The musical nature of the subject we’re about to address today compels me to inject a personal disclaimer before we get started. Even though my family was pretty heavily involved in country music from my pre-teen years onward, I was apparently born with some kind of built-in immunity to it. It wasn’t that I didn’t love music, or at least some kinds of it. I’ve always loved those times when family members brought out their guitars, banjos, fiddles (or ‘violins’ for our more sophisticated readers), and harmonicas. Smiles were immediate and contagious, and the change in the atmosphere was wonderful. I grew up loving music, and I’ve always found it fascinating to watch it being ‘created’, regardless of the kind of instrument being used.
An Obvious Change ~
I mention all that because during our recent travels, God used music to speak to my heart about something I hadn’t considered – and in a way I couldn’t ignore. During a live musical performance my wife and I attended on our trip, I noticed something I’d never
noticed before. The program featured an incredibly gifted musician who was masterful at blending his musical skills with really impressive talent as a comedian, as well. As the program got underway, one of the songs began with just a piano playing a melody. Soon other instruments gradually blended in. At this point, we, like the rest of the audience, just sat quietly watching and listening. But then the drummer came on board in a prominent way, and I noticed a change in the audience that was unmistakable.
When the drums joined in, the rhythm became more prominent, and the atmosphere seemed to change. People began to move. Hands patted knees, keeping time with the beat. Toes got involved, and heads began to nod. Shoulders swayed side to side, and faces lit up with smiles. As I sat there taking note of all that, a lesson began to form, and God pulled out His bright yellow highlighter and applied it to the moment. What I saw was that when the rhythm was clear, the people connected with the music in a different way and at a different level. They were no longer simply hearing the song. They were feeling it, and no longer content to just absorb the sound. They wanted to join in the song, to claim the rhythm as their own and move in concert with it.
Questions Arise ~
Rhythm became a pathway for the song and its message to reach places in those who heard it that words and melody alone could not. And rhythm accomplished it without having to 
rewrite the musical notes, revise the lyrics, or replace the instruments being played. Without changing the music or the message, rhythm enhanced the song’s impact in a way that was unmistakable. But noticing all that left a persistent question in its wake . . . Are there lessons lurking in that observation that ordinary, non-musical folks like me need to learn and apply – and if so what are some of them?
The answer to the first question is an unequivocal ‘Yes!’ And this topic brings to mind a couple of things that all of us instinctively know. That is that music is a powerful medium with incredible potential for good or evil that we should never dismiss or take lightly. As suggested, music finds avenues of connection to more than our ears. Music has the capacity to awaken our imagination, direct our cognitive consciousness, engage our emotional apparatus, energize physical responses, and even activate the mechanism in our brain that manages long-term memory. We might say that music has the capacity to affect our soul in ways no other single form of communication can . . .
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- Music can be light, fun, joyful, and celebratory, but it can also be sad, melancholy, lonely, and tearful.
- Music can be instructive, corrective, encouraging, or condemning.
- It can be angry, hateful, mean, vengeful, and violent.
- It can be psychological, cultural, racial, or political – and obviously,
- Music can be spiritual.
Making a Simple Point ~
But rhythm itself doesn’t care about the song’s underlying objectives. Rhythm will do its enhancing work whether the songwriter’s intent is good or evil. Music is fascinating,
indeed, but we don’t have the space in this medium to explore its multi-faceted possibilities. Instead, we want to get to a simple point about rhythm’s role beyond music . . . because what is true of rhythm’s role in music is also true of its role in life.
But before we move on, we should remind ourselves that the Living God in whose image we are created not only invented music, but He is also the world’s most prolific songwriter. That incredible story of human redemption we call the Bible is full of songs that He inspired His people to write and sing! And not surprisingly, His people have been ingenious designers and inventors of musical instruments to accompany and enhance those songs. And music isn’t the only place where rhythm found a home in the life of God’s people. He built it into their work, their relationships, and their worship.
A More Compelling Approach ~
What that means is that God wanted the role that rhythm plays in music to be applied in all those other areas. For instance, that song in the performance I mentioned earlier, was a love story couched in a melody. That context alone created a much more compelling atmosphere than if someone had just stood on the stage and read the lyrics. But when rhythm came in, it brought movement to the song and life to the story the songwriter wanted to tell.
From the beginning, God had a love story to tell and it’s not about someone else. It’s His own story. It involves betrayal and heartache, but it shows how love overcame it all. It’s a dramatic story proving that hope and faith can lead to healing and redemption. It’s the 
most powerful love story ever, and it needs to be told with more than words spoken on a stage. And it needs more than melodious accompaniment. God’s story cries out for movement. It needs life. It needs something that awakens attention and compels others to make the story their own. It needs rhythm that provokes relational joy and gratitude. It needs predictable, recurrent, and systematic reinforcement of the story’s immutable truth and unwavering redemptive theme. And our divine Songwriter wrote those rhythms into His composition from the beginning.
Bringing Rhythms to Life ~
This is rich territory with much more to explore, and, unfortunately, we can’t do more than touch on it in one session. But in the space we have left, we should at least point out a few of those prominent rhythms that God instituted for His people. They are rhythms that Jesus practiced, and they will help to breathe life and movement into the story He wants to tell through us. And more than that, they will invite participation to those who watch our story unfold. A few examples . . .
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- Prayer: Set aside a regular time for personal, interactive communion with God and be prepared to defend it. It’s powerful and Satan hates it, so expect challenges.
- Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7, NKJV)
- Rest: The term “sabbath” doesn’t actually mean “rest”. It means “to cease.” God set aside one day of the week as a time to “cease.” That means to disconnect from the demands of workday schedules, lay aside distracting, anxiety-producing pressures, and focus on our relationship with Him.
- Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. (Exodus 34:21, NKJV).
- Personal and Collective Worship: In a word, go to church. “Online or TV church” is a blessing when you can’t get out, but it’s no substitute for personal, interactive fellowship where love and spiritual gifts can be exchanged. In a culture of hyper self-promotion and divisive individualism, engaging with fellow believers to worship, learn, and minister to one-another has never been more important.
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- And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together … (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).
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- Prayer: Set aside a regular time for personal, interactive communion with God and be prepared to defend it. It’s powerful and Satan hates it, so expect challenges.
As we noted, we’ve only touched on this provocative subject, so I may return to it in the weeks ahead — so stay tuned. But until then, may we keep that contagious spiritual rhythm moving as we live out our part in becoming more like Him and telling the greatest story ever told!
“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below. Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .
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- Rhythm became a pathway for the song and its message to reach places in those who heard it that words and melody alone could not. And rhythm accomplished it without having to rewrite the musical notes, revise the lyrics, or replace the instruments being played. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- God’s people have been ingenious designers and inventors of musical instruments to accompany and enhance songs. And music isn’t the only place where rhythm found a home in the life of God’s people. He built it into their work, their relationships, and their worship. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- God’s always had a love story to tell. His own. A dramatic story proving that hope and faith can lead to healing and redemption. The most powerful love story ever. It needs to be told with more than words on a stage – more than melodious accompaniment. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- God’s story cries for movement. It needs life – something that awakens attention and compels others to make the story their own, rhythm that provokes relational joy and gratitude. Our Divine Songwriter wrote those into His composition from the beginning. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
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