A wise priest I know once told me that all stories find their basis in the Greatest Story Ever told found in the Bible. He pointed out how every story, regardless of the plot line, has certain elements that overlap with Scripture. This is fairly basic in that we are saying that even if the only similarity there is between the story in question and The Story is that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, that’s still a connection to the Bible.
Case in point, something like the story in the Lord of the Rings books by J.R.R. Tolkein would easily have deep connections with the Story of Salvation. We could see that the hero of the story, Frodo, is sent by the Wise Wizard, Gandalf, to go beyond his comfort zone on a great mission to defeat evil. This is similar to Jesus being sent by the Wise Father to come to earth, reach great levels of discomfort and destroy evil.
This is more purposeful on the author’s part, but we can find similar connections really with any story. One of my favorites would be the Superhero genre movies. However, it was the movie version of the play, Les Miserable, starring Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway that drew me into prayer right in the middle of the movie theatre.
More than stories, I see the beauty, composition, math and complexity of music also finding its basis in something Godly. It is a little more difficult to pin down and name, like a story does in pointing to the Story, but it still rings clear. To me, even modern songs can find overlap with with the true, good, and beautiful, which point us to God.
I think it was because of this that allowed me to connect deeply with God while playing one secular song in particular, but it has happened with others as well. A few years ago I helped out with an ambitious program put on by a local church which they called Epic.The plan of the events, as their were multiple nights that we put them on throughout the year, was to teach the kids a message using popular music, speakers, and stories.
I helped with the music along with some other amazing musicians. We practiced once a week in the office at the drummer’s car detailing garage. Such great memories of that!
We would open the night with more popular well known songs like 21 Pilots’s Stressed Out and Ride, Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, Shawn Mendes’s Stitches, and Bastilles’s Pompeii. Then, there would be a talk, a skit, or some other way of delivering that night’s message. We would then close everything off with some Praise and Worship songs. These would include Oceans by Hillsong, Love is Here by 10th Avenue North, Fierce by Jesus Culture, and King of my Heart by John Mark McMillan. It was a lot of fun!
On top of practicing with the band once a week, I would practice by myself when I could too. Obviously, when I was playing the Praise songs I would pray to God, but I was surprised when I entered prayer practicing a song that wasn’t a part of the Praise set. I found myself noticing the beauty and rhythm of the music and the simple message of the lyrics and started to thank God for the incredible gift of music.
The song was Pompeii, which is really about the burial of the ancient city after the eruption of a volcano, but it just sounds so cool and the ideas of unexpected death and the underlaid warning for one to protect the soul is powerful. Mysteriously, I could recognize God’s presence to me through playing that song and I went to Him in my heart.
It was a great moment. Funny enough, at the next practice, our drummer told me that the same thing happened to him on the same song! I think it just shows us how there are traces of God in everything but sin. Anything good, true, and beautiful points to Him and so we can be lead by even the smallest trace of it.
It is in this way that we can say that everything is grace. It is in this way that we can seek to view the world as St. Paul recommends in Philippians 4:8 when he says, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable —i f anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you”. Finally, it is in this way that we can remind ourselves of God’s pPresence in our lives whether we live in good times or bad.