I put on my “CCM” (contemporary Christian music) playlist and am now torn — I want to do some reading, but it’s hard to concentrate on the book when I’m listening to the music.
Some might call it multitasking, but those are two tasks that are mutually exclusive to me. The words on the page demand my attention, and the music demands to be heard. I can do one or the other, but not both.
Oddly, I’m listening to the music while I write, and that is not a challenge. Perhaps they both involve the creative part of my soul, and the book taps another aspect that requires concentration of a different kind. I suppose the people who study these things could explain it to me.
It’s interesting how the songs fling me about. Here is “Get Together” by Randy Stonehill, and I’m in the 1980s happy to hear a CCM artist embracing the spirituality of a pop song from a decade and a half earlier. Now comes “The Lord’s Prayer” by Sister Janet Mead, and it’s the seventies and I’m tickled to see a God song reach the Top Ten but a little timid about sharing my faith.
The Shuffle feature always splits up “He is Exalted” and its prologue, “Release of the Spirit,” even though they belong together. I remember how thrilling it was to hear Twila Paris at the piano building up to the song, much like the classical opening to Amy Grant’s “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.”
And here’s “John the Revelator,” and I’m reliving the first time I heard Phil Keaggy’s magnificent album Crimson and Blue. Here’s a funky extended song with lots of flashy guitar. Most artists would be content to make this the centerpiece of the album’s climax, but Keaggy goes from this into “Doin’ Nothin’,” another extended track with lots of flashy guitar. For a believer with a rock and roll heart, the two songs back to back comprise an exhilarating 16-minute romp, followed by the mellow and worshipful cool-down of “Nothing But the Blood” to finish the album beautifully.
I will definitely need to silence the phone before I can hear John Piper’s words in my brain this morning. My, Keaggy laid down some mighty fine music.
