This Is Very Quickly Devolving Into A Music Blog

It's okay if it's about music with Jesus in it, right?

Dean Brody writes in his song Black Sheep, "I was raised in a small town underneath a steeple/Raised with the good book in my hand//Though I loved the Shepherd/I didn't mix well with his people/So one day I jumped the fence to find new lands".

As I drove down the highway this morning with my car tuned in to a local country station, I heard this song playing, and the words caught my attention. As I turned it up and listened, I was struck with a thought: this song is... startlingly scripturally accurate?

In fact, Mr. Brody has done something atypical for a secular musician (though, as I like to joke, country really is God's secular music) - he's managed to provide a fairly accurate depiction of God in his music. He sings: "Sometimes late at night I get thinking about my Shepherd/How it broke His big old heart to see me stray//But if I know the hound of Heaven/He's left the flock to find me/And when He tracks me down ho happy, happy day". I realized as I listened, this is a song about the good news of salvation!

Now, of course, the lyrics aren't all pure as snow, or any such thing as that, and this is certainly not worship music, but the fact remains that Mr. Brody has actually, essentially, managed to accurately depict the gospel message in his music. The only issue I could possibly take with it, if I tried quite hard, would be that there may be some implication that, without walking in God's ways, one might nonetheless spend eternity in Heaven. However, I'd have to intentionally read that into Mr. Brody's lyrics to get that meaning from them - he's certainly not making that statement overtly.

Now, of course, there's more than one bridge to cross if one wishes to use this to connect people with the truth of Jesus Christ; first, you must convert them to the light and truth that country music is worth listening to! Of course, having covered that, Mr. Brody's song actually does most of the work for you, as he relatively succinctly delivers the gospel message through his lyrics: though you may be a black sheep, having wandered from the flock, all God's people are "black sheep, just like me". There's a home for all of us; we all belong in God's family.

This song is a great jumping-off point for anyone who wants to have a conversation about Jesus with a country music fan, and hopefully, it's a great lead-in for country music fans to start asking questions about faith that they might not have otherwise asked. I believe that with a little conviction, this song is a great opportunity to bring Jesus to people who are just, as Mr. Brody puts it, "looking for a family."