When Ya Gonna Face The Music?

Most everyone has several favorite songs they enjoy listening and singing to. Songwriters are an extremely prolific and talented group of high achievers. Depending on your age and musical tastes you may recognize the lyrics.

“Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again. Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping. And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains, within the sounds of silence.”

These lyrics were written by Paul Simon in 1964, and the song, titled “The Sounds of Silence” was also the name of the album released in 1966. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were a very special singing duo that sold millions of albums. Many songwriters mix allegory and metaphors into their lyrics that are hidden, sometimes for decades. Music has always been an outlet for creative talent to weave messages through the medium of music.

Because Paul Simon was Jewish, you might have noticed hidden undertones of prophecy and destiny in his lyrics. Even though we are not all songwriters we do face the music of everyday situations, the people around us, and the company you keep daily, these uncertainties might alter the course of how you worship. Want to know a total stranger quickly, just start up a conversation on politics or religion. You’ll quickly create a symbiotic relationship or a fanatical foe, within minutes, you’ll discover if they’re an opponent or an empathetic ear.

Researchers recently analyzed more than 1,000 top 40 hits spanning five decades, and found that popular music may be going more toward the melancholy and sadder side than in the 1960’s. The research found that the best-selling songs are not only likelier to be in a minor key but have also become longer and increasingly down tempo. Do you feel sadder listening to today’s music? People seemed to have veered into things that are more complex on an emotional level, perhaps as an unconscious marker of sophistication. Part of this is obviously due to an emphasis on “self”. There are self-help books for everything now, more psychology books than ever, and most television programs focus on one’s self. The question begs, “Who are you?” or “Who do you think you are?” Vague clues to our collective psyche and individual selfness may indeed be hidden in some forms of pop music, but we must be careful not to draw a clear, solid line between hit songs and the national mood.

Jesus often stirred the pot when he struck up a conversation with someone. Invariably Jesus would ask, “Who do people say I am?” Mark 8::27 Then he would ask them, “Who do you say I am?” Mark 8:29 What if Jesus asked you? Are you ready to face the music? Is darkness your old friend? When the end comes and you’re being questioned by God about your praising his Son Jesus, do you want to be caught with “the sounds of silence?” At death, are you going to be singing, “Hello darkness, my old friend?” Or, as John wrote, will you recognize the Creator as, “The light of the world”. John 8:12

Peter answered best in Mark 8:29 "You are the Christ".