Thursday, November 17, 2016

Earworms and Renewed Mindedness

The opening verses of Psalm 95 give us encouragement to express our love for God in various forms of worship:
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.

As we come into His presence, we can offer different forms of praise and worship.  The Bible talks about coming before Him with a heart of thanksgiving, and that gratitude and love for Jesus can produce various forms of expression.  You may not be a singer, but you can tell the Lord what you're thankful for.  As you think about the incredible relationship God has made possible through Christ, it will shift your thinking and allow you to develop a greater appreciation for our great and mighty God.

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There's a passage in 2nd Corinthians 10 that can remind us of the mighty power we possess in Christ and how we can take steps to release that in our thinking:
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...

Have you ever been going about your own business and then all of a sudden a song pops into your head?  Or you hear part of a particular song or someone mentions one and, boom, it's in your head all day?

There's a name for this phenomenon.  They're called "earworms!"  And, a researcher from Durham University in England, Dr. Kelly Jakubowski, recently published a paper on the topic in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, according to RealClearLife.com.  According to the story:
Jakubowski and her team found that earworms have three distinct qualities that separate them from other songs: pace, melodic shape, and unique intervals.
The story goes on to say that, "Many commonly cited earworms have upbeat, danceable tempos, but are still slow enough to easily track. Most earworms follow the melodic preferences of Western pop music, which in turn follows many of the melodic contour patterns in nursery rhymes."

But that's not all - a true "earworm"...
...changes its game up with at least one unusual interval structure, defined by the study as “unexpected leaps,” repeated notes, or any other idiosyncratic tick in the song’s composition that makes it memorable, in addition to catchy. The opening riffs of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and the Doobie Brothers’ “China Grove” are good examples of this.
There were 3000 people surveyed, and some of the leading "earworm" songs include "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, three Lady Gaga songs, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.

I would kinda hope that maybe a song you hear on Faith Radio might turn into one of those "earworms." You know, after all, God created music, and I believe that He recognizes what a powerful force it truly is to remind us of Himself, to provide a vehicle through which we worship Him, and to even commit to our minds elements of spiritual truth. So, I would say that it is important to recognize the power of music - including worship songs, hymns, and other songs that communicate spiritual truth.  No wonder Paul encouraged believers to participate in "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs."

We also recognize that not only songs, but other words, phrases, and images get caught in our minds. And, they're not all good.  The lures of the flesh and this world can pull us away from our devotion to Christ, and Satan will place thoughts in our minds to deceive us.  And, if we have dwelt on errant thoughts for long enough, a stronghold is built.  But, the Bible, through the Spirit, gives us the power to pull down strongholds.  We just have to recognize those misaligned thought patterns in order to correct our thinking and eliminate those ungodly thoughts by replacing them with truth.

It's all about the process of renewing our minds.   The Word of God provides the instruction and the infusion of power to be able to do this.  We have been made new by Christ, but we have to train ourselves to think in a manner consistent with that new creation.  Allowing the Word to penetrate our consciousness will help us in our pursuit of God's best for us.

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