A few months back, I realized two things: 1. My sons get along a lot better when we listened to music on the way to school; 2. They have not had wide exposure to music. So we started doing theme weeks where would listen to an artist, genre, or decade in the car on the way to and from school. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I am going to whittle down one of those playlists of 40-60 songs into a 12-14 song playlist. This is Monday Mixtape.
Sunday
A little bit of a switch-up. For about as long as I could connect an iPod (later iPhone) to a car stereo, I have been creating and continuously updating a Sunday playlist. This is typically what we have listened to as we go to and from church. It is due for another update, but I wanted to make note of what this ever evolving playlist is at this point in our lives. These are in the actual order in which they appear.
1. “Oh Great God, Give Us Rest” by David Crowder Band
This one is honestly kind of prayer for me since Sundays are rarely my most restful day of the week. The lyrics of this one have touched a chord within me especially in the last five years or so.
2. “I Need Thee Every Hour (20th Anniversary Edition)” by Jars of Clay
Before iPods and iPhones, we had these things called CDs that played songs. If it was a Sunday in my early 20s, there was a pretty good chance that the CD in my car would be Redemption Songs, Jars of Clay’s collection of re-recorded and reimagined hymns.
3. “Your Love is Strong (Live)” by Jon Foreman
This is a song that I would love to hear in a church context at some point; a beautiful, straightforward song that touches on teachings and parables of Jesus and the Lord’s Prayer. This version from Foreman’s Roll Tape: Live from Melody League Studios is my favorite with the exception of the Switchfoot frontman exclaiming, “I love playing with you guys!” at the end. Kind of messes up the vibe, but that’s how good the rest of the version is.
4. “Till Kingdom Come” by Coldplay
This song has been on the Sunday playlist from the very beginning. My favorite Coldplay song and one of the most personally meaningful songs in my life. I know technically it is not a song about God, but it has become one for me. I even preached a sermon about it this past year.
5. “How He Loves (Alternate)” by John Mark McMillan
“If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking” is still one of my favorite lyrics of all time.
6. “God Our Mother” by The Liturgists (feat. The Brilliance)
Lauren Winner came out with an excellent book a few years back called Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God. She notes how it is interesting/limiting that we take the infinite but keep coming back to the same image of Father again and again and again. So I love songs like “God Our Mother” that expand our vocabulary for God (lest people get all tied up in knots, the song refers to God as Father as well).
7. “Only Alive” by Jars of Clay
Probably actually a romantic song. 20 year old me assumed the river language in the song definitely meant that it was about God. Things can have layers. Still I cannot unhear this lyrics as being about God: “Though my heart has been torn / By loves I have worn / And I’m tempted by them ever still / I tremble inside when You walk in the room / You hold my affections and will.”
8. “Raise Up” by Semler
The most recent song on this list. A very simple, beautiful piece from an artist whose music runs the gamut and has a lot on their mind.
9. “Beautiful Things” by Gungor
This was one of my favorite songs to play with the band at Seesalt. I especially loved it when my sister, now brother-in-law, and friend Michael led on this song. It was also one of the songs that I picked for my ordination service.
10. “Let Us Love” by Needtobreathe
This usually plays somewhere on the drive home from church or lunch. Just needed a solid rocking anthem to take us home.
11. “All the Poor and Powerless” by All Sons & Daughters
There are a few songs in here that are in here because they echo my last few summers of camp. This one capped Thursday night worship during the Uprising summer; my first year of writing all the dramas for worship service.
12. “How Great” by Chance the Rapper (feat. Jay Electronica and my cousin Nicole)
It’s my favorite version of “How Great is Our God” and it’s not just because Jay Electronica’s verse starts with a series of Lion King references segueing into the silence of God and mustard seed faith. Though that is definitely a big part of why it’s my favorite.
13. “Holy, Holy, Holy” by Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan’s version of this hymn is one of those songs that can immediately quiet my soul.
14. “May You Find a Light (Reprise)” by The Brilliance
One of the things that I desire out of music that brings me close to God is for it to cover the litany of different experiences we have with God. The psalms are full of praise, mourning, fear, crying out for help, and really uncomfortable bloodlust. The music we sing in church should run the gamut from joy to lament from quiet to exuberant. I love this reprise of “May You Find a Light” because it starts as a meditative encouragement to lost and weary travelers looking for their way home before bursting into a joyous electric light parade celebrating Christ shining down on us.