New to Soundtrack? Start here:
Each Soundtrack consists of one or more rhythms of Play, Pause, Stop, Record.
Please click through the tabs for how to experience this Soundtrack.
Please click through the tabs for how to experience this Soundtrack.
When you start each rhythm, you will find a quote or two, followed by the Play list. Read through the quotes, the written word may cause you to pause before listening to the music. Then settle into the music. Ruminate on it; allow it to sink into your bones. Ask the Spirit to reveal to you what God has for you right now, in the moment. Look around, or close your eyes. Let the beauty of your surroundings mesh with the music, and let God reveal Himself to you.
You can listen to the playlist first or press play and move right to Pause. Read through the questions you find there. Some will jump off the page, others will slide away, unnoticed. If you find yourself drawn to a question, take the time to think it through. Engage it. You have the time, take the time. If you feel yourself resisting a question, definitely work on it. Often in our resistance lies the area of our heart that God most needs to deal with. Be open to dissonance, wrestle with the minor keys in your heart.
When you are ready, read through the Scripture found in Stop. Take your time here. Often it seems that we skip through the Word, at times because we have read the passage so often, it is overly familiar. Don’t allow this to happen. Even if you know the passage by heart, read it anew. Read it with the backdrop of music and beauty.
Then, begin to Record. Write down your prayerful response to what God is showing you. Pour out your anguished cries of abandonment if you feel God is distant. Create a marker, showing what God has done or will do. Record a thought, sight, sound, anything that will remind you of everything God is showing you.
This is only a suggested outline, there is no special formula. Feel free to change key, adjust tempo, to find God’s rhythm and join it. This Soundtrack is about you meeting with God and working things out. He may have a different score written for you. Be open to His Spirit. Do what you need to do, even if that means just finding a quiet place to sit.
For this soundtrack, you will only need one song – O Holy Night.
You can pick your favorite version or make a playlist of the following recommended versions:
Verse 1 – Tracy Chapman
Verse 2 – Harry Connick, Jr
Verse 3 – Celine Dion
Entire song at end of experience – Emmy Lou Harris
Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul… Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them.
Play Verse 1
As verse one plays, focus on the situation of the waiting world, straining to receive its Savior.
The painting Angels Announcing Christ’s Birth to the Shepherds by Govert Flinck Cleves, captures the message of light coming to a dark world.
Pause
What causes you to be weary?
What about Christmas can make you weary?
What is your soul pinning for?
What do you need to fall on your knees about?
Stop
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide…”
Record
Take time to respond.
Reflect – Journal – Pray
In the Christian story God descends to reascend… He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him…. one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water, into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to color and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks the surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both colored now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colorless in the dark, he lost his color too.
Play Verse 2
Verse two gives us a glimpse of the actual birth of Christ.
As you listen and watch, reflect on the reality of Christ being born, humbly, simply.
As you contemplate The Adoration of the Shepherds by Rembrandt, notice the intimacy, the warmth surrounding the babe. Enter into the scene. Imagine yourself there.
Pause
How does this verse and the painting help you view the birth of Christ in a new way?
What thoughts kept coming back to you as you listened?
What about the reality of Christ coming as a baby struck you as you as you watched and listened?
Stop
We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.
Record
Take time to respond.
Reflect – Journal
Those who have abandoned themselves to God always lead mysterious lives and receive from him exceptional and miraculous gifts by means of the most ordinary, natural and chance experiences in which there appears to be nothing unusual. This is why they carefully pick up the crumbs which clever minds tread under foot, for to them everything is precious and a source of enrichment.
Play Verse 3
The final verse celebrates the King and what He will accomplish.
It calls us to respond with praise and proclamation.
The painting, Seascape at the Retreating Storm by Joseph Mallord William Turner, is a wonderful portrayal of the light overcoming darkness.
Pause
What is alive/changed in you that you want to taste more of?
Where else do you need to slow down and notice the ordinary in your life in order to fully experience the life God has for you?
How else can you look at Christmas in a fresh way?
Stop
Never again will there be any night. No one will need lamplight or sunlight. The shining of God, the Master, is all the light anyone needs. And they will rule with him age after age after age.
Record
Take time to respond.
Listen to the entire song again with new ears.
Journal your thoughts, prayers, insights.
Enter the Advent season with hope, peace, joy, & love.