This is what I’ve been listening to lately.  It’s a new CD from Sarah Groves called Fireflies and Songs.  Very mellow.  Great vocals.  Good songwriting.

Groves is a Christian artist, but you could pop this CD in and be three or four songs into it before you figured it out.  I like that.

Why?  I spent some time trying to pin the answer to this down today as I cut back an entire bed of knockout roses.  My arms and hands look like I lost a fight with a cat–but I digress. I think it’s because I fear cultural Christianity.

What do I mean by “cultural Christianity?”  I mean getting so saturated in the trappings of our faith that we no longer really experience it.  If everything around us is overtly screaming “Jesus!” twenty-four seven, it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we’re experiencing intimacy with Christ, when we’re just going through the motions.

I was having a discussion recently with another member of my denomination.  He said, “You know what they say about us?  We’re a mile wide and an inch deep.”  Meaning that there are lots and lots of us, but on the average, any one of us is not very deep in our understanding and passion for Christ.

I can’t disagree with his assessment, but I wouldn’t limit it to my denomination.  I would apply it to Christianity as a whole.  But the problem is that a large number of the believers who are an inch deep would never believe it about themselves.  (“I go to church every week!  I tithe!  I have a FISH ON MY CAR, for pete’s sake!)  And I’m not claiming personal immunity.  I’m probably more guilty of this than I know.

But back to Sarah Groves.  Her songwriting is thoughtful enough to layer the truths of life in Christ into prose that doesn’t jump down your throat all at once.  When you really listen, and really ponder the words, little pearls of truth continue to pour out as you think it through.  She makes you work for it a little bit.  But it’s there.

And I think any songwriter will tell you that subtlety is ten times harder than just hitting people over the head with your message.  It takes the skill of a poet coupled with the mind of a philosopher–or in Groves’ case, a theologian.

Check it out.  I bet you’ll like it…http://www.saragroves.com/

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