Many people make a big deal about New Year’s resolutions, with most resolutions based in trying to improve their physical, mental, and/or spiritual well-being.

Most people fail or give up on their resolutions in the first few weeks of January, so I don’t like to make a big deal about personal resolutions. I think one important thing I can do to boost my faith is changing the way I listen to music. I listen almost exclusively to Christian hip-hop and really enjoy hearing the cool new music.

As I described in a past blog, listening to music a lot can also be a problem. I’m not planning to take a fast from listening to music, but I do want to change the way I hear it. I want to focus on the word and message of the songs that I hear more than the beat and general sound of the song.

I think it is great that Christian hip-hop is improving in sonic quality, but I personally can be distracted from the words by thinking about how great the song sounds. It is definitely not a bad thing to listen to songs that make me want to bob my head or jump around, but I also need to listen to songs that provoke me to reflect on my faith. It is not a bad thing to have fun and turn up, but it’s a problem if that is all that music provokes us to do.

Many people want to be “great” in the new year, whatever part of life that may be in. We can take some advice from KB, who cleverly says in his song “Crazy:”

Wanna be great? Take the “e” and put it after the “t” and add full to it. Grateful.

Let’s listen to music that makes us grateful. When I first got into Christian hip-hop in the Summer of 2012, I loved listening to albums from the 00s by Reach Records artists, The Ambassador, Flame, and Da’ T.R.U.T.H. The lyrics were rich and faith filled, really encouraging me in my faith and telling me things about it that I was not familiar with. The new music of those artists is still great, but I want to go back and listen to the older songs that grounded me in my faith. They really made me thankful and grateful to God for sending Jesus to die for us, which is really what matters most.

I want to challenge people who are looking for things to change in 2015 that we can change the way we listen to music. The next time you listen to a Christian hip-hop song, I want you to reflect on the words of the song during and after you listen to it. I want you to think about how the message of the song can be present in your life. I don’t want to discourage artists from making great music, but I really think it can be helpful for people to listen to music where they will focus on the faith filled message.