Soli Deo Gloria!

Last night I had the privilege to see one of my favorite bands, The Swell Season, in concert at Paradiso, in Amsterdam. It was a great night of music, with a surprise opening act, Josh Ritter, who brought a depth and humor to his performance that made me want to hear more. The real gift though was Glen Hansard, Martina Irglova and their backing band, the Frames, who have all become known as The Swell Season over the past couple years. They played a great set filled with songs that many of us in the audience knew by heart and sang along with, infused with interesting arrangements and excellent musicianship by Glenn, Martina, and the band. They also seemed to be enjoying themselves and I loved the stories, comments, and jokes that Glenn and Martina shared throughout the night.

Towards the end of the concert, Glenn looked up to the ceiling of the venue and jokingly said “Soli Deo Gloria” in a deep, solemn voice. Apparently Paradiso was converted into a music hall from an old church, so there are large Latin letters stating “Only to God be the Glory” still in front, above where the stage is located. He then started into another song, but I couldn’t help thinking: “how appropriate.” Even though the Swell Season may not be singing explicitly for glory of God, they are giving God the glory nonetheless, because the Creator loves his creation. God created music, God loves music, and I firmly believe that God loves every type of music that tries honestly to deal with the wonder and confusion of life and the struggle inside all of us to find and understand truth, love, hope, depth, health, and mystery. I definitely find that quest in The Swell Season’s music, so I feel that God is glorified in their craft and mastery, in their honesty and journey.

I believe that God is gloried whenever we use the gifts that we have been given, and especially when we use them to promote justice, peace, honesty, and goodness in the world. For those of us who are Christians and artists, we often feel that our art is only valid if it is explicitly Christian, or it only glorifies God if we mention God in our lyrics or try to paint or envision something explicitly spiritual. Maybe though the larger vision that we need to embrace is that God loves our journeys and he values our experiences. So when we process our journey and experience through art, God is honored; when we try to work through our doubts, hopes, and confusion through art, God is honored; when we have courage to share our art with others as a help and a guide, God is honored. God takes delight in his people, and he loves when we take steps toward truth, wholeness, grace, justice, and joy. So many times our art is an exploration into those subjects and the rawness of our daily experience. Even an expression of pain and anguish over a broken relationship can be glorifying to God, because it is seeking to work through our pain and struggle to find meaning.

Our journey as Christian artists always leads us to Paul’s word’s in Philippians 4:7-8: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent, whatever is worthy of praise, think on these things.” Art is a quest for expression that leads to understanding and truth, so as we experience and produce art that is skillful, honest, truthful to our experience, and probing the mysteries of our lives and existence, we don’t have to be afraid to say: “soli Deo Gloria”! I hope the members of the Swell Season can be given the gift to know how much they delight God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, when they write, play, and perform, and I hope we all can receive that gift and deep assurance as well.