Unconventional Love Letters from God – Capital Letters

I learnt last year that everyone is born with the ability to sing. But, like any other skill, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I feel like this says something pretty profound about the way God created us, and how we’re to use our voices to worship Him. The Bible is filled with examples of people praising God with singing and dancing, and prophecies of how we’ll be singing His praises when Jesus returns and the new heaven and earth are created. 

I love music. I love singing, and I love dancing. I love all sorts of music also, with my iTunes library holding music from gospel to classic, reggae to soul, pop to RnB, hip hop to alternative (really, the only types of music I don’t like are very heavy metal and country).  

The high school I attended in New Zealand, St Mary’s College, has a very strong musical heritage with opera singers Dames Kiri Te Kanawa and Malvina Major both trained there. All Year 7 and 8 students at St Mary’s are assigned a musical instrument to play and must sing in the choir. Instruments are assigned based on a student’s musicality, which is tested through an exam all new students sit on their orientation day. When I first started, I remember the Head of Music calling my parents to let them know I had been assigned the oboe because my musicality was ranked high (and apparently the oboe is one of the most difficult instruments to play). Learning that helped me understand why I loved music so much – it was no longer just an emotional and physical response, but an intellectual one as well. 

Music moves me, deep down into my bones. Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not the most talented or skilled musician – far from it. What I mean is that music brings me a deep joy. The Bible says God created our inmost being; that He knit us together in our mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13). I think God knitted this love of music into my being, as a way of bringing me closer to Him. 

I will often listen to a song and have a visceral feeling that God is talking to me through it, even if it isn’t a specifically written worship song. I call them my unconventional love letters from God. 

One such song is Capital Letters by Hailee Steinfeld. Alright, I know what you’re thinking – that song from the 50 shades of gray movie?! Don’t worry – I’ve never seen the movie nor read the books and am not interested in them at all. But God speaks to me through that song (bar that bizarre line about getting drunk). Didn’t I tell you they were unconventional love letters? 

Capital Letters – Hailee Steinfeld

God Sees You

Verse 1 
Never was a leader 
Never had a thing for fairytales 
Not really a believer, oh-oh 
Small voice in the quiet 
Guess I never dared to know myself 
Can my heart beat quiet? No 

We’re all searching for meaning in this great big world and universe of ours. With over 7 billion people on the earth, sometimes it can be hard to feel seen or discern your place in the world. And the sheer vastness of the universe makes it hard to believe there could be some sort of order or grand plan. Just like Hailee Steinfeld sings, sometimes the idea of a creator-God of the universe seeing, knowing and loving us can seem a thing of fairytales – hard to believe. Even crazier to think that God so dared to love us, and to know us, that He put in place the ultimate rescue plan for us. 

God Rescues You

Bridge 
But then there was you (but then there was you) 
Yeah, then there was you 
Pull me out of the crowd 
You were telling the truth (you were telling the truth) 
Yeah (yeah, yeah) 
I got something to say now 
‘Cause you tell me that there’s no way I couldn’t go 
Nothing I couldn’t do 
Yeah 

BUT THEN! Yep, that rescue plan came on through in the form of Jesus. Then there was You – Jesus. He pulls us out of the crowd, He calls us worthy, He is literally the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).  Through Him, we find our truth and are reconciled back into relationship with Him. He loves us unconditionally, He sees us, and He calls us to find our identity in Him – an identity characterised by being His. There’s nothing we can’t do through Him (Philippians 4:13), and by virtue of His love, our lives take on an infinite purpose –  to be in relationship with Him, and to share His love and glorify Him – He literally gives us something to say. 

God Commits You to a Higher Life

Chorus 
I want to get louder 
I got to get louder 
We ’bout to go up baby, up we go 
We ’bout to go up baby, up we go 
We’re blowing out speakers 
Our heart a little clearer 
We ’bout to go up baby, up we go 
We ’bout to go up baby, up we go 
For worse or for better 
Gonna give it to you 
In capital letters 

When you know the love of God, He calls you into an extraordinary life. And by extraordinary, I don’t mean becoming famous. I mean the quiet sort of revolutionary life that is characterised by knowing that you are enough, that you are destined for more than the earthly realm, and that you need to share this love. Your life takes on a quiet air of confidence. You no longer need the approval of this world – that job, that boy, that friend, that house – no more keeping up with the Joneses. No, this doesn’t mean you won’t face trials or tribulation – Jesus specifically tells us we will (John 16:33) – but it does mean that Jesus has already overcome them! It means that while we experience difficulties, we have an inner peace (John 14:27), a joy that cannot be tarnished by external circumstances (Psalm 16:11). Our hearts are a little clearer, and we know, for worse or for better, that He is Faithful (Hebrews 10: 19-24). This prompts a heart response that declares commitment in capital letters, thankfulness that blows out speakers. 

God Gives You a Message

Verse 2 
We put a crack in the shadows 
And you tell me it’s okay to be the light 
And not to swim in the shallows 
No, no 
When we lie so still, but you’re taking me places 
Holding me onto you 

John 1 tells us that in Jesus was life, the life that is the light of mankind. Jesus shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. Jesus is the true light that gives light to everyone. And to those who accept and receive Jesus, He gives the right to become children of God – born of God. In Matthew 5, Jesus then passes that light on to us, calling us the light of the world. He doesn’t want us to swim in the shallows – instead we are called to let our light shine before others, so that the world will see our deeds – see our changed lives – and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14 – 16). We don’t have to be shy – Jesus encourages and tells us that we can be bold in living our lives for Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (in the Message version) says there is now nothing between us and God; we are transfigured, our lives becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him. His Spirit literally takes us places, holds us close and transforms us according to His will. Jesus tells us in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches. If we remain in Him, and He in us, we bear fruit – apart from Him we can do nothing. He tells us that it is to His Father’s glory that we are abundantly fruitful, showing ourselves to be His disciples.  

The Greatest Love Story

You know, I’ve found since being married that I’m able to understand God’s love just a little bit better. It’s unsurprising now that the Bible so often talks of the relationship between us and God as a marriage – describing the Church as the Bride of Christ. It’s no wonder to me that love songs are so perennially popular – they speak to that deeper part of us that’s actually yearning for the most important love story of all – our love story with Jesus.  

So maybe that’s why I hear God speak to me so clearly in Capital Letters. It’s a little strange, I know, given the circumstances that begat the song. But if there’s one thing the Bible has taught me, it’s that Jesus uses the strange to speak into our lives.  

Over to you – have you heard God speak to you through a song, or something else unusual? And if you don’t think you have heard God speaking to you, maybe try being open to His words in an unusual format or medium – you never know what He may use for His purposes.