesis" Division
5. Rebecca Black -- "Friday"
Best Line: "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. Partyin', partyin' (yeah!), partyin', partyin', (yeah!), fun, fun, fun, fun, lookin' forward to the weekend. We, we, we, we so excited. We so excited. We gonna have a ball today."
OK, OK, I know saying that "Friday," arguably one of the most hated songs ever created, helps explain part of the faith is a bit of a stretch, but hear me out. And, no, I'm not going to say that listening to this song makes me miserable thereby putting me in a space to pray with Good Friday. That would just be cruel.
Nope, this was yet another of the songs that got lodged in my mind during that recent retreat. While I was initially agitated that a song with lyrics as profound as "we, we, we so excited" was distracting me from trying to pray with the Resurrection, I baptized it, turning Rebecca Black into an aid to prayer. "It's Easter, Easter, gotta get down on Easter" I found myself singing (hopefully, for the sake of my fellow retreatants, not too audibly).
But wait, the possibilities for Rebecca-angelism don't end here! If we change it to Sunday, can you think of another pop song that better illustrates the importance of the sabbath? Thanks to Rebecca, now "I, I, I, I so excited" for the Lord's Day. *Umm.....

4. Hanson -- "MMMBop"
Best Line: "MMMBop... It's a secret no one knows. Can you tell me? Oh no you can't 'cause you don't know. Oh yeah you say you can but you don't know."
Since the age of 12 the question has haunted me: What on earth is an mmmbop?! Finally, after yet another "Well, the Trinity is a mystery" homily on Trinity Sunday, I thought, "That's it! What if they were singing about an Mmmystery!" We can write books -- or songs -- about the Trinity. And yet on some level, Hansen will always be right, we just don't know.
As if tackling the mystery of the Trinity wasn't enough, Isaac, Taylor, and Zac seem steeped in Scripture and full of wisdom for those in ministry. They sing:

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
you can plant any one of those.
Can you tell me oh which flower's going to grow?
No you can't 'cause you don't know.
Keep planting to find out which one grows.

Hansen, like Paul and Apollos before them, know that no matter how hard we work ultimately God causes the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). I certainly am never sure whether my efforts will produce anything good, all I can do is keep planting and trust that I'll eventually discover what has grown. *I REALLY hope this is the meaning behind the song!

3. Rihanna -- "We Found Love"
Best Line: "We found love in a hopeless place. We found love in a hopeless place."
Christians do the impossible: see a dead man hanging on a wooden beam and call it love. We find the depth of God's love for us in one of the cruelest ways humanity has figured out how to kill each other. We have found love in a hopeless place, indeed. *Even if this isn't the meaning behind this song it is a great way to look at it whenever you hear it on the radio.

The "This One's Got It All" Division
2. Adele -- "Make You Feel My Love"
Best Line: "I can offer you a warm embrace / To make you feel my love. When there is no one there to dry your tears / I could hold you for a million years / To make you feel my love. / I know you haven't made your mind up yet / but I would never do you wrong. / Go to the end of the earth for you / To make you feel my love."
I know this is a Bob Dylan original, and I'm admittedly tired of the overwhelming amount of Adele on the air, but there's no denying that this is a wonderful song to pray with. Seriously, pull it up on your browser and imagine God is singing to you for four minutes and seven glorious seconds.
Almost every retreat director I've ever had has started off the retreat by inviting me to pray with Psalm 139, but maybe they should have just asked me to listen to Adele. "Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there... Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139 7-10). God will go even to the end of the earth to offer us the kind of warm embrace that can make us feel God's love. *<3!!!

1. Whitney Houston (R.I.P.) -- "I Will Always Love You"
Best Line: "If I should stay, I would only be in your way. I hope you have all you've dreamed of. And I wish to you joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love."
Just like No. 2, Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" is actually a cover (this one's actually a Dolly Parton original). But honestly, can anyone top Whitney? That note in "I Will Always Love You" -- you know, that note, the epitome of a money note -- is perhaps one of the closest experiences to the beatific vision we have in this earthly life. Whitney is one of those performers whose life didn't always match the transcendence of her talent, and after she died, there was much discussion. But that note always sounds to me like it came right out of the brokenness of her life.
More than just an experience of beauty, notes like that describe God and God's love, they describe the Jesus who wishes for his joy to "be in you that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11). God offers us unconditional love while giving us the freedom to respond to this offer of love however we will.
And with YouTube at our fingertips we've got even more freedom to experience The Note -- or any of your other favorite songs that might (secretly) be about God. *No arguments here! R.I.P Whitney

So what do you think? Are these songs really songs about God and the Gospel? What do you think about the author's points?

R.I.P Precious

My sweet pomeranian joined the rest of our former pets in "animal heaven" today. Needless to say its been a pretty tough day for me. I was lucky enough to not get the news until after church this morning....I was dropping my nephew Christian back off to my sister and she came out and told me she had something to tell me. At first things didn't sink in when she said, "Precious is dead" because her tone didn't match the news she was springing on me. Then she went on to tell me that when Dj (her husband) went to check on her and feed her this morning he found her dead in her kennel. He also found a baby copperhead (also dead) in her kennel, so one can only assume she got bitten by the snake and in return killed it. All I can say right now is I hope that rotten snake's death was slower and more painful then her's. It still took several minutes for what she was saying before it all sunk in and that's when the tears came pouring like the floodgates had just been opened. This sucks for various reasons...1. I was on the way to lunch with my friend Meridith whom I hadn't seen since her wedding in April. 2. Obviously I was driving when the tears really started flowing which is dangerous for EVERYONE on the road. 3. When I left a voicemail for my husband Jamie I was so hysterical that he couldn't understand me, so he called back freaking out thinking I had wrecked or that something happened to Christian after church. (The only words in my message he heard clearly were Christian and dead....not a good combo!!)

Overall I was able to stay sane today. I didn't cancel out on lunch with Meridith and I'm so glad because she is a total sweetheart and made me feel better. She also helped me clear my mind for awhile while we caught up on all the positives of my life and ate an amazing lunch at Newk's (although I ended up bringing the majority of my lunch home and finishing it here because I was talking too much to actually eat). Then I came back to my dad's and had an interesting time while laughing at his expense (lol he told me he'd kill me if I post what was making me laugh so I can't post it). So as you can see...life goes on. But if you're an animal lover like me you can definitely understand the ups and downs I'm feeling today while trying to get a grasp on what happened to my dear sweet baby.

R.I.P sweet Precious

Anyone who has ever had an animal that has become part of their family can understand what I'm going through...it really feels like you're losing a child or other beloved family member. :(

Precious was hands down the most hyper out of any of the dogs I've had in the past, and that is saying something!! I would often joke that she must think that she is descended from kangaroos because she loved to jump....and boy could she jump HIGH!!! I kid you not when I say that she almost jumped up to my shoulder once...and that was when I was standing!! I got her from a woman who had rescued her from an abusive home. The guy who had owned her kept her tied up in his backyard and would go out every morning and kick and hit her. Don't even get me started on how I feel about this guy!! Because of this abuse she was very scared and skiddish of any guy she didn't know. The night I brought her home she HATED my dad and brother, and when I introduced her to Jamie she didn't like him either. Lol I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual at 1st...he couldn't stand her and all her yapping! By the end of the first night he had her bribed into loving him though (he gave her half of his BK burger lol). She was always full of life...hyper, LOUD, friendly, and very loving.

Now I have to admit the one thing that will haunt me for quite sometime about her passing. I feel awful as her "mommy" because I didn't spend nearly enough time with her. Because of the living conditions at our house (its very small and cramped with all of  our things and some of my dad's and brother's things that haven't been moved out yet), and the fact we don't have much of a backyard at the moment (tornado damage from 4 yrs ago) she was being kept down at my grandmother's in the garage. Because of the fact that she was being kept there Dj was normally the one feeding her (they have 3 dogs of their own so they all get fed at once). The last time I actually spent some real one on one mommy-to-puppy time with her was back in late spring when I took her to the park and walked her and let her play. Besides that our time together was me walking to the garage and saying hi to her and petting her, or taking her out at my grandma's and letting her run in the backyard. I'm sure she didn't feel neglected because there was a house full of people there feeding her and taking care of her, but I definitely feel like I was neglecting my time as her owner. :(

Once I had a "friendly arguement" with two of my friends over if animals have souls (my defense...."Animals have feelings too!!"....meaning how could they not have souls since they show different emotions just like humans?).  If I'm right and animals DO have souls I can only hope that Precious is amoung those waiting for me in Heaven and when I go home to be with her she will have all my love and attention. Until then maybe she can play fetch with Jesus! (Don't hate on me for having that 5yr old mindset on this subject...you know you want your pets to play ball with the J man too!!)

So until we meet again...R.I.P sweet Precious! <3

                                      ~Shay~

Jkidz takeover

This post is a bit overdue...last Sunday at Journey we kicked off our Summer series with another Jkidz takeover. I'll never forget my 1st summer/Jkid takeover at Journey....the kids and Jkid staff/volunteers amazed me with their songs and skits! I was honored and thrilled that my oldest nephew Christian got to be part of the video they showed the morning of the takeover (and a few days beforehand on facebook and twitter) and he also got to be on stage performing with our Pastors, the band, and some other awesome Jkidz. Here are some of the pics from this year's takeover, and if I can ever get the video I took on my phone to upload I'll post it as well!

Pasor Austin, our band, and Pastor Matt performing Firework (yep by Katy Perry!) with some of the older Jkidz.

 Pastor Matt rocking it!

Making sure the Jkidz remember their movements...

 There's my little Jkid nephew! I'm so proud of him and how much he's grown this year!

 I've had this song stuck in my head since the takeover....LOVE IT!!

 My best friend Katy's son Drew was mimicking all of Pator Austin's moves, it was the cutest thing ever!

Since I don't have a Vimeo I can't get it to let me post the video shown Sunday morning, but if you go to Vimeo and search for Jkidz takeover you can see it or search for it on my fb page. It's really cute and my car even makes a small cameo.