Living life with a constant musical soundtrack
It is commonplace for many people to listen to music constantly through the day. Their lives are set to a soundtrack of their own choosing. Whether walking along, catching a bus, or eating their meals, there is always music. Never silence, always music.
So what is the problem, you might ask? I like music! What’s wrong with music? Of course, there is nothing wrong with music. It is a gift from God. All cultures have songs and music. It is part of who we are and gives colour to our lives.
Yet our excessive use of music does lead to a few issues we should be thoughtful about.
One is that we need time to think and reflect and meditate on God’s word. Our brains need time to process things. We need some ‘dead time’, some time to actively think, and some extra time to let our minds wander. It is in this time that we find connections and make discoveries that we need to.
Psalm 1 describes the righteous man as one who meditates on God’s law day and night. This is thinking about the things of God. We need space for this. Jesus often took time away from his schedule to think and pray too. Paul in Philippians 4 encouraged Christians to think about the things worth thinking about. All of this takes time. Quiet, reflective time.
Constant music in the background has an opportunity cost: it robs us of this quiet reflective time. It fills all the space we have. And we can end up poorer for it.
We are also influenced by the music we listen to. Music has a special power to capture our imaginations and stick in our memories. A constant flow of music, whatever it might be, will influence us more than we’d like to admit. It can make us angrier, shallower, and more like the wider culture than we should be.
Music can be a form of escapism too. When we have music ringing in our ears, we don’t need to think about those hard things we have been avoiding. We don’t need to build real relationships with those around us but we can block them out. Avoiding people and issues we should be engaging in will not make them go away!
Christian traditions have often included space for silence. Whether it is a quiet retreat for monks or a time of reflection in worship services, or a ‘quiet time’ devoted to personal devotion, we need some times of silence. For many years I have included a minute of quiet reflection and prayer in worship services after sermons for everyone to process things. I suspect that for many it is the only minute of silence in their day. We need to cultivate time to think and pray.
Music is a gift. It can help us express what’s in our hearts. It can bring us joy and help us understand the world. Yet, like all good gifts, it can become a poor master if given too much of our time and mental space.