It
was Jonie’s birthday. I was invited to come to his place and have some
celebration (Just some sort of eating, sharing, laugh trip and videoke trip). The
birthday celebrant is a worship team member (actually, everyone who is invited
is) and our worship pastor is invited also.
(source: Google.com)
The
party had just started. But because of the heavy traffic in our area, Ptr.Shem,
our worship pastor will be late. Otherwise the party started with an opening
prayer followed by our individual messages to the celebrant. The program is so
lively, as always. Then, it’s eating time! (Another favorite!). Everyone shared
a festive meal after we sang a “Happy Birthday Song”. After some time, he
turned on the television and played the videoke DVD. “Oh sino kakanta?”, was
his invitation. At first, we are busy eating then a friend got up and picked
the mic. She pressed few digits and the melody began. Some friends joked
around, “Pastor, yung back-up (singer) oh! Nagvivideoke!”. Everyone laughed
because we know our worship pastor, who hasn’t arrived yet, kept on reminding
us not to be indulged in worldly songs. “Uy maayos lyrics nito!”, Reselle, one of our back-up singers exclaimed. After her, few more songs had been sung. Most were
love songs. Some sung in duets, most solos. Some just keep in chitchatting,
some eating, some teasing the “singers”. This is how the party goes on. In
every song that was played there is always teasing and joking “Oh yung bahista
oh, kumakanta”, “Oh yung back-up”, “Oh lagot padating na si pastor!”. Some
“serious-mode” friends are discussing, “Okay lang ba ‘to? Hindi ba tayo
papagalitan?”. Some would say “Hindi yan, may mga mainstream (songs) naman na
hindi double meaning”. Some would say,”Pa’no yung mga kapitbahay? Baka sabihin
mga Christian tayo ‘tas kumakanta tayo ng ganto.” Someone would simply get the
songbook and say,”May mga Christian song naman dito, Eto oh ‘Hillsong’. Uy
papindot dyan number 2322”. Everyone was thrilled at the thought that Ptr.Shem
would come soon and hear us singing those songs. Jolina, a back-up singer,
suggested,”Eto Eto ‘Shout to the Lord’”. The tune of “Shout to the Lord” song
played. Jonie sang it. Suddenly, the song reached the chorus,”Shout to the Lord
all the earth let us sing….” Ptr.Shem finally came, without knowing the slight
confusion that happened. The “singers” sang loudly, the audience laughed harder
because Ptr.Shem didn’t “caught” us.
Have
you experienced certain confusion like this? Though the scenario is ‘kinda
funny (for me, because I was there), there is a serious matter to think about
it. How can we know if something is wrong if it doesn’t look so wrong at all? Or
how will you know if you’re over-spiritualizing something? This type of
confusion between right or wrong is like a gray area. If we represent white as
good and black as bad, what is gray then? It’s like you’re being ask to decide
if it is “Gatas na Choco” or “Choco na Gatas”, hehe. What I mean is if there’s
no exact parameter if something is good or bad, it’s hard to know if you’re
still on the right track or drawn to sin.
Speaking
of our videoke, we do not sing songs with obvious negative lyrics (rather we
despise them). But what confuses us is that the songs we chose are the ones
with good lyrics but not Christian or gospel. To some it’s okay, to some it’s
not. Some of us are worried about our testimonies; some are worried about
obedience to the Lord and to our pastor. Maybe, it is easier if there is a
certain verse in the Bible that tells us “not to sing songs heard on FM Radio”.
But it’s not like that. What we need is wisdom to discern good and evil. We
know the enemy; he will trap us in the most unobvious way possible! So beware!
On the other hand, we can’t be too over spiritualized because we may also fall
into temptation of being judgmental and a self-righteous. Or we may make
ourselves harder by setting our “own” rules aside from God’s grace. This
applies also not only to singing songs from videoke. These gray areas are
present in some of the decisions we face every day: Is it okay to wear shorts?
Is it okay to court her? Is it okay to borrow money to start my business? Is it
righteous if I do this or that? Is it okay to brush my teeth? (Just kidding.
You should, please.)
The
Bible tells us:”Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.”
Yes, we can do what we want. Yes, nobody may stop you doing things especially
when you’re alone. But the question is: Will that help? Will that serve your
brethren? Will that glorify God? I think we should always consider how our
certain acts affect others; most especially we must not be causes of sin. Or,
we should not be sinning because of the subtle meaning of the unobvious things.
