I think it’s important to state right away that The Music Room is completely in love with Jesus. Now with that said, allow me to share a quote from Ghandi.
“The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” -Ghandi.
Sorry for the curveball, but I recently read that quote on a spiritually-infused tea bag tag and it has stuck with me ever since. It stuck with me because it’s practically the same thing Christ was demonstrating for his disciples back when He was walking around on earth.
The Christian version goes something like this: Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” And in Matthew 16:25 he said “whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
Jesus, the greatest servant in history, showed us how to serve in a way that is of eternal value. And He didn’t keep secret what it would cost to serve in the way that He was talking about. He showed his disciples what it would require by submitting to death on a cross.
I’m here to talk about music, however, not philosophizing about acceptable Christian practicum. What’s funny though is that the worlds of music and mission have collided over the last couple of years in the most beautiful way. They have collided in ways that I couldn’t have planned, anticipated, or foreseen.
My sister and I started playing music together about three years ago. We had a room in our house called “the music room,” so we racked our brains for hours and decided that we’d call our band that as well. Genius, I know. I had been writing songs for a few years, but never showed them to anybody, not even Aimee (my sister, and lead singer in the band). I had written a song called “Cost of Believing,” thought it was cool, sang it for my mom, who thought it was cool because she’s my mom, and then never planned on playing it again. Little did I know that this song would be played and heard a lot more in the years to come.
Aimee began recording the song with Courage to Be You’s producer Ralph Stover while I was on a trip in Africa. Upon returning home, we tracked the song at Ralph’s studio and I thought it was great that this music was seeing the light of day. At this point, I didn’t know what Courage to Be You was, or what compilation CD the song was going to be on. Aimee was handling all the important details.
When we played our song at C2BU’s first awareness event in Elk Grove in 2009, Aimee nominated me to be spokesman for the band. Not knowing much about C2BU at this point, I simply shared the heart behind the song and what I thought God meant when he gave it to me. One of the lyrics in the song say, “There’s some freedom in falling apart, when all else leaves us we have a brand new start.” In layman’s terms, this line means to me the same thing as Jesus’ words about losing life in order to gain it.
It’s hard to believe that with surrender comes freedom, but when it’s surrendering to Christ that’s exactly what happens. You lose everything in service to Him and His mission and then gain everything that you couldn’t have ever earned. That’s a trip.
It’s a trip the band has been on with Courage to Be You as they have surrendered to the mission of bringing justice to girls who have been enslaved to sex-trafficking.
Each awareness event has a way of re-calibrating our priorities as a band and as Christians. We leave those concert nights inspired, and heavy with purpose. We leave those events knowing that Jesus has shown us a cross that needs carrying. Obviously, we have freedom to choose whether or not we’re going to pick it up, but I’m haunted by the words Aimee sings–the ones I wrote–becoming convinced that there might be more freedom in shouldering hardship than insulating myself from the discomforts of servanthood.
The Music Room is now a toddler of a band, just three-years-old. We are about to record our next album titled “Wolves Without Teeth” and are going to donate all of its sales directly to Courage to Be You so that they can build more homes for rescued girls. In a sneaky way, we’re trying to be more like Christ by losing our profits before we ever see them. We found that if we forfeit our right to claim anything up-front then it’s easier to allow it to be surrendered once the money starts coming in. I’m trying to apply that same mentality to life in general.
In the meantime, we’re still rocking out, in a folksy way, at awareness events with incredibly talented artists and musicians. We are honored to share our song with this cause and lose our lives for its mission to redeem lives and free captives.
“The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” That was one of the most profound cups of tea I’ve ever drank.
Written by Dane from The Music Room
www.entertheroom.com
