Tuesday, August 28, 2007
How a Rush Concert Honors God
On Saturday, August 24, my wife and I attended the Rush concert here in St. Louis. Once again, this Canadian power trio put on a fine show, highlighted (at least to me) by the playing of a lot of new material from their current album Snakes and Arrows. Every time I see them play, I am struck by their abundant musical gifts and genius. I sometimes think to myself, "I wish they were Christians who honored God with their music." For those who don't know the band, or much about them, Rush has been around for over 30 years, as a progressive rock band characterized by vituoso musicianship, complex musical signatures, and philosophical subject matter. The band's drummer, Neil Peart, is also their main lyricist. Neil is an agnostic, if not an atheist. His views do come out in several songs. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that God still ultimately gets the glory whenever human beings produce creations of beauty, whether they acknowledge God or not. Or to put it another way, who ultimately gave rush the ability to play music so well? GOD DID! Just because they don't acknowledge that doesn't mean it isn't true. But, they are missing out on the very purpose of their existence - to bring glory to God. It makes me think about the words of Eric Liddell, in the film Chariots of Fire. He stated "God made me for a purpose, to go to China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure..." That's the great paradox, if you will. When we become more concerned with God's glory than with our own, we put ourselves in a place where we also receive true, pure, pleasure in the knowledge of pleasing Him.
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4 comments:
Daryl, very happy to see that you have started a blog. I know that you have seen ours, and I appreciate your words of congratulations concerning the Will's birth.
More to the point, I'll start with a tounge-in-cheek statement: This post could have come from Caleb Shulten. I know that will make you smile. Now, let me explain. Caleb and I would have coffee b/w classes every once in awhile during my sophomore and junior years @ Fontbonne. In one of his rare moments of lucidity, he mentioned that all things beautiful are to the glory of God. It reminds me of a Cecil Alexander quote that the author James Herriot has made more famous: "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all."
From our end, however, it's important to remember a point that I have taken from Rich Cartier - Without a relationship with Jesus Christ to frame our actions, there is nothing that we can do to please God. A different point altogether, though.
Thanks for the post and we'll have to talk soon
Mike, you're right, the comparison to Caleb did make me smile. And I agree that without faith it is impossible to please God. Just to clarify my point, its not that God is pleased with an unbelieving musician, artist, etc., its that anything of beauty or value which they create ultimately rebounds to the glory of God. If that makes any sense...
Just checking if I'm permitted to post.
Rich is right, of course. But I'm not convinced Caleb is wrong.
But the difficulty is holding two perspectives in our mind: on the one hand, there is the moral universe, where personal salvation is the only thing that matters. But there's also the over-arching perspective where the Creator set things in motion and it runs to His glory.
I get this second perspective from your post.
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