Nicki Schara / Interim Next Gen Assistant

Last fall I learned that one of my main pathways to God is through worship/ music. Shortly after learning this (and for the first time in my life) I felt God challenging me to take a good look at my iTunes library. Uh-oh! I had a hunch where He was going with this and resisted. I had a decent size library with a variety of music that I had been collecting for YEARS! I was quite proud of that collection as well. But to be completely honest only a small percentage was Christian music.  There was a lot of “good” music but also mixed in were a fair amount of songs that if someone like my mom, Pastor Pat or a child took hold of my iPod I’d be embarrassed and have a lot of explaining to do... and that’s not even talking about HOW I got some of the songs.

I wrestled with the questions of 'what am I filling my brain with? and why?' I tried justifying it by believing it didn’t really matter what I listen to. I’m a good person. I read my bible. I pray. Heck, I was a missionary! The more I tried justifying to God, the stronger He challenged me: Stop wasting your time listening to music that doesn’t bring glory to my name. Get rid of it.

I’m ashamed to admit how difficult it was to let go of some of the songs. Sadly, it was a process that took a couple months. How could I be so attached to a little digital file? Through the process God revealed to me that it wasn’t just about “getting rid of the music”, it was just as much the additional sin issues related to this that needed to be addressed as well: pride, disobedience, resistance, stubbornness, excess, etc.

Once I was able to fully let go, I have not for one second missed any of the music a bit. There is more than enough really good Christian music out there...the irony to all of this is that a huge percentage of the songs in my library had a big fat 0 in the “times played” column.

“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT