Where is We?

I’m reading Philip Yancey’s book titled, Prayer: Does it Make a Difference? Page after page, I am struck by his insightful questions, although I expect to be disappointed by the absence of answers. Yancey admits this will be the case early in his ruminations. Still, I am reading on because the discussion about prayer and the examples of fellow-prayers draw me in.

At one point Yancey quotes Walter Breuggmann amid a discussion of the candor evident in many of the prayers we know as Psalms. Breuggmann says the candor is necessary because, “life is like that, and these poems are intended to speak to all of life, not just part of it.” He finds is jarring that modern worship songs are nearly all “happy songs,” a fact that seems to him to be inconsistent with the proportion of not-happy songs found in the Bible songbook known as Psalms.

The presence of happy songs is no surprise given the tendency of many modern Christians to believe that happiness is one of the benefits of being a believer. I discussed this sad misunderstanding previously (see Happiness and Joy), so I won’t belabor the point here except to say that I believe it is important for Christians to learn the difference between happiness versus joy. (Yes, Randy, there is a difference.)

I found myself agreeing with Brueggmann and going a step further: not only are most of our popular songs upbeat, they are almost universally written in first person singular (1PS). Ten of the top fifty Christian songs on Billboard today have the words “I, Me or My” in the title. At least that many more speak in 1PS, though it is not in the name of the song. Of the remaining songs, the majority speak in second person singular (2PS) as they are directed to God. A recent survey by song licensing agent, CCLI, reveals fourteen of the top twenty-four most popular songs in churches are in 1PS.

At first blush, this may not seem terrible: we sing about our personal relationship with God, so 1PS and 2PS are the most likely points of view. “Good, Good Father” is a perfect example: You (God) are this; I am that. There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. However, if all I sing about is me and God, a large part of what it means to live as a Christian is missed. While a personal relationship with Jesus is essential, that relationship ultimately places me in a body, His Body, the Church.

Immediately someone will mention, “If We Are the Body” by Casting Crowns. But that song is a rebuke, and I don’t recall having heard it sung in church. Certainly, there are other examples of songs that speak to or about the corporate experience of being a Christian. However, as surveys show, they are not predominant by any measure. I suspect that the majority would also be “happy” songs as well.

This mistaken tendency to be self-centered and happiness-focused is not trivial. Jesus said the entire law of God rests on two commands: love God; love your neighbor as yourself. The self is to be taken to the cross daily, Jesus said elsewhere. James counselled that true religion is other-centered. Peter asks us to rejoice in trials. In Ephesians and 1 Corinthians Paul makes it abundantly clear that the gifts of ministry are given to individuals for the benefit of the body, not the individual.

Despite what the Alcorns and Bells of the world say, Christianity is not all warm fuzzies and happiness, at least not the Christianity that is portrayed in the New Testament. The joy (not happiness) we have is the joy Jesus had: He looked toward the joy “despising the shame"[and torture] of the cross. Over 50 “one-anothers” in the Bible call us to turn our vertical love for God into a horizontal love of those around us. First of all, Paul says, toward those of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10).

We need to keep singing those songs about the wonder of our salvation, but not neglecting to remember what our salvation is for. We were saved for a purpose: to love our neighbor. First those who sing around us, then those who dwell in the darkness just outside our church door. They need to know why we are singing.