The soundtrack of my life

I was eight years old when I first experienced the influence of music in a profound way. It had physical effects on me. Listening to it made my heart beat faster or slower and would sometimes raise the hairs on my arms. But even more than that, it had a way of speaking to what I was going through as a child.  

The first song that really moved me was “Numb” by Linkin Park. Although it’s not a song I would gravitate towards today, at that stage of my life, it encapsulated the very thoughts and feelings I was wrestling with as a young boy experiencing violence in my home. I remember some of the lyrics that resonated with me:

“All I want to do

Is be more like me

And be less like you,

Can’t you see that you’re smothering me,

Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control?”

When I listened to the lyrics of this song, I felt like I had finally been seen and understood. Around that time, I was trying to make sense of the anger, manipulation and control that was happening in my family. Music became my therapeutic outlet and it wasn’t long until I began writing songs. First, I wrote my own lyrics over the soundtrack “Numb”. 

prophets and poets

Songwriting became an intrinsic part of my life and I started to survey my circumstances as a soundscape. Whether things were beautiful or chaotic, everything seemed to have musical notes hanging from it. Life was like a song, playing in motion. 

Around that time, my older brother was invited to join a church youth group. Soon after, he was baptised and took on the role of lead singer in the worship band. I’ll never forget the first time I heard him lead out in song up the front. It stirred something deep within me. It was as if worship awakened a dormant part of my soul, a sense of connection and purpose that had been absent until that moment. 

More than 2500 years ago, a prophet named Zephaniah penned these words that we now read in the Bible: “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

Have you ever imagined a God Who sings? Not just sings but pours love ballads over you with triumphant gladness. We often hear in the creative industry that nothing is original. But if God created everything, then He is the producer who our inspiration comes from. His music is original. 

Another ancient poetic text describes God’s thoughts about His children—namely, you and I. It reads: “How precious are your thoughts towards me oh God, how great is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (Psalm 139:17,18). 

Just for a moment, forget about all the preconceived ideas you have about who God is and what He’s like. When you think of these two texts, what is the picture of God that comes to mind? Take a moment to close your eyes and imagine.  

I stopped to do the same, and being the songwriter I am, was inspired to write a song in response to this very idea. My chorus reads: 

“I will sing forever, 

We will sing together

Of our love story,

And how much You mean to me

Those who are in love

Write love songs to sing

And this would be

Our love song

For all eternity.”

New Testament scholar NT Wright said,

“Some theologians have suggested that the act of creation is akin to a divine song, with God’s voice infusing the universe with harmony, beauty and purpose.”

Now that’s a song I would have loved to have heard. And if that’s true, then it means the very world we live in is composed of God’s words materialising.  

the music of creation

Stand under the canopy of an ancient family of trees and you are surrounded by the articulation of God’s mouth. “For when he spoke, and it came to be; It appeared at his command” (Psalm 33:9). Behold the warm glow of sunset sitting on the horizon and you are experiencing the result of God opening His mouth. As the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning said,

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes.” 

We live in an age of productivity and usefulness, where the arts are seen as merely a hobby or an unnecessary decor to one’s life. Something dispensable. Something to sit on a dusty bookshelf. But that’s not how God created the earth to be. God created the awe-inspiring beauty around us with intentionality. He created colours, textures and sounds . . . and if you ask me, that sounds a lot like music. 

I believe music is intrinsic to human flourishing. And I’ve devoted my life’s work to being a songwriter and to write about what matters most in this life: faith, hope and love. 

Each of our lives has a soundtrack. Just as life has high and low notes, so does music. Just as time is measured by movement, so is music. Music falls apart without a rhythm, and life would cease to exist without motion. Music is a kind of emotional time travel. With each musical note, there is either a statement being made, or a question being asked, extending the scale from major to minor. 

As much as I love writing songs, I also find it daunting. It requires me to open my journal for the world to read. In my hopes to reach those who are hurting, I first have to be vulnerable and share my brokenness. If I want others to feel acknowledged and understood, I must enter their world and empathise with their struggles. This is the example Jesus lived for us, “a man of suffering and familiar with pain . . . surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering” (Isaiah 53:3,4). 

But as daunting as it is, it’s an incredible thing to be able to meet people where they’re at, wherever they are in their life’s song and to help them feel seen through music. Just as I experienced as a boy. 

You and I are dearly loved children of God, and our lives are like an original song in the making. Tension and release, sobering minor chord moments and major, mountaintop breakthroughs. 

It’s easy to forgo silence and lose sight of the beauty in the world that God has made. It’s easy to miss the beautiful song He is weaving together in our lives. But if we turn our ears to Him, become more aware, more curious and attuned to His voice, we will move away from the discordant towards a collective harmony of love. Why not listen out for His voice? 

Jade Wales is a musician in the indie folk band One Glory. He lives with his wife Adriana in Northern New South Wales and together they write songs about faith, hope and love.