What You Say, and Sing . . . Matters!

He’s Still Loving You Today is probably the most known recording by George Jones, but there are certainly many others that also hit the mark for being at the top of the Country Music game. However, this is not the song that first attracted me to him years ago and that later would inspire me to want to learn to write and sing country music just like he did. That song was called “The Door”. It was the saddest song I had ever heard and it perfectly described the way my life felt at the time.

There are thousands of people who were inspired by George’s version of basically any country song. Many other artists recorded the same songs that he did, so essentially you had two kinds of the same song. You had a good songs by a certain artist, and then George’s version of the same song, which then proceeded to stomp on the other person’s version due to nothing more than sheer brutal emotion. To me, that is what George Jones’ singing was, pure emotion. So much so that he made you believe every word that he was singing was exactly where he was at in his life at that moment. It is what he was living. And that is exactly where I want to get to with this post.

Does what we say and what we sing really have a bearing on what happens to us in life, or is it just the luck of the draw? Is it just a coincidence that what you are saying (or singing) is what happens to you in life, or is it the reverse, that is, it happened to you so now you are singing about it? Or is it both? And does it even matter…

My personal belief is that it does matter. If you were to ask me how I know that then my answer would be because I have experienced this for myself in my own life. I’d be willing to bet that you have too if you have the courage to stop and honestly consider it for a moment. You remember earlier when I said that George Jones was a major influence for me to start singing and writing country songs in the first place? Well, it just so happens that not only did his singing influence me, but the words penned by the songwriters he used influenced me as well, even to the point of my writing reflecting similar situations of remorse, heartache, love gone wrong, addictions, problems, pain, and so on. The expression of those emotions that you no longer wanted inside of you so you had to get them out in the open. Get them as far away from you as you could, and writing and singing about them was at least one way you could do that. Or, so it seemed…

After years of seeing the words of the songs I had written come to pass in my own life, it started becoming at least something that needed to be addressed, that is, is what I was writing and singing about actually affecting me? Oh that is ridiculous you might say. Well, maybe not. Finally my lightning fast mind began to discern the close connections with some of the songs I was writing. Songs like “Life’s A Never Ending Chain Of Broken Dreams”, and “A Lonely Man Like Me”, just to mention a couple of them. As time went on, there were many others, the lines of which started appearing to predict or at least reflect what was actually occurring in my own life at the time. I have to admit that I did not appreciate the thought that there might be a connection there, and that I might be participating in my own demise.

It wasn’t until years later when I heard a certain preacher that I respect say that the Word of God states that “a man shall have whatsoever he says”, and, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” that I began to put two and two together. I didn’t like this too much (I don’t think anyone does) at the time because it was cutting into the very fabric of what I felt was going to be my destiny, which was to write the most heart-wrenching and emotionally piercing songs ever, and then sing them and make you believe them too. You see that’s the real problem for singers and actors, because they have to appear to believe what they are doing and saying, and if they don’t then you probably won’t believe it either! It wasn’t until my relationship with God grew and my understanding and study of the scriptures proved to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is a direct connection between what you say (and sing) and what happens in your life. Now you can scoff if you want to, but I’m here to tell you that the years when I was singing “Everyday Battles With The Blues”, that’s what I was doing. I was battling them. And when I was singing “Blue In Memphis”, I was blue, even though I lived in Tulsa. Believe me it was a pretty scary day when I got the revelation that what you say and what you sing, does have a direct affect on what will happen in your life. My first reaction was being scared because I remembered everything that I had ever said, and everything I had ever sang. I remember wishing . . . I sure wish I hadn’t said that!

So what am I saying? Am I knocking George Jones and all the other country singers? Certainly not. But I am saying that what you say is what you will get. This is what scripture teaches. It’s not my rule. And, it doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not, that is just the way it is. Some people don’t believe in gravity, but they’re still having to answer to it.

If you’re a singer, then what you sing about is what you’re going to get, and if you’re an actor, the parts you play are what you are going to get when it comes right down to it. It may not happen the very first time you say it, or the first time you sing it, or the first time you act it out, but eventually, it will happen. Maybe this is why God told us in the scriptures in Proverbs 18:20-21, “A person’s speaking ability provides for his stomach. His talking provides him a living. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love to talk will have to eat their own words”. (God’s Word Translation). This revelation should make all of us want to pay more attention to what comes out of our mouths. We all need to be able to “say” and “sing” our way to success.

No, I’m not knocking George. I love him and thank him for being one of those who first influenced me to write and sing songs. This morning I watched his funeral online and witnessed the fact that every other living male and female country music entertainer of any caliber was present to show their respects to him and to acknowledge that he had influenced them as well, and that without him many of them, maybe most of them, you would have never heard of in the first place.

I watched with great respect and admiration of how a loving God could reach down His hand and pick up a man time and time again over the course of his life and bring him back to Himself, and, then use him to become a witness of God’s love for every individual person who has ever existed, regardless of what they had done in life, or how far down they seemed to have slipped. George Jones did his sins in public. Most of the rest of us had the luxury of doing ours in private. I think I’ll just let that statement hang there for a while . . . .

For numerous decades Country Music has featured the greatest of voices, the most skillful musicians, the best musical arrangements, the best productions and recordings, and the most realistic representations of life than any other music genre to date. Maybe the only thing wrong with that form of music is that the words being sung in those songs are not given the proper respect, simply because we are and have been ignorant of their power over us. All I can say in closing is this. When I was singing “A Lonely Man Like Me”, I was lonely. And then when I began singing “Life Is Big, Rich, and Wonderful”, it became that way. No, not everything is perfect, but at least if what you say and what you sing does affect your life as I’m proposing, then I’m not adding any fuel to the fire!

#gospel