Is Jesus Just Background Music in Your Life?
One of my best friends is a gifted arranger and composer named Rob Mathes. His credits are too long to list but they include co-producing Sting’s new box set and musically directing both the Concert on the Mall for the Obama inauguration and the annual Kennedy Center Honors. Every now and then I’m privileged to perform with his band.
A year ago Rob and I were sitting in a Starbucks in Connecticut, drinking lattes and catching up when he turned his gaze toward the ceiling.
“Do you hear that?” Rob said, his expression darkening.
“Hear what?” I said.
“Listen,” he said, glaring at the white speaker grilles above our heads. “Do you know that song?”
I closed my eyes and strained to hear the music over the hiss and gurgle of milk being steamed for someone’s cappuccino.
I shrugged. “Nope,” I said. “I can’t make it out.”
Rob threw his hands up in the air. “That’s a cut off Miles Davis’ record Kind of Blue,” he said, his voice rising with indignation.
“Alright,” I said. “Apparently this bothers you.”
“It’s MILES DAVIS!” he said, slapping the tabletop with his hand.
I’ve known Rob for 30 years. He’s talented. He’s smart. He’s not afraid to speak his mind.
“When brilliant compositions are used for background music it desensitizes people to their genius,” he continued.
I paused. “You mean familiarity breeds contempt?” I said.
“Precisely. If an amazing piece of music is constantly playing in the background your admiration for it doesn’t increase, it diminishes. It becomes no big deal,” Rob said, imitating someone trying to speak and yawn at the same time.
At the time I thought Rob’s remarks were insightful but overstated, and yet something about them rang true. They stuck with me.
Last week I was sitting in another Starbucks, this one two blocks from my home in Franklin, TN reading Max Picard’s The World of Silence and drinking coffee when I made a connection between what Rob had said and the world I live in.
Is Jesus becoming background music in my life?
No matter where I go someone is talking, singing, arguing, writing a book, blogging, putting on a conference, or making a record about…Jesus.
(Yes, I’m aware I’m guilty of doing this right now.)
Not a day goes by when I don’t see tee shirts with Bible verses printed on them or a tattoo of Jesus’ crucifixion inked on someone’s arm. Billboards with warnings about hell dot the highway. I can’t turn on the radio or television without someone talking at me about Jesus; he’s quoted (or misquoted) on bumper stickers, and recently while standing at a urinal in the men’s room at a restaurant I looked up and discovered a framed print of John 3:16 hanging on the wall in front of me. Some people don’t do subtle.
If Rob is right my experience of constant exposure to all things Jesus isn’t increasing my admiration or devotion for him, it’s diminishing it.
In Max Picard’s, The World of Silence he writes,
Today, when there is only noise in and around man, it is difficult to approach the mystery. When the layer of silence is missing, the extraordinary easily becomes connected with the ordinary, with the routine flow of things, and man reduces the extraordinary to a mere part of the mechanical routine.
How do we prevent over-exposure to Jesus and the trappings of Christianity from reducing him to “a mere part of the mechanical routine? “ Is it possible?
59 Responses to “Is Jesus Just Background Music in Your Life?”
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Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me
“When I first discovered the grainy picture in my mother’s desk—me as a towheaded two year old sitting in what I remember was a salmon-orange-stained lifeboat—I was overwhelmed by the feeling that the boy in the boat was not waving and laughing at the
To prevent over-exposure, at least in the US, we’d have to find Doc Brown and a DeLorean. I fear it may be too late.
One of my former churches had a worship center that was drowning in crosses—the end of each pew had a cross motif and the bannisters on the choir platform echoed the same, only more pronounced. Even the light fixtures had cross cutouts. I tried to count how many crosses existed in the room, but the sermon was done before I finished.
And this was a Baptist church, so you know it wasn’t exactly a short message.
How often we forget, because of its repetition in pop culture in so many different areas, that the cross was agony.
So too with Jesus, who at one time may have been my homeboy.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post. Now I’m paranoid and will spend the rest of my day, week, month, and year trying not to think about Jesus too much—at least the cheap, shallow, pop culture Jesus.
Hi Blake, Good to hear from you! Loved the description of your former church….well, not so much.
As you know, this resonates w/ me. Glad you posted this.
I’m going to attempt to make this a part of a convo around a fire pit soon.
Hope I’m invited.
I hope I’m invited, too!
Can we do this before I leave the States forever? Like next week????
Forever? Are you being deported?
Would love that firepit convo… Just sayin’.
Chad….can Alece come too? Just askin….
How do we get an invite to that chat?
I want in on that magic. I’ll bring homemade hot chocolate.
This post resonates with me because of how well it applies to me. To reiterate Bruce, I have wanted less and less to do with Christianity, the more I read twitter and blogs and articles. I want more of Christ when I’m deeply engaged in relationships that reflect Christ.
Thanks, Kyla. We’ll take you without the chocolate although one or two bars might be nice.
HA!
Too much exposure versus little exposure may inadequately describes the issue.
The core issue may be width vs. depth:
I truly get a lot of Jesus when I go deep with Him, and conversely, I get only a little of Jesus when the engagement shallows. Frequency is a co-factor.
So the constant shallow engagment cheapens, the constant deep engagement that brings meaningfulness.
Put another way: consuming breadcrumbs all day will leave me hungry, sitting long with a full loaf of bread satisfies.
Hi Bruce, I like your last sentence in particular. It would be fine if we were listening to Chesterton or Julian of Norwich all day but so much of what we hear is blather, white noise, or frivolous talk about God. Maybe we should pause before we talk about God and ask the question, “Is what I’m about to say just adding to the religious noise around me or does it ring with meaning?”
Thanks for getting the gears turning.
If we avoid the drone of the banal & expose ourselves to beauty, our sense of awe will deepen. If I go a whole day without being significantly jarred and/or inspired by something I read or heard, it’s my fault. Your post counts towards the Minimum Daily Requirement.
Hey Angelo, I’m glad I made the MDR list. Hope you’re well.
Fascinating post – thanks Ian. This isn’t an issue in the UK! Quite the opposite – it’s very unusual to see the name of Jesus in public. Most Christians here seem scared of upsetting the politically correct liberal media and people of other faiths. There must be a mid-atlantic via media to be found!
Hi David, Maggi Dawn and her son Ben spent Thanksgiving with us and we had this very conversation about how different it is in the UK. Despite my post America is moving in your direction.
This is my favorite post you’ve ever written!!
Thanks, Pete! Glad you liked it.
THIS is so good, Ian. I think I am very guilty of comfortably having Jesus as background music in my life…
OUCH.
Now… how to change this…
This is the big question…how to change it. I have a few ideas.
I would love to hear them…
I enjoyed the article; it does bring up a great question. My personal philosophy is that people make Jesus into who they want him to be. If Jesus can be squeezed in to: school, athletics, weekend social activities, then yeah, tag along, Jesus. As long as Jesus can be in the distance, just there to encourage and make one feel good, then yes, Jesus is welcome.
However, when people start to really search and seek out the life of Jesus, it’s oftentimes a very rude awakening. Jesus didn’t drive an SUV (I do) riding around listening to K-Love (I do that as well). He didn’t hang around the people who seemed to have it together (guilty of that as well). He didn’t allow himself to get caught up in the, “me, me, me” culture that is so evident today (starting to notice a trend here, guilty again). He also didn’t attend church services 3 times a week in a nice, brick, million dollar sanctuary (one more time, guilty).
Jesus loved the poor, the whore, and the sick. He wasn’t concerned about what the Pharisees thought of Him. I can’t imagine the courage He must have had to have been so bold in His beliefs. He had the heart of a Lion.
I think if people heard and spoke of the one “true” Jesus; we could never get enough. His words cut to the core of one’s soul. However, we have made Jesus into what we think he ought to be, and that’s why he’s on billboards, magazines, and radio stations (being portrayed as people want him to be).
Thanks Michael, so well said! Thank you also for your willingness to share your complicity in the problem….I’m in the same club.
Love Rob Mathes and love this post! Well said.
Thanks, Brenda! I love Rob as well.
Sounds like the Jesus that you seem to know is a pretty low view of Jesus. If Jesus is a safe bet for you, and some sissy that comes to pat your back only when you need him, then it’s easy for Him to become the background music. If He is the sovereign God of the universe, you could never cease being amazed by Him, and the thought of Him becoming a background would make you sick.
The thought behind this blog, if flushed out to its fullest extent, would make heaven (being with Jesus forever) an absolute hell for you.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your remarks but I think you need to read my post again. If anything my remarks reflect a high Christology, not a low one. I hold Jesus in such high esteem, I worry over-familiarity and overexposure to him will diminish not increase our amazement at God. In addition my comments make it clear I believe Jesus as background music is a tragic state of affairs. As for heaven and hell, that’s a conversation for another day. Thanks for writing, Ian
Hello all!
I’ve been chewing on this since Chad tweeted it earlier this afternoon. Very thought provoking–and slightly convicting. And I do agree about familiarity breeding contempt. Yes yes.
So, if y’all do have that fireside chat, can someone (ahem–Chad, Alece) throw in the discussion that I think the only thing worse than too much Jesus is not enough Jesus.
Mkay. Carry on.
Thanks Mandy.
Ouch. Great post, sir. I think one of the ways we can keep Jesus from turning into ‘background music’ is to talk to Him as if He was standing in the room. If we talk to Jesus like He is a real person, with a real personality (because He is, and He has), then it will be harder to become over familiar. Praying to a far off God who isn’t concerned with our little details of life breeds religious noise; Talking to a friend with a unique personality that cares deeply about you breeds beauty. At least that’s been my experience.
Thanks Josiah…practical and helpful.
As a college student, I studied with a professor of national renown. I had a healthy fear/reverence of her. Initially. Then I worked closely with her as a graduate teaching assistant. We became friends, sharing intimate details of our lives.
One day I was working in her office when she received a call from organizers of a conference where she would be presenting. They needed a bio. As she recited her intimidating credentials into the phone, I almost dropped the papers I was holding. “I forgot who you were!”
There is, perhaps, a fine line between intimacy, familiarity, and finally disregard….
Orthodox worship has given me a great gift in this regard. Every time I am part of the Divine Liturgy, I enter a world entirely other; apart from anything else I know. Full of mystery, reverence, awe. There I remember who Jesus is. And this remembrance pervades my thinking long after I have gone. It makes it very difficult to regard Him casually.
We all need opportunities to remember who He is. A remembrance we can carry with us, against the inoculating white noise of jesus muzak.
Thank you, friend, for prodding and provoking. A most intriguing post.
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Thanks! This is why I love the Liturgy as well. Its speaking about God in a way that honors rather than trivializes him.
Great post. I think that habit – habitually praying, habitually seeking time for quiet contemplation, habitually listening for God’s utterances, helps me keep Christ in the forefront, rather than in the background. I don’t always do that, and consequently, Jesus does take a background vocal position in my life when I get out of the habit. Getting out of my comfort zone (not initially, mind you!) helps me to hear Christ’s voice as a lead track, rather than background. It’s an ongoing process, and a journey I look forward to each day. Thanx so much for your nudging thoughts.
“Getting out of my comfort zone (not initially, mind you!) helps me to hear Christ’s voice as a lead track, rather than background” Excellent!
Ian
Maybe I’m way off here but I would say the way to keep from having overexposure impact us is to continually keep ourselves in a state of reverence toward God. We can’t control what other people do but we can control ourselves and how we see Jesus. If we make an effort in our lives to keep God in the Holy place He deserves to be then we will stand out to others. They’ll see something different. They’ll ask us. We share. Then there’s two people doing it. Who knows where it can grow from there?
Hi Jason,
You’re not way off at all. Thanks for weighing.
I would like to compliment you on your post and those who cared enough to reply. Several things came to mind after considering them all. Most of the religiosity(is that a word?) we experience today has little to do with the New Testament Jesus and how he actually was. We have been deluged with so-called contemporary Christian music, worship, activities, and churches. At the other end of the spectrum are the many legalistic groups to whom ceremony and repetition are the focus. Several folks that I know, inject some kind of religious twist every time I open my mouth. This continual assault aimed at getting my attention does not cause me to take the Lord for granted, on the contrary, it irritates me to point I have to focus on Him for patience and forgiveness. It wasn’t until I realized that I am completely helpless and totally dependent on Him for my very existence, not to mention my future, that I no longer had trouble keeping Him number 1 on my list. When God opens your eyes, it makes all the difference.
Thanks, John!
Hey Ian,
I saw a link to this blog on twitter and at first it pissed me off. Not sure totally why, but probably because I feel like the title was a shock-jock move to try to get people to read the blog. The more I thought about it however, the more I think that it is a great question, but that the subject content was not appropriate to the question.
I hate “Christian culture”. Everything in me hates it. Especially in the south. Living in Nashville, I know exactly what you are talking about when you see the lame stuff you see everyday (T-Shirts, etc..). It’s rampant and irritating. In fact, I probably see them at the same Starbucks in Franklin you sit at.
My problem with the T-Shirts (etc…) is not that I see too much of them, as much as it is two other issues:
#1. The people sporting these religious articles often speak, act, and are consumed by the same things that the people with. There is not much of a difference from the “people of God” and the “people of the world”.
#2. Usually they are a non-creative, watered-down, sissified versions of the Jesus of the Bible. That makes me sick.
Making Jesus “safe for the whole family” is one of the worst things that could have happened in our safe, latte-drinking, air-conditioned, Escalade-driving world. Not only is this detrimental to Christians, but it is a mockery of Christianity to non-believers.
I suggest that it is dangerous to say that too much of Jesus (or christian culture, or whatever it is) could make him a mundane part of our lives. Jesus (and many saints after him, and many each day around the world), have died (and are dying) so that we could have him as our ultimate treasure, our everything. That sounds cliche, but it is HUGE!
I think the problem with most of the unbelieving world is that to many Christians, Jesus isn’t everything. Not that he is the background, but that he is much like Starbucks (only there when we want/need him). Sadly, most non-believers know more about Christianity, Jesus, and what Jesus demands from the world, than the people wearing the shirts.
Culturally there is much to take into account as well. It is easy for Jesus to become the background music for many people who have no financial troubles, can choose to listen to 10000 different albums when they are sitting in traffic and are more concerned about looking cute at church (or what popular group they are going to go to lunch with) than walking away with a high view of God. Of course, when comforts are easily available, it is quite easy for Jesus to become a backseat passenger.
Poverty doesn’t always allow this. Christian people without all these earthly comforts cannot afford for Jesus to become a background track to their life. Don’t believe me? Head to Kenya and sit in a tent with one, while you are watching your child die before your eyes, because you have not eaten enough to provide the milk they need to survive.
I don’t think the question is “Is Jesus Just The Background Music In Your Life?” as much as it should be, “What are you doing to purge yourself from comfortable crutches so that Jesus does not ever become secondary to anything in your life?”
Too much of a people promoting an unreal view of Jesus, could make the real Jesus hidden in the fog of our daily routines.
I tend to believe that people with a real, awe-inspired, Biblical view of Jesus (of what He has done, continues to do, and will do for us), cannot, and will not let Jesus become a background. It will consume them.
Just a few thoughts. I appreciate you. Hopefully, one day I will run into you at Starbucks and will be able to have a coffee and get to know you more.
heath
Hi Heath, Thanks for taking the time to express your thoughts and feelings.
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The first time I heard the song “I Can Only Imagine” was in a pizza parlor. I was very moved. I suspect those “background” voices may be more influential than we think.
They come to the foreground at the most unexpected times. A former co-worker came to Christ because of a bumper sticker. I heard the testimony of druggie who turned to Christ because he read a bit of graffiti on the wall: “Know hope without dope.”
One more example. Nothing is more “background” than the sky. It’s always there, above us, surrounding us. But the stars always “declare the glory of God.” Whether we pay attention is another matter.
Thanks, Ted. Its true that God can show up in any manner or place he chooses.
“It is difficult to approach the mystery.” That is poignant and powerful.
Thanks, Jeff.
[...] led me to an interesting blog post recently, chronicling a meeting between author Ian Morgan Cron and the great composer/musician Rob Mathis in a Connecticut Starbucks. They were stunned when their [...]
[...] the entire post HERE [...]
[...] Love this article from Ian Morgan Cron- “Is Jesus just background music in your [...]
“At the time I thought Rob’s remarks were insightful but overstated…”
I tend to agree with your first impression. Sometimes muzak can be of value, when it makes accessible that which was once beyond reach. The average listener may never seek out Miles Davis, but a different arrangement might lead a thoughtful listener to the original source.
Likewise, there are times when Eugene Peterson’s Message version of the Bible opens the eyes and ears of my heart to Scripture in a way I hadn’t considered before. E.g. “give yourself to the gifts God gives you” from 1 Cor 14. Other times I wonder what the heck he’s talking about. E.g., how does he get “I’m in the driver’s seat” from “take up your cross and follow Me?” The good thing about the former is that it drove me closer to the original source. If I was REALLY committed, I’d dig into the original Greek. And I do love The Message; but I wouldn’t let it replace my trusty NASB!
I do appreciate your premise though, that we need to guard against Jesus becoming background music in our lives. On the other hand, if there has to be something in the background, there are worse things than Jesus. (Muzak comes to mind…
Hi Richard, Thanks for taking the time to reply. Insightful and helpful. Blessed Advent.
Ian
[...] Be sure to read “Is Jesus Just the Background Music in Your Life?” by Ian Cron. His words are something to consider, especially for those of us who spend much [...]
Hi Ian,
Thanks for this post. Very thought provoking.
The swirl around Jesus within Christianity, the t-shirts, talk radio, a lot of the music, is distracting to me. Much of it reflects popular culture and mainstream society so closely it feels a bit like the “Christian” branding is marketing.
Problem is I don’t really have any insight as to how to cut through it all and be immersed in the real substance of faith. I am groping and trying to head for the light though.
I hear you. Its suffocating at times.
Ian, it is possible…… move to New Jersey.
Hi Ian,
I thought of this post today while I was eating lunch at a restaurant. There was, of course, Christmas music playing in the background. I noticed that they were playing an instrumental version of the haunting “Coventry Carol”. This is, of course, one of the few carols (or sermons for that matter) that deals with the horror of the young boys who were killed at Herod’s request. The next song was “White Christmas”. No really, those songs were played back to back.
Well there’s a clear case of unfortunate messaging.