December 29
But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. (C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” pg. 226)
Good morning friends and family! The countdown to the new year continues with the countdown to my favorite Christian Music of 2022.
Mrs. Z and I were discussing yesterday how the Christian Music world is going to have a tough time topping this year’s releases. Probably the most surprising of this amazing spectrum of sound were the debut albums that were simply phenomenal. Among my favorite releases was Ben Fuller’s debut album “Who I Am”. Pop, rock, and a little country are all accurate sub genres to describe the blend of sound on Mr. Fuller’s compilation.
Another very eclectic blend of music came from Benjamin William Hastings self titled album. Mr. Hastings hails from Hillsong United fame and his massive 25 track collection has some moving pieces. One of my favorites was his anthem to his daughter called “A Father’s Blessing”.
While these two gentlemen led the way for the fellas, it was really the women who stole the show in 2022. Tasha Layton released her powerful ballads of songs with tracks like “Into the Sea” and “Look What You’ve Done”.
Brooke Ligertwood, who’s serene voice had been part of Hillsong Worship for years, released her first solo work. While every song on Ms. Ligertwood’s album is solid, “Honey In The Rock” became one of our anthems for this year.
But hands down, the champion, debut artist for 2022 was Ms. Anne Wilson. Ms. Wilson took the Christian Music world by storm in 2020 when she released “My Jesus”. That beautifully written poem about the truth of who Jesus is ruled the airwaves of Christian Radio for two years as Ms. Wilson finished up her full-album of the same name. From fast, toe-tappers like “Scatter”, “Devil”, and “God Thing”, to the slower, sweeter melodies of “Mamas”, “No Place Like Home”, and “Closer to God”; my favorite song from that album, and my number three song for the year is the one posted below. Click and enjoy!
Common Sense Reborn 