House of Blues

Blues is not the opposite of Praise music, it is its counterpart.

Praise is an acknowledgement of the divine reality that God is, that He is great and holy, that He is high above us and that He is perfect. It looks forward to tomorrow and says, "I can't wait for the day when there will be no lonliness, or pain, or hurt."

Blues is an acknowledgement of the human condition as it really is, that we are hurt and broken, that we are low and downtrodden, that we are imperfect. It looks at the day we are in and says, "I sure hope it gets better than this."

In acknowledging the reality of the human conditions, in many ways, Blues is more christian than "christian music" is. Because only when we figure out where we are can we begin to move forward.

Blues is great music, but not if you believe all of it. If you really believe that the future won't get any better and that this is all there is it can be downright depressing. But, when you couple it with the knowledge that something better, indeed something unfathomably better, is coming from God it grounds us to reality reminding us just how great God's gifts to us are.

This is why you will find Blues music side by side with praise music during our current "House of Blues: finding hope when life sucks" series at NLC. See you there.