Most of my CD's...

...are stashed in a box in a storage unit in Michigan. Thanks to the wonderful and tiny technology of mp3 players, it's no longer necessary to haul a bunch of plastic discs around. I still kept a few in my car for a long time, but then my CD player decided to overheat and self-destruct, so that stopped too.

Nonetheless, I managed to grab a handful of CDs this morning as I headed out the door. I get maybe one non-Country radio station in on my little clock radio at work, and the constant repeat (I think I've heard Seal's Kiss From a Rose half a million times in the past two days) starts to really bug me after a while.

In my stash are several Contemporary Christian artists (Jars of Clay, Relient K, Shawn McDonald, Jeremy Camp, Smalltown Poets), one Eric Clapton disc, and the Daraja Children's Choir of Africa, bought straight from the source at their recent BPF concert.

Seeing as I have little real work to do, I've been working my way through the stack and thinking about "Christian" music. It has a bad reputation, and I'm not one to always defend it. Some of it is good, even great. But some of it really is bad (really really bad). Unfortunately, stringing Jesus throughout your lyrics doesn't automatically unleash God's blessing of superhuman talent (despite what some folks think).

When it comes to my music, I like what I like. Sometimes I have reasons, and sometimes I don't. I like some "Christian" music. I like some "secular" music.

But I don't like modern worship music. It's fine, and it works for congregational singing. I've even been moved beyond understanding by it. But to listen to? No no no. Please give me something else. Please please please PLEASE.

The Daraja CD is all modern worship. It really isn't music I love. Listening to it today, it invoked good memories of beautiful children and their joy for God. But it didn't do much otherwise.

Except, just possibly, shift my focus.

I love classic rock, but it will never do for me what one worship song can. Even if you hate the lyrics, hate the melody, hate the endless repetition (oy...and some churches are REALLY good at that part), you can't deny that it shifts your focus. It reminds you about God -- if it didn't, it wouldn't be much of a worship song, right?

I can listen to sappy love songs all day (I really am a hopeless romantic), but all they do is remind me that I'm single. They remind me of what I hope for. In any case, they're about me.

Even a lot of Christian music is inwardly focused. It's about the experience of the songwriter, as a Christ-follower and as a human. And when I listen to it, I compare my own experiences. I relate. And I think about me.

Worship music -- whether it's the stuff you hear and sing along to on Sunday, or it's that one song on a CD that just drops you to your knees -- is about GOD (okay, there are some "worship" songs that are all, "Hey, God, bless me!" but I'm not talking about those...that's a whole separate issue). It's about putting me on hold and taking a moment to remember that it's about Him, not about me.

That's important: it really isn't about me. Or you. Or any of us.

It's all about Him.