Written by: Brandon Crumbly, District Worship Leader
Your eyes and your ears are hallways to your soul. Your spirit is like a sponge: everything you see and hear are recorded by your mind and are ingested by your spirit. Be careful of the music you listen to because it affects how you think, how you act, and what you do.
When I was in middle and high school, I wasn’t into rap as much; I loved to listento R&B. I played it constantly. I played R&B when I was working out, when I was doing my homework (if I chose to do my homework), and when I was falling asleep. My music was always playing.
As I think back, I realize I was a hopeless romantic. Even though I learned that “God is love” and I knew being virgin was the right, the music told me otherwise. I didn’t feel loved because I wasn’t having sex; that’s how my music defined love. I listened to the music all the time and sex was the only thing on my mind.
When I went to college, I graduated from R&B and went to rap. Even thought I engulfed myself in the music, I couldn’t connect to it because I didn’t do what rappers did. I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t pop pills. Although I wasn’t a virgin, I wasn’t promiscuous. Although I wasn’t promiscuous I wanted to be. The more I listened to rap, the more I wanted to connect with it. The music made me curious, and curiosity became my desire.
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| Brandon Crumbly |
During my sophomore year in college I started drinking. The next semester, I started smoking weed and I even found a female who I could “chill with” on the regular. Everything was fueled by the music. Now that I think about it I, didn’t do any of those things without music playing. It was my constant motivator.
One night, while I was getting high, instead of listening to Trey Songz or Lil Wayne, I listened to something different. “The God In Me,” by MaryMary put me in my zone. But this time it was different: instead of having sex, I prayed.
After having that unique experience, I did an experiment. I stopped listening to my iPod; I put it away and stopped listening to my regular playlist. During my experiment, I saw myself put weed and alcohol away.
I started to listen to gospel music more. The more gospel music entered my ears, the more God entered my heart. As I listened to God’s music, the message made me think about Him. My thoughts made me act differently. I am living proof of Proverbs 23:7: “ For as [a man] thinks in his heart, so he is.”
Romans 10:17a tells us, “Faith comes by hearing.” I would dare to say that sin comes by hearing, as well. You can’t fight negativity with negativity. If you try to stop your bad habits, you have to control the messages that enter your ears and eyes. Listening to love songs will not make you feel better when your heart is broken: the message is pain, not relief.
Have you ever noticed that when we are doing wrong, we reject gospel music and the Word of God? Music affects your thought process: if the message in your music is negative, the more negative thoughts you will have. Eventually, those thoughts will manifest, and you will act negatively. Simply put: garbage in, garbage out.
Beware of the messages your music is carrying. It could be the ticket to your misery or it could be the passport to your breakthrough.
