"In love" with Jesus

In the back of my Bible I scrawled this spur-of-the-moment thought: “The pace required by programmatic, evangelical-driven churches promotes a hurry-up, pragmatic life and leaves little room for study, reflection, leisure, and discernment.” I think I wrote this before I read Noll’s book. I know I was thinking of my church’s worship service when I wrote this. It’s interesting that we tend to say in sermons that emotions need to be subordinated to God’s will, but our services seem so intent on creating an emotional response. Part of that is the cultural stew we swim in—an environment of entertainment and competition for attention. The is particularly true for worship music. One upbeat song we sing is “I’m in Love with Jesus”:

When I think of you, I get a smile on my face
For this love I feel is more than I can take
Cause you lifted me from where I was
And you set my feet upon the rock
Oh I can’t contain this love
Or the fire that’s in my heart
So I’ll dance, shout, let it all out
Cause I’m in love with Jesus
I’m gonna sing praise all of my days
For he has set me free
I’m gonna tell everyone in this town
That I’m in love with Jesus
I’m in love with him, he’s in love with me
And I’ll never be the same again!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the words of this song. It expresses joyous faith in God, thankfulness for redemption, and the passionate desire to tell others about this. It is a song of joyful access. Add to this song the rollicking, driving groove of a rock guitar and throbbing toms and you get this feel more acutely.

The problem with songs like this is that they make feelings about God specific. The joyous nature of the words creates no room for those not feeling the sentiments of the song. The song is more about how I feel in response to God. And the response in this song is monotone: happy!

By now I’m sure my biases are evident. I freely admit that I am traditional when it comes to much of our church music. Part of my traditional bent is preference, which is unique to persons and should not be enforced on all people. But part of it is proscriptive, I think. Look at another song of praise and adoration:

Holy God, we praise thy name;
Lord of all, we bow before thee.
All on earth thy scepter claim,
all in heav’n above adore thee.
Infinite thy vast domain,
everlasting is thy reign.

Yes, it’s a stuffy old hymn! Yes, it uses “thy” and “thee.” Yes, it was based on Ambrose’s Te Deum, written in the fourth century. But I think that it provides for a spectrum of feeling all within offering praise to God. The praise is not based on how I feel but on who God is. When you are going through the darkest valley, which is the more inclusive phrase to sing, “When I think of you I get a smile on my face,” or “Holy God, we praise thy name.” Chances are that if the situation is bad enough, both phrases may choke in the throat. But counting all things joy—including suffering—doesn’t mean having a smile on one’s face all the time. It does mean seeking to glorify God in all things, however, and I would rather glorify God with a scowl than with a false smile.