¶ Discussing Advent and Christmas Songs
Hey , Georgetown , I'm Everett . Ho ho ho , I'm Jake . That's horrible . Let's restart now . I'm just kidding .
Oh , that's my comment off guard .
If you want , if you want to make me laugh , just catch me off guard . That's what you do . Anyways , this is the GBC Empower podcast and if you listened to last week's or if you haven't , this week is all about Advent , but all about Christmas as well .
So we're gonna be talking about the different weeks in Advent , but we're also gonna be talking about just last week we talked about our favorite family traditions . This week , we're gonna be talking about our favorite and maybe some of the least favorite Christmas songs . But first , jake , what is this week of Advent ?
Well , the second week of Advent is peace and we will light that candle on December the 10th , which I guess that's today .
It would be , yes , it would be today . We lit that candle today and , can you believe , you caught your beard on fire that summer .
Ah no , it's crazy . It's only the second time it's ever happened . But that's peace . And that comes from Isaiah , chapter 40 , verses three through five , where we read a voice of one crying out prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness , make a straight highway for our God in the desert .
Every valley will be lifted up , every mountain and hill will be leveled , the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places of plain and the glory of the Lord will appear and all humanity together will see it where the mouth of the Lord has spoken Amen .
So that's reading about John the Baptist , who is preparing the way of Jesus , who would bring peace to the world . And one of the reasons we celebrate Advent is to be reminded of the fact that Christmas is all about Jesus Christ coming into the earth , and we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead .
But Christmas is designed for us to celebrate Him being born of the Virgin Mary , and it's just a special time for people all across the world .
Yeah , no , absolutely . It is the most significant event in human history . It literally changed time , and so it makes sense why we spend so much time talking about it , because , yes , why he did die on a cross and he rose from the dead , and those are absolutely fantastic things .
This is the start of that , where God literally God couldn't be around sin and he made a way by the virgin birth . Jesus was a 100% God . 100% man came down and , as we read last week , he was the prince of what ?
Peace . And , as you said , last week , 700 years before Jesus was born , the prophet Isaiah wrote about Him and wrote about John the Baptist and the way that Jesus fulfilled scripture even in His birth .
Yeah , and how he brought peace in a very different way than some of the Pharisees and leaders just thought he would . You know , they thought he was gonna bring , honestly , weirdly , war , but through that war he was gonna bring peace . But I'm reminded of Matthew 5 , and blessed are the peacemakers , for they will be called sons of God . And who is Jesus ?
But the Son of God , who is a peacemaker and provided peace in a way of just leading , discipling , ministering , and then , when he is getting put to death or being sentenced to death , he says nothing . What a peaceful , what a peaceful guy .
Peace on earth . Good will to men .
Yep , no , that's absolutely right , and you just hear a lot about what Jake talked about on Sunday , but could you give us like a like , a maybe like a recap ? I know we're talking in the future of all this stuff , but just like . What does peace , I guess , mean to you , or how has God's peace just affected you and your family ?
Well , I think about the fact that that , when Jesus came to this earth to to be born , um , he was giving us an opportunity to have peace , um , to a world that didn't have peace , uh , the world was not prepared for Jesus to be born , and the fact that he came down to this earth to give us peace .
But in in my own family , um , and I think this is true of of many people , but the only reason that I have peace in my family is Jesus Christ . Um , if you take Jesus out of the equation , um , there's there's probably a lot there that that winds up not being redeemed . In fact , it's all going to not be redeemed .
Yeah , I'm reminded . Uh , I saw last Sunday , which will be two weeks , from this podcast . Um , uh , scott Galli was carrying around a hat and Hank Lovejoy gave Scott this hat and it's from one of his favorite stories in the Bible , mark 411 . And it says who's in your boat ?
And it's talking about the story where Jesus was asleep in the boat , why the disciples are in the midst of the storm and it and it reminds me of the fact that , like peace isn't always what we think it is , oftentimes peace is in the midst of absolute chaos . Because why , who's in our boat ? Jesus is in our boat .
He , he sees the storms , he understands the storms , but he's so much bigger than the storms and he knows it's going to be okay as long as we are with him .
Well , and , and I hear people say that the holidays , especially Christmas time , is very challenging for them because everything is so hectic with schedules and I don't really enjoy going to the grocery store or a store during this time of year , because people can be a little interesting during this time and , um , you know , one of the ways that I deal , uh , with
trying to remind myself of peace and is music . Um , I love music , uh , I love to sing . Um , you know , I'm sure our office loves it when I'm strolling through our lobby , you know , singing my heart out , but luckily Ryne's in the next office over , yeah , yeah Now we have two of you . He makes it sound better .
But you know , christmas music is is one of those incredible gifts that we have around this time . And um , one of my favorite songs during the Christmas time was written by Henry Woodworth Longfellow . Uh , in the midst of the civil war and um , you know , I'd always heard uh this song called .
I heard the bells on Christmas day and and , honestly , at first first listening to it , it's just kind of a normal song , uh , but a movie actually came out about it last year , but before that I'd heard the story that you know . Uh , we don't really talk a lot about poets now , but but they're in our history .
Poets were very famous , especially really good poets , and he was the most famous poet in America . Um , and his wife died in their home . Uh , uh , henry Woodworth Longfellow , uh , she , uh , her dress caught on fire walking through the living room and she was burnt to death .
And and um , right there in his home and and he had several children and he actually stopped writing poetry for many years and went through a lot of pain and turmoil , had a son that left without his blessing to go fight in the civil war and um , he kind of got to the end of his rope and he woke up in the middle of the night and he heard the bells at
his church playing on Christmas Eve . And he sat down and wrote I heard the bells on Christmas day , uh , their old , familiar carols play . And . And then he ends it with in peace on earth , goodwill to men . And so now , when I hear that song , I think about just the disparity of his life .
And and at the end of the song it says and rang the bells more loud and deep God is not dead , nor doth he sleep with peace on earth . Goodwill to men . And in his own life , he realized that God was not done with his life , that God was there offering him peace in the midst of complete turmoil .
So now , when I hear that song , I have to focus on no , it's not blubbering , because I realized that we're living in a world that is struggling , that is dealing with all this stuff , but we can literally just be reminded that because Jesus was born to this earth , that there is peace . So you know , do all Christmas songs make me feel that way ?
No , certain songs are wonderful , but then there's those other songs .
We'll see . I get really emotional when I hear um Twisted Sister . Oh , come on , he faithful . Now that is .
Oh , dee Snyder , him and we , henry Winsworth , glongfellow , are on the same level of poetry . To me they are no .
so you talk about your favorite Christmas song . My favorite Christmas song is that , like no joke . Uh , if you don't know what Twisted Sister is , I mean you're a better Christian than me . They were a head , or you were in the 80s or yes you were in the 80s , which I wasn't , but you know is what it is .
But um he they Twisted Sister was like this , basically glam metal band , and they sung like I want to rock and we're not gonna take it yes .
Yes , and so later on in his career they wrote a Christmas album and they sing , oh come I faithful , and they don't take out any of the words , like they just sing it straight up and it's you know , oh come I faithful , joyful and triumphant .
Oh come , oh come , oh come I faithful , and it's just like it gets me so much in the Christmas mood and it also prepares me when I go in a Walmart in the battlefield that I'm about to face trying to get the last ham , you know , and so it's great , I love it .
¶ Christmas Music Favorites and Least Favorites
So you're going to ask Ryan to sing that at our Christmas Eve service ? I won't . I feel like Joe Maclauvera would play .
I would ask Joe Mac .
I think Joe Mac would rock that thing out .
Oh yeah , absolutely . And I , and if he didn't ask me to play the drums for that , so fun fact about ? Like , yeah , he used to play the drums with his hands , so fun fact really , cause he would always break his stick , so he just started playing with his hands .
Oh , okay , I thought you were like being funny , like people play with their feet or something .
No , no , he like literally plays with his hand .
Okay , Well , there you go .
So that is . That is probably my favorite Christmas . This took a turn .
Wow , drumming with your hands .
So what's your ?
least favorite Christmas song . Oh man , see , here's the problem If I share what my least favorite Christmas song is and people are going to get super offended because it's amazing , just something like this can get somebody pretty worked up . So let me , I wouldn't say this is my least favorite Christmas song , but I will ask this .
Um , I am not a woman , by the way , and I've never given birth to a baby , okay , but I would think that , ladies , how would you feel if you know , after you gave birth to your child , that a guy with a snare drum decided to visit you in the hospital and just decide to play a uh , a very heightened version of a Christmas song for your baby ?
How would that make you feel ?
I think it'd make the baby not feel very great yeah .
I think that would get you kicked out of the hospital . Okay , um , now listen , I know everybody . There's people . I've heard people say oh I love little drummer boy because he played his drums with all his might . And I'm not trying to take that way away from you , but I do need to go ahead and let you down in the gospels .
You actually never read about a little drummer boy big drummer boy or any drummer boy . But hey , if that's what gets you going for Christmas , I'm totally fine with that . I just choose to kind of move on to a different song .
Yeah , that's fair . So I about you least favorite . Ooh , that's hard , it's just any traditional . I don't . I don't do the traditional Christmas music . Uh , probably like Mary did . You know ?
yeah , you , you are are stock just plundered by you saying that .
And I don't mean it's like my least favorite , I just it's did . Mary know Probably you know like the angel came to her . But to be fair , brett makes a good point . Whenever I bring that up is because it's like , well , she didn't know the extent and I'm like , yeah , you're probably right .
I mean potentially Mary might have known , Mary might not have known . And I know some people that say that Donna are Donna , just loves it . Uh , she loves that song .
Well , and here's , here's the deal . Don't take my word for Christmas songs , because are you ready ? We're going to go top three . First one is oh , come on , faithful . Number two is Felice Navidad . Okay , I love that one . It makes me want to dance . Like he just I want to wish you don't want to hear me sing , but it's fantastic .
And then , third guys , I'm , I'm usually an old man , I usually am but I listen to what is called Christmas dubstep . It is the only electronic music I've I listen to and it's fantastic . And the youth know I love it . They hear it every single Wednesday and December and Sunday .
But let me just give you a little taste , in case you don't know what that's like . That's what it's like . It's really loud .
Maverick , you have just such a special heart during this time of year of worshipful music .
I'm very happy for you , very much so .
Feliz Navidad . Yeah , um , you know I have . I have a lot of songs that I really love . Uh , casting crowns came out with a really good Christmas album , um , um , but there's . To me , christmas music is just another tool of worship .
It is .
And I really enjoy all forms of it , whether it be secular or , you know , religious or things like that . But , um , I definitely would encourage people um utilize these songs because they help us learn more about God . Um , but you know , I would be interested to know what are people's favorite Christmas songs and what are their least favorite Christmas songs .
Um , but you know , it's kind of funny , like I brought up some you know big poet and you talked about D Snyder , but that's what music does , does for us , and you know , we're going to spend a lot of time this month singing Christmas songs and , uh , we encourage you to find , uh , find some good worship albums to listen to .
But , man , enjoy that with your family , enjoy that with your kids and uh , participate in that .
Yeah , so I won't go too deep , uh , but if you want to buy me coffee or anything like that , ask , ask why those are my favorite and I promise you have a story for all three of those songs and weirdly , they all , they all center around Jesus , I promise , which is crazy , but Christmas is a great time , and one if I had to go number four , it's a holy
night and it's because , like we talked about last podcast , like I I remember before Courtney even recorded it of singing it when it was when it was freezing cold . Songs just have meanings and what I love about Christmas songs is even the secular people .
Like I mentioned , dee Snyder , a twisted sister , sings a song that is fully about the birth of Jesus with no added , no subtraction . He is singing about the birth of Jesus and it makes me happy because it reminds me of the greatest event that ever happened .
You know , my favorite three Christmas songs are number one I heard the bell on Christmas day . Number two O come , o come , emmanuel . Love that one and then number three . Feliz , no , no , not .
Feliz , not God . That's like in my negative 17 list .
But my third one is is oh a holy night , and Shane , and Shane sing a really great version of that . And then also David Crowder sings , sings , a lot of really great Christmas music .
But I couldn't encourage you more Get nostalgic , think back to really good memories , but also make sure that as you listen to these songs , that they're able to help shape how you worship this Christmas season and and just enjoy it .
Yeah , and music for me maybe not for you , but for me it does provide a lot of peace , a lot of comfort and it's a reminder that throughout the chaos , you know , throughout shopping and making sure everybody has presents and making sure they're getting what they wanted , to make sure that you're also being a parent that that shares good values Like throughout all
the chaos , throughout all the noise , music can be one of the most comforting , peaceful moments in your life , where you're just listening and listening to Christmas music . Man , it's all about Jesus .
Have yourself a man . Okay , sorry , and on that , note .
Thank you guys . We'll see you next week . Love you guys . Bye .