Pat
Well-Known Member
WHAT mATTERS - I Have a Confession...
I am terribly susceptible and vulnerable to earworms. If you are not familiar with the term earworms, I think I would be safe to say that you have had them, are experiencing them now, or soon to get them. But don’t panic. They aren't real worms in your ears, but rather they "are involuntary, spontaneous, and repetitive replaying of music in the mind." I would be a great contestant on the show "Name That Tune" because of the hours-on-end time I spent listening to "KYA radio, 1260, San Fran-cisco!" There are songs in my head from sixty years ago that will never go away. Most advertisers on T.V. or radio use music to sell their products. These marketing managers know that if they can make you hear an ad jingle often enough, their product will be in your mind via that jingle whether you like it or not. For example, what do you hear in your head when I say "For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit..." Yep. You got it!
What does this have to do with anything spiritual? Back to my confession, I find earworm songs popping up in my head constantly, often when I first wake up in the morning. If I'm not careful, my mind will be filled with some pretty gross, drug or alcohol enticing, sexually alluring, un-biblical stuff all day long. As a Christian, I don't find that very uplifting nor is it God glorifying. But, as hard as I try, I just can't seem to get rid of those earworms on my own. There is a remedy to get rid of them though. Replace them. In my forty-five years as a Christian, I've heard and learned quite a few Christian melodies. Perhaps as many as I heard and learned of the secular songs of my youth. So, when I first hear that familiar ad jingle or that "I can't get no satisfaction" melody in my head, I seek a familiar Christian song such as "Jesus, name above all names" or even a children’s song such as “Jesus loves me, this I know.” I then start singing that song either out loud (if no one is around) or just in my head and repeat it a few times. Pretty soon, I still have an earworm, but it is an edifying, calming, even prayerful, worship time in my head. Another helpful tool is that I have Christian music playing through my WIFI radio on my porch out front, in my woodshop by the chicken coop and of course in the house. That way, wherever I am, I have spiritual input to consciously or un-consciously meditate on. “Abiding Radio” has a variety of traditional Christian hymns and modern music in various genres to satisfy most tastes without ads.
Scripture encourages us to practice this habit. Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; and Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. What matters is, which influence of music do you want running through your head all day?