Other Ideas:
Let’s Go on a Journey,
One Song at a Time
No Easy Answers, But Plenty to Sing About
Meeting Jesus on the Road
Can music be both Christian AND not boring? Mark is going to find out…
I recently released an album of theatrical, light-hearted gospel folk-pop tunes. (Think Randy Newman, but less cynical and less atheist.) As a songwriter, my thoughts tend to become my songs. Here are some thoughts I ponder on my album Let’s Go.
A theme that dominates how I think about faith lately is “journey.” When I was younger, I remember thinking things like, “If only I could sort out these few things in my life, if only I could live every day with the right attitude, then I would be a real Christian.” Being on good terms with God always felt like a destination that was just out of reach. But when I look at the characters who followed Jesus from the beginning, these were not people who had everything sorted out. They simply had enough faith to tag along.
I think growing up in the Anglican Church can teach a person to be skeptical of easy answers. I remember hearing so often about “the mystery of the incarnation.” As hard as we try to craft the perfect theology, following Jesus is messy. God is always near, but still somewhat mysterious and hard to put my finger on. Jesus rarely answers direct questions, but instead he tells us stories and even enters into our stories. We meet Jesus on the road.
Compared to some of the rigid spiritual truths I felt confident in as a youngster (e.g. the 4-point gospel I memorized from a pamphlet), being a Christian now feels so complicated. But that’s ok. Faith should be a dynamic thing, adjusting to new contexts that I find myself in. I’ll never figure out a “system” that is universal and nuanced enough to replace the need to simply follow God like a child. God’s kingdom is unfolding before me, and I’m simply along for the journey. Hence the title: Let’s Go.
Before I started writing this album, I studied engineering until I started to pick up clues that God was asking me to do something with music instead. This was a terrifying prospect for me — leaving behind the stable career path I had worked towards for years, in favour of a path that seemed so horribly uncertain. These thoughts became the song Don’t Know Where I’m Going, about placing faith in the God who knows (and wants) what’s best for me.
Most Christian songs seem to be about praising God, using grandiose and emphatic vocabulary. Interestingly, only one song in my entire album is explicitly a “worship” song. And even so, this song is a case study in understatement (I don’t think I could impress God with fancy language anyway). The song is titled Good Job.
In another song called Nope (a theatrical story-song), I sing of the frustration of being restricted by all of God’s “rules.” (…I didn’t count on such a narrow road…) And then God’s response (in the song) is not to explain his rules but to insist that I am loved and not alone. I know that God’s guidance, as restrictive as it can feel, comes from a place of unfathomable love.
At some point in assembling this album, I noticed that almost all the songs were about me and my personal, individual bubble with God. If Jesus commanded both “Love God” and “Love your neighbour,” shouldn’t about 50% of my songs be about the “neighbour” bit? With this in mind, I added a song about the radical hospitality of God’s kingdom. It’s called Welcome.
To be honest, I’ve never really enjoyed contemporary Christian music. I guess I’m not a fan of the polished “stadium rock” aesthetic that seems to characterize the genre. If the kind of music I usually listen to (50s-70s pop) also featured lyrics about Jesus, that would be the perfect cocktail for me. Musically, my own songs are all over the place, touching on old-timey jazz, bossa nova, traditional folk, even some rapping mixed with a couple trombone solos. Following Jesus is a colourful and multi-faceted journey, and I hope my music reflects that.
You can find this album on any platform under the name Mark Amadeus Flowerdew. Or just email me for info: [email protected]
