Rock & Roll and Therapy

Music is very powerful because it by-passes the logical mind and goes directly to the heart. It has the power to evoke memories from long-ago, bring you tears, evoke feelings of love, and draw you closer to God and nature. The Psalms express the full range of emotions through song, love, praise, confusion, anger, doubt, fear.... it's all there... in its raw and intense form.

Can God handle our intense emotions? Is it ok to express them? God does not want us to "let any unwholesome words come from our lips" but that does not mean that we can't express the fullness of what we feel. We need to in order full us to fully heal!

I remember working with someone years ago who was affraid to let out the fullness of her pain. I convinced her that both I and God could handle it. So, she let it rip... and boy did she let it rip! But the process freed her from years and years of pain, supressed because she was told to not speak any negative words out into the air. What terrible, unbiblical advice that kept her in bondage for years! In the West, we're so hung-up about expressing emotions. We need to embrace the styles of the Mid-East or African cultures where they express the fullness of all emotions.

Now, this may surprise some of you, but I'm a fan of Linkin Park, primarily because of their powerful album, Meteora. I don't know the story, but I think one of the band members must have been in therapy to write the songs the album contains. It is a therapy album that expresses the anger, pain, confusion, and hopes of being a young man hurt by his past. It's all there... and the music style captures the distraught mood even more. It's intense, but powerful.
Consider the lyrics of track 6, "Easier to Run" -
"It's easier to run than face all this pain here all alone.... something has been
taken from deep inside of me, a secret I've kept locked away no one else can see
wounds so deep they never show... they never go away
Like moving picture in my head...they never go away."

Consider also the hope expressed in track 3, "Somewhere I Belong"-
"I want to heal, I want to feel what I thought was never real
I want to let go of the pain I've held so long...
I want to find something I've wanted all along... somewhere I belong."

Find some music that speaks to you, something that you can take along with you in your journey.... it helps make the journey a more human, communal experience.

Just some random thoughts...