Jeremy L. Berg

Now for something completely different. When my head is not up in the clouds thinking theological thoughts or mind engrossed in a biblical commentary, I am a huge music dude. I’m more right-brained than left, and I came across a YouTube channel last night while in a deep dive into classic MoTown performances. Truth be told, I listened to about 7 different performances of Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia.” That soulful song gets to me for some reason. (But the 70s backup dancer moves crack me up!)

Eventually my YouTube click-a-thon landed me at a young lady’s interesting channel RogueRxyce who does “Reaction videos.” The video I stumbled upon was her listening to Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds performing “Bartender” live. The “reaction” part is that she has never heard the song before, but it was recommended to her as life changing by a listener or follower of her channel.

So, you get to watch the performance on a split screen and see her real time emotional reaction to hearing it for the first time. She is SUPER emotional and very moved by music, and her channel seems to be about highlighting the power of music and celebrating moving songs together.

While she may be a bit over-emotional for some people’s taste, she seems genuine and real, and I was totally floored and in tears myself as we experienced this powerful performance of a deeply spiritual song by one of my all-time favorite artists. I can imagine her YouTube channel is “ministering” to many people who will never step into a church. She seems to have Christian roots but avoids Christian language in order to speak to a broader audience of spiritual seekers.

I think DM doesn’t get enough credit for how deep and spiritual his lyrics can get, because many (myself included) have tended to peg him as kind of a stoner frat boy type. But Dave Matthews is a spiritual wanderer and worth giving a closer listen to. Listen to his “Grey Street” for another “religious” song that never fails to send shivers down my spine.

Alright, so if you read this far, why don’t you go check out the video HERE and see what you think. I’m once again reminded of the power of music and the arts to connect with spiritual wanderers. After watching a few more videos, I went to bed tempted to push pause on the left-brain leaning Bible study I’m leading this winter, and instead pull out my guitar and sing, or watch some music videos together.

Listen to Dave HERE as he cries out to God over and over again “on bended knees”, grasping for grace, weighed down by a broken past, tempted by riches and fame, faced with the choice between two cups: 1) drinking the wine the Divine Bartender gave Jesus that led to life beyond the grave or 2) drinking the cup of shame and despair that led Judas to hang himself from the devil’s tree. Phew. Deep stuff. That’ll preach!

Is there a “secular” song that moves you spiritually to tears every time you hear it?