FreeStylin'

A headline this week highlighted an NBA star doing a freestyle rap song...or whatever that would be called. Freestyling is when a rapper makes up his song (or whatever) as he goes. It seems to be cool when a rapper can do this turning rhymes and staying in rhythm.

When you say "freestylin'" you'll probably get responses relating to rap music...or whatever.

Have you ever heard of Mac Davis? He's known for writing and recording songs like "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me," "Oh Lord, It's Hard to be Humble," and "Stop and Smell the Roses." Before his own recording career, he wrote hits for Elvis (yes, Presley). Do you remember, "Memories" and "In the Ghetto"? Those were written by Mac Davis.

What I most remember about Mac Davis was his variety show that aired on TV in the mid-70s. And my favorite part of the show was when he would sit on a barstool at center stage taking song ideas from the crowd. He'd hear an idea he liked and then sing a song about it. He made them up on the spot. Freestylin' before freestylin' was cool (if I may adapt a line from a Barbara Mandrell song).

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. I'm pretty sure he was not thinking about 20th and 21st Century artists (although the Holy Spirit surely was) but that points out a truth regarding scripture. God's Word is relevant today and still speaks into our lives. We don't have to make up life as we go and figure out if there is a God or who he is, we have a guide that tells us who God is, what he is like, and how we can know him and please him.

I don't really care whether you are impressed with today's rappers or yesterday's balladeers. But I want you to be impressed with God the way I am. Styles of music - and virtually everything else - change, but God is always the same.