What Sets My Heart Free

I often tell people that the reason I have this blog and I write on it so much is because writing is my release.  Which is true.  When I sit down at my computer, pull up this page on my blogger dashboard where I can create a new post and start typing away, words somehow come out that I couldn't properly figure out before that.

But you know what really sets my heart free?  Music.  No matter what emotion or problem I'm feeling trapped by, I can find a certain song or artist on my computer, turn it on, and forget everything for a few minutes.  I have an entire Spotify playlist devoted to songs from the night of my baptism when I'm remembering that incredible night and want to be taken back there.  I have artists like Carole King and The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac that I sing when I want to remember sweet times of harmonizing with my mom.  I have bands for when I'm angry and want to rock out and release that instead of wanting to punch something.  I have songs that I turn on when I'm crying.  I have songs that remind me of people and pieces of my past that I haven't quite let go of.  I have music for when I want to feel close to God, especially in the moments when I can hardly feel Him at all.

I just got to experience that in a whole new way tonight.  Jenny & Tyler put on a private online concert for their For Freedom Launch Team.  These two, just like The Vespers, are even more incredible live than on their albums.  Also just like The Vespers, their music has been one of my go-to places when I'm having a rough day and really struggling with God.  In fact, they just closed their concert out with the song that I go to the most, one I've put several times on here, "Psalm 46".  I put in the request, but whether or not they did it for me, it still meant the world.

I have plenty of praise music on my computer, but most of the rest of them, I go to when I'm already in a good mood and am honestly just in the mood to praise God.  There are songs from Jenny & Tyler and The Vespers that are what I turn to when I know I need to praise God but my heart isn't sure how to start.  I turn on "Psalm 46", "Song For You", "Carry Me" from Jenny & Tyler, or "Lawdy", "Please", "Will You Love Me" from The Vespers, and my heart is drawn back to the God that I fell in love with in the first place.

Songs like those, they move me.  They pull me out of the pit that I can so easily fall into.  They push me toward God when my human inclination is to run in fear and anger or, at the very least, not take another step forward.  These friends of mine, it's like they're here with me, helping me, loving me, even though they're hundreds of miles away.  And today has been a rough day after a rough Friday and Saturday, so I really needed it now as much as ever.  But that's the kind of God we serve.  He lines things up like that just to bless us.

So today, I'm thankful for music that moves me, and the God that gave people like Jenny & Tyler and The Vespers the talent that they so generously share with the world.