Now, I understand limiting the thumbs downs and skips, especially on the free end of the service. That's not what I have a problem with. What I take issue with is Pandora penalizing me when they try to expand my station. My wife thinks I'm crazy and OCD, but I have a radio/TV minor that's about as worthless as my journalism degree, and I've been a DJ. Music matters to me, as does flow and genre. I have extremely eclectic tastes, and I have 28 different stations on the account I use the most, all of which are various Christian or instrumental stations. When I shuffle it's an odd mix. From Electronica and instrumental film scores to Christian thrash, country, hip-hop, pop, 80s hair bands, praise, and more. But when I choose a single station, the music is unique and specific.
For example, the station I wanted to listen to this morning as I did my reading, praying and writing is an instrumental electric guitar station made up of music mostly like this:
Since the station was created I have quickly given a thumbs down to every single song that has come up on the station that has vocals. I don't care if the lyrics are good or bad, Christian or not. This is an instrumental station and vocals don't belong. Pandora wants to expand the music played on the station so if the station is on for more than a few songs it starts playing songs that have never played on the station before. That's cool, and it helps me have more songs that fit to enjoy. The problem is that when they do this, they are stretching the confines of what I want by taking some of the aspects used to create the station and utilizing them to pick music while ignoring other aspects, such as no vocals.
This is fine too. I could simply say no, thumbs down the song as a gentle that doesn't belong here, let's get back to what does kind of thing. It's not even that the music is always bad that I thumbs down either. Sometimes I add a song as a seed to a station it would be appropriate for and thumbs down it on the one it came on. My frustration with the app comes when instead of playing one song that doesn't fit, they follow the thumbs down with another song just like it, and another, and another. Then, after I use four or five thumbs down in a row, they tell me I can't skip any more songs for a length of time and the song I don't want to hear or that doesn't belong on that particular station continues to play. At which point I change stations or switch to iHeart or do what I did this morning, which was to find what I want, in this case the entire Joe Satriani -Unstoppable Momentum album, on You Tube and not use Pandora for a while. I will not be forced to listen to what doesn't belong.
Something a little different happened this morning though. After the fourth song that didn't belong began to play and I gave it the thumbs down in about five seconds, a little note popped up on the screen. It went something like this: Not loving this station? Try another and find more music to enjoy. I laughed and told Leah. Now that may not be a direct quote, as I am going by memory of something I saw once for a few seconds and didn't write down because I didn't realize at the time that it was my morning inspiration. Still, you get the gist, Dear Reader. Pandora was acting like I didn't love a station that I created and urged me to do something different. Then, it played a great song that fit perfectly, the above Joe Satriani, which I gave a thumbs up to let Pandora know, yes, this is what I want played here. Then it played some pretty good electronica that belonged on another station because it had no guitar, I did the thumbs down while debating about adding the song as a seed to my instrumental electronica station, Pandora told me I couldn't skip for a while, and I shut it down and went to You Tube.
Thank you for sticking with me thus far, Dear Reader. There is a point. This does have a spiritual point. We are like Pandora. Think about how ridiculous that little pop up was. Not loving this station? Believe me, I love the station. If I didn't I wouldn't have made it. But I made it with a purpose, to play instrumental electric guitar. It can vary some, from jazzy, to hardcore metal, to rock, and even some classical sounding music. But it has to have electric guitar, and it can't have vocals. When it does play something that doesn't fit, I thumbs down what was played. No. That doesn't belong. I don't like that, or I like that but not for this station. Never does it make me frustrated with or not like my station. I love my station. I get frustrated with Pandora for not being able to realize that if I have given a thumbs down to every song with vocals in less than five seconds after the vocals appeared in the song, that perhaps it should quite playing songs with vocals on the station and making me waste my thumb downs.
And so it is with us. We decide to throw our will and our choices and our control into the mix of our life, and God says No, thumbs down, that doesn't belong here. It may not even be bad, but it's not appropriate for what we were created for. Instead of going, oh OK, whatever You want will be great Daddy, we continue to try to force our will into the mix. After a few thumbs downs from Daddy we start moaning about how God doesn't love us. Ridiculous! He loves you, and He loves me, a lot more than I love instrumental metal and electric guitar. He created us, and He wouldn't have if He didn't want to hear and see us play. He loves us and wants relationship with us. But He doesn't like how we try to expand the parameters of what we were made for. He doesn't love our selfish choices. Those He gives a thumbs down, quickly, as many times as it takes to finally make us see what doesn't belong on the station of our life.
It doesn't mean He isn't loving us. In fact, it's the opposite. He loves us enough to want us to be the best us we can be. It doesn't mean He is going to cut us loose and try something else He may like better. He doesn't want to move on from me or from you. But, if we refuse to submit to His will and care for us, if we demand that He has no right to control what plays on our hearts, He will step back and give us a break. It's not punishment. It's not an unloving act. It saddens Him. He wanted to listen to the music of our lives and spend time with us. But He will let us freely choose to be His or not, and if we choose not, He will wait until our period of saying He can't choose to remove things and add things is over. When we're ready to say Your will not our's be done, when we turn back to Him, He is quick to listen. When we are with Him, and when we are out there playing the prodigal, in both cases and everything in between, when He loves what we are doing and when He refuses to listen to the crap we are calling the music of our own choosing, never doubt His love. He wants nothing more than to interact and be with us. He wanted it enough that Jesus died to make it happen. And when we let the Spirit choose and control the music of our lives, fully and completely, we become a unique and wonderful reflection of Him, of His love, glory, power and way of life to others.
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