DEVOTIONAL SONG REVIEW: The Realest Things

 

Aryn Michelle‘s journey to music began as so many artists do: singing in church. Aryn explored multiple different aspects of the music industry before deciding that, more than anything, she wanted to go wherever God would lead her. The result was her debut album Depth, which featured the standout songs “Do the Same” and “Nothing Else Matters.” 

 

Sophomore release The Realest Thing is a concept album inspired by the Christian apologetics book Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig. Each of the songs on the project focuses on a different philosophical argument for the existence of God and evidences for Jesus Christ as His Son. The album picks up with Aryn’s desire to provide words for believers to sing about our Lord, to edify and build up believers with her anointed voice and transparent faith. In that way, opening song “The Realest Things” reflects her heartbeat to sing about the attributes and arguments for the existence of God and make an offering of praise to Him. I had the chance to speak with Aryn about “The Realest Things.”

 

 

The project is a concept album inspired by the book Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig. He walks through several philosophical arguments for the existence of God and the primary evidences for Jesus Christ as His Son. I went through this period in my life where I felt like I wanted to intellectually give better reasons for my faith. To start with, I think the most powerful testimony in our lives is the work of the Holy Spirit. I’m not saying that people need to know more facts or fancy words to defend their faith. 

 

I started reading lots of books, and I liked the philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Each of the songs on this album aspires to encapsulate these arguments in a memorable way so that people of faith can have a song in their heart to correspond to the reasoning in their head. For this song, the lyric line to help remember the argument is “if something could be greater than God, it would be God.”

 

This song is based on an ontological argument, which is a philosophical argument for the existence of God that uses ontology, the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality, or what reality is. This song primarily deals with the specific argument formulated by Anselm of Canterbury. He defines God as that which nothing greater can be thought. In the book, Dr. Craig says, “Which is greater: the artist’s idea of the painting or the painting itself as it really exists? Obviously the latter, for the painting itself not only exists in the artist’s mind, but in reality as well. Similarly, if God existed only in the mind, then something greater than Him could be conceived, namely, His existing not only in the mind, but in reality as well.” That’s why the song begins with “I’ve got a picture in my mind, I wanna make it come to life.“

 

 

Hebrews 11:6 (ESV): “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

 

Hebrews 11:1 (NLT): “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV): “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

 

Romans 4:3 (NLT): For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

 

Isaiah 40:7-8 (NASB): “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”

 

Matthew 5:18 (NASB): “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

 

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT): “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.”

 

 

I was reading Plato’s theories of forms, that non-physical things have an essence that is a truer reality than individual objects. There is an essence of a dog, and we all understand that picture without any one individual dog defining the essence of a dog. In the same way, there are these things we know to be God and we know to exist that are beautiful, like a sunset or a piece of music. Each of those has a piece of beauty and an essence of beauty. Also, there is hope, love, truth and peace, and God is the greatest culmination of all of those good things. 

 

In the chorus I talk about how I could lose all the physical things, but I would still have hope and love and peace. Those are the most real, or the realest things. We used the word “realest” as a play on words, because most people think of the word “realist” as being practical. The realest things which have the essence of being real are the things we live and die for. The greatest culmination of those things is God. He is the greatest One, beyond what we can conceive. 

 

When people listen to the song, you can go learn more from researching the arguments on my website. “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” He has given us a peace and hope and love that is everlasting and can’t be taken away. Those things exist. When the world is crashing around us, we can look to God, who is greater than any definition of what is good. He has given us truth and beauty and goodness and love that we can hold onto. Whether we lack finances or have health issues or whatever pain we are dealing with in this world, we still have the realest things that we can believe in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my first listen, I was totally captivated by this album. I’m really engaged by Aryn’s emotional vocals and the deep, prayerful lyrics. For me, Aryn brings sincerity and relatable themes that get deeper with each listen. There are no filler tracks, and this is easily one of my top “gourmet” albums of the year. Every song will have you hanging on each word that Aryn tenderly sings. Her vocals will soothe your soul, and the vertical lyrics will direct your attention and focus on Jesus. These are truly poignant songs of adoration about “The Realest Things”–Jesus Christ and “The Story of Redemption.” The thread of God’s sovereignty runs through every song.

 

Abraham chose to walk by faith and not by sight, and God credited that to him as righteousness. Righteousness comes from faith in the unseen, like Abraham displayed in the Bible. If you think about the type of faith we are called to have as believers, it is described as the faith of a mustard seed. Faith requires people to rely on the unseen. The beauty of walking by faith and not by sight is that we can learn to more fully trust God with our lives. Look for ways to obey God and to offer your faith to Him.

 

This song reminds me that we need to have that type of faith that Jesus describes in the Bible: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The key as a follower of Jesus is to walk by faith and to be guided in your daily walk by prayer and God’s infallible Word, the Bible. “The Realest Things” challenges, “if something could be greater than God, it would be God.” This song invites listeners to contemplate that “maybe the realest things are things like hope and love and peace, the realest things are things you believe.” Amen to that!