I guess we should start with why. Why did I start this project?
There are three reasons for compiling a list of Christian music. First, I have to start with my experience partaking in Exodus 90. That journey was an incredible eye-opener for me and still affects my decisions to this day. If you are not aware of what Exodus 90 is
Exodus 90 is a ninety-day spiritual exercise for men based on Christ's roadmap to freedom: prayer, asceticism, and fraternity. Men who desire to grow in the spiritual life and gain greater freedom call together a fraternity of 5-7 men to join them in following a set structure of prayer, asceticism, and fraternity for 90 days. During this time they will be led by daily readings from the book of Exodus, paired with daily reflections, to keep them on the road to freedom. (https://help.exodus90.com/en/articles/4680259-what-is-exodus-90-and-why-should-i-do-it)
A part of "E 90" is to give up worldly things like social media, TV, and music, and take that time to instead pray and read scripture. Let me tell you this is a real shock to the system. You learn how much you have interwoven these things into your life and in a way controls your life.
Music is a big part of my life as it is for many people, and during "E 90" I went on a mission to find Christian and faith-filled music to replace my worldly music. Songs and artists with uplifting music that honors God. Many times I find you can listen to a song because you gravitate to the catchy tune, it's well constructed, or simply it sounds good. But when you listen to the message the song is pumping into your head over and over is it a good message? Does it honor God?
If a priest walked in while you were listening to that music would you be embarrassed?
I'm sure you have a couple of songs you would delete from your playlist if someone from church asked for music recommendations.
So if any of that is true, why have that stuff in your life? Don't be two people. Don't segment your spiritual life from the rest of your life. If you are a Catholic, start looking at your life especially your entertainment to see what's bringing you closer to God and what's taking you away from Him. I say this to myself, there have been a lot of areas of my life in which I had to take a hard look and see if it was honoring God. I have found when you search Him out, God starts working on you, and he will reveal the parts of you that need to change. In short. give God the go-ahead, and He will do the work. Pretty simple stuff but if you honestly want to grow closer to God, set your heart on it and ask God to point out the issues. A word of caution, change is hard.
I love my music, I love my shows, movies, all of it. I consumed just about anything entertainment-wise. I can't count the times I was watching something and saying, "ohh that's bad but the show is so good." At the moment you are so focused on the characters and action you push that little voice inside way down. Quiet little voice I'm binge-watching. I mean you have invested so much time into these characters that they're practically family! You can't give up on the epic saga, you need to know what happens. So remember when I said caution, well here's that painful moment. For me, it was a small notion that God put in my head that has stuck to me like a thistle. He said, "Is this worth it?"
Does this show mean that much to you that it's worth risking our relationship?
Once you have a relationship with God and have surrendered your life so that He can fulfill yours, the answer comes quickly. Now, did I drag my feet? Did I fight this small notion and try to come up with every excuse in the book? You bet I did.
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So in looking at all these aspects of my life, I found that many things didn't lead me to God and if my goal is to get to heaven, to be a leader to my family, and be a leader in my community how can I continue letting unGodly messages play over and over in my ears?
The last part of this project is to help others who found the same disconnect that I did.
God is a God beyond time and space who talks in every language and in the subtlest of ways. God doesn't come in the flavor of the month, He doesn't go with the latest trends or needs to be the popular choice. I mean look at the Roman Catholic Church, the traditions and structure of the Mass have stayed the same/ made minor changes for 2 millennia. So it's not hard to see why most Christian music created is worship music, light, and airy melodies full of overused psalms... There's a time and place for that music for sure, and in the right headspace, I can find the beauty in it. But I want music I can listen to while I work, I want music with a story, I want a workout playlist. I want a lot of things haha. I want to hear artists who are artsy ya know?! I love the artists who were artists first and then they found God. I feel like that lines up with my story, someone who is passionate about their craft and then fell so deeply in love with God that they chose to give up worldly music and make it all about Him.
They don't need to follow that formula to be good by any means but I see a reflection of myself in that, I connect on another level. I think That's the whole point, trying to connect on a deep level, a personal level, with music that fits my taste. There's a great divide between Heaven and Hell and it starts here on Earth. Unfortunately, it feels like the divide is growing wider every minute. If you're a young adult or teenager growing up in the world today and you're looking at the world around you and you see all these artists, movie stars, and relevant people and then you look at the culture that the Church has to offer, you might see nothing akin to your life. You would see a disconnect between art, culture, and relevance, and that which is of God. This is such a sad state to see. I saw it that way.
There are many factors as to why that is, the structure of the corrupt music industry, the money, the artist's pursuit of fame, and a whole mess of other aspects. All of those things deserve their own breakdown to get a complete picture but I think a simple way of looking at the problem of cultural relevance is to look at Pride and Humility.
If your goal is to be famous... that's all about ego and pridefulness. If your goal is to honor God you look to humble yourself. Humble people aren't looking to climb the charts or sell out stadiums. Promoting a humble life is such a tough place to be, the things that get you noticed are inherently opposite traits that we strive for. So how do you try to grab the attention of a person growing up today when a million things are trying to grab their attention at once? Looking back at my journey, I see it this way and am glad that I started to recognize it.
What I've learned through this journey of growing in my faith from a teen until now is that you have to work at it, all the time. When I was younger and didn't pursue my faith as if it was my own, it was just a part of growing up thinking all the good messages and faithfulness I had would stay with me, aka being young and naive. To use another overused metaphor; just like the waves of the Lake Erie shore, slowly eroding little by little. Giving in a tiny bit here and a little bit there, my faith life was fraying at the edges. , If you pour a tiny bit of dirt into a clear glass of water every day, over a long period of time it will muddy the water... you get it.
The world has great beauty and treasure to be found in it but there are so many cunning pieces mixed in, aimed to loosen your grip on faith, so many ways to erode your moral fortitude. I guess this playlist is me trying to find beauty and creativity and sift out all the other junk. I hope that anyone who has felt these things or couldn't find any "good" Christian music, might take a shot at this playlist. I pray that this playlist will help you stay focused on Christ when there are so many distractions. I hope that you find something to gravitate to even if it's one song from the whole list. Sometimes all you needed was one thing to make the difference.
Everyone has their musical taste so to say that this playlist is the best Christian music out now is subjective. Most of this playlist is Alt-Rock so that's another factor in listening, maybe you don't care for that type of music. That's okay, I might try to make a few different playlists to fit other genres of music. Also, I have not looked into these bands' affiliations nor have I listened to every one of their songs. So if they support something that is unGodly or there are messages in other songs they sing unfit for Catholic life I do want to know so I can revise the playlist. The goal is to bring people to Christ, not to cause more rifts, so if you see something, please help me out.
God Bless
Nate Raddell