Blessed Christmas

At work, we have the radio going all the time. I am privileged to listen to country music one week, and classic rock music the next, alternating each week. The radios in the areas where I work are usually loud enough to hear all the words of the songs. I say that I am privileged because, though I would not choose those stations myself as my personal listening preferences, anything that the Lord has in my life is there because He has placed it there, and is using it for His glory and my refinement as a Christian.

Most of the country music is newer, so I did not recognize but a song or two. I grew up listening to country music, so I know many of the songs from the 60s and 70s. The rock music is from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and I know most of those, because I changed my music to match most of my peers when I was in high school. In both of the categories, rock and country, there are a few songs that I like, but not many. In the rock category, I often find myself turning away from some of the favorites I had as a teenager and afterwards, because their lyrics are about things I have laid aside in order to draw closer to Jesus Christ. He is more lovely than anything those songs promise. The subject matter of the song provides for temptations to dwell on things that draw me away from Him. That is the case with much of the country music as well. I cannot enjoy it, and I really do not want to enjoy it.

The title of this blog entry has to do with Christmas. Well, on these radio stations they are playing Christmas songs among the others. There is sometimes contradiction between the Christmas music and the others. To illustrate, the song "O Holy Night" was playing on the rock station when we came back from lunch one day. It was very well done, and I was greatly blessed by hearing it. Immediately following this, however, with no pause for reflection, the radio blasted out Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Much of the blessing from O Holy Night was quickly gone.

I think that probably I was the only one there who had a problem with the station playing Queen right after O Holy Night. But that is where people are. Whether country or rock, when they listen at Christmas they expect to hear some Christmas songs along with their usual fare. It is, at least, a small acknowledgment of the Saviour in a world that has pretty much forgotten Him. But it indicates the effect of religion on the lives of the general populous of America. A little bit here and there is alright, but it doesn't change the way I live, and life pretty much goes on as normal, no matter whether or not there was a Saviour born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. That's how I lived before I knew Christ. I liked Christmas. But the Saviour seemed so strange, so out of place, not even a real person. Pretty much like Santa Claus.