Dick Clark’s American Bandstand aired Saturday afternoons after Tarzan swung from vine to vine. (Check out our Tarzan blog entitled Solid Rock.) We listened closely to the new songs that debuted.

Long before music videos or the commonality of people going to concerts, American Bandstand gave people a chance to watch musical groups perform. I chuckled when Dick Clark would gather a couple of dancers and ask them to rank a song and explain their thoughts.

Week after week songs received high marks. “It had a good beat. It was easy to dance to.” These words were repeated so often that my sisters and I often mocked the phrase as it rolled off the tongue of the various guests.

Bad Girls

One of the songs that had a great beat to dance to was Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls”. When that beat-bopping song was released in 1979, I was only 12 and Donna 13. When together, we sang along in hair brushes while dancing around. In those days, a person could not look up lyrics easily. In fact, like many others, we often made up our own lyrics that somewhat made sense. When we could not think of any words that fit, we just hummed or dropped out for a bit, dancing on.

Fast forwarding about 40 years later, Donna and I were indulging ourselves with Baskin Robbins ice creams, which is one of our favorite past times. We licked and laughed, listening to some oldies while in the car. Donna Summer’s Bad Girls began blurring. In a flash of realization I said, “Oh, my! I think those whistles were cops! Donna! What kind of bad girls are they?”

With the handy, dandy internet, we peered wide-eyed at the lyrics we had been singing all those years! 

While You Were Sleeping

Isn’t that the way it is with many things. We just go bebopping along, not truly realizing what we are saying and doing. Often we are oblivious to how our momentary lifestyle affects our current lives and its long-term consequences.

If you have read some of our blogs, you know how much we love music. I relate to lyrics and their melodies often. Over the Christmas Holidays I heard the Casting Crowns’ song, While You Were Sleeping. It tells of how the town Bethlehem had no room and slept through Jesus’ birth. The writers share about his death on the cross while so many did not pay attention to the magnitude of the event on the third day. The final two stanzas focus on America. The song claims the obvious misplacement of our attention. When the Groom comes for His bride so many will be ignorant to the depths of His love and sacrifice. 

Read and listen to the Word, for when you listen to the Word, you are listening to your God.

Listen Closely

January is the month when millions declare their commitment to their health. We vow to eat better and exercise more. Should we not want more than physical renewal? 

We should commit to listening closely to God’s word, not just hearing and enjoying it, like the beat of Donna Summer’s song. Our world is filled with noise, which makes it difficult to listen to what we need to focus on. Like our misunderstanding of Bad Girls‘ lyrics, we may not fully understand what we are hearing because we are not truly studying what is being said.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.