a good song lifts you up.
The right song can make your day better.
You start singing along and it changes your perspective.
We all have our jam.
For me, it usually involves some 70’s – 80’s Rock.
I can be in a funk and I hear some loud ELO, Hall and Oates or Queen and everything is good.
Funk becomes funky.
A good song lifts you up.
Speaking of great music, the great poet, Bruce Springsteen sung “Everybody’s got a hungry heart” and it’s true. We all are born with hearts that hunger.
Our hearts hunger to hear a song.
A song that will lift us up.
There is one song that we all need to hear.
It’s an oldie, but it remains fresh.
It’s the song that can change everything for us.
We first hear the song in a story about Jesus. Listen for it…
“It was in those days that Jesus left Nazareth (a village in the region of Galilee) and came down to the Jordan, and John cleansed Him through baptism there in the same way all the others were ritually cleansed. But as Jesus was coming out of the waters, He looked up and saw the sky split open. The Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove, and a voice echoed in the heavens.
Voice: You are My Son, My beloved One, and I am very pleased with You.
After that the Spirit compelled Him to go into the wilderness.” – Mark 1:9-12 (the VOICE)
Did you hear it?
The Songwriter sang “You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased” over His Son.
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
I love you and you bring me joy!
It’s interesting that at this point in the story, Jesus had not really achieved anything. He hadn’t done any miracles. He hasn’t got a following or an impressive resume. The cross is three years away.
His Heavenly Father is pleased with WHO He is, not what He has done.
In fact, He is so pleased that he writes a song: “You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
Pleasure is found in the person, not the performance.
The song is a sweet celebration of WHO not WHAT.
Jesus needed to hear the song.
He is about to enter into the wilderness and the wildness.
He needs a song to lift him up.
He needs a soundtrack for the road trip he is embarking on.
It became His jam.
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
It’s a simple song.
That’s good because we need to know it by heart.
As parents we need to know it so that we can sing it over our sons and daughters.
Sing it loud, sing it often until it becomes the song they can’t get out of their head (or heart).
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
The most powerful gift we can give them is the song.
As a community, we need to sing it over the generations that follow us.
As they go into the wilderness and the wildness, they need a soundtrack…
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
Maybe you didn’t hear the song from your parents.
You heard other songs,
Ugly songs that still play in your hungry heart.
Songs that made you feel unloved, worthless, damaged…hungry.
You need a new playlist.
It’s not too late.
It’s time to rewind.
The One who wrote the song sings it over you.
Listen.
He sings the same words over all of us.
He changes the music to match our personality.
The Songwriter is cool like that.
The music might be different, but the words are exactly the same for each of us…
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
Even if no one else has ever sung the words over you, the Songwriter does.
He has never stopped singing the sweet song of life over you.
It’s time for you to find your jam.
“You are my Beloved child, in you I am pleased”
I pray that you hear the music.
carbonated joy 