It was a good morning today. I don’t usually string together BCFBs, but I was closing in on a milestone – just 11 miles from another 600-mile month – and I knew it would be raining in the afternoon, so if I wanted to get it in, I’d have to do it early.
I’ve been riding with Joon on a lot of these mornings, but he was still looking for a little more recovery time from the weekend and yesterday (and I don’t blame him), so I got a chance to get out on my own, which is a good thing every so often. I’ve got to get back to my playlists sometimes.
I started putting together ride playlists a few years ago, especially when I started my BCFBs. I was always shooting for 20 miles, so after a few of these rides (and others in which I’d done 20), I was able to sit down and figure out the average time it would take. Once I had that, I just filled up a playlist to that time.
When it came to constructing a playlist, I decided on a standard of theology, message, and pace.
Odd as may sound to some of you, I think it important that a lot of the music I listen to be on target theologically. If you’ve read here over time, you’ve probably seen my disdain for CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) — I’m not a fan of its vacuous, “Jesus is my boyfriend,” shallow (I’m getting redundant) quality. Some of it is just not right – it misleads and does nothing more than copies the culture at large. The bottom line for my music is the answer to the question “am I getting the right message here?”
So yeah — the message is important. Is it of substance? Is it uplifting and meaningful? And I’m not talking about uplifting in the way that it’s all flowers and sweetness. I mean, does it hit me with lines that are meaningful enough to invoke thoughtfulness? To be destroyed by a well-placed line is actually uplifting in some ways. “We some desperados, living by the motto, ‘if I die tonight, man I’m ready for tomorrow,’” may sound kind of odd to the untrained ear, but c’mon – what is the day after our deaths? Are we ready?
Or when we’re pondering the deep thoughts of how we’re spending our time. What do we value? Are we wasting the minutes we have on meaninglessness? “Or make the most of this stop watch that I’m racing, you stop and watch you ain’t racing, you’re erasing your minutes, you can’t replace ’em, and at the end of your days when eternity’s in your face, you had one life to offer up in his service or lay to waste….” Powerful. Thought-provoking.
Or the answer to the question “Who do we really think we are?” Do we let the world define us, or are we defined according to something greater?
Lastly, I pay attention to pace. This is a playlist for riding after all. And I think my leadoff song demonstrates that wonderfully.
You may have noticed something if you actually listened to all of the songs I’ve posted here. They’re of a certain genre that you might find surprising for an old guy like me. But of course, if you’ve read my stuff before, you’ll know what I think about CCM (again) against the utility and virtues of Christian rap. You can pack so much more of everything into rap. And when you find an artist of solid theology, you get the message thrown in; not to mention the genre’s natural tendency for an incredible pace. It is an excellent medium that allows you to pack in a lot of words.
And it’s especially an excellent way to get me going…