Preparing for a midweek service often gives me time to unwind by myself in the church building. I have no church office, so the auditorium is where I get my mind, heart, and spirit in tune with the purpose of the day. Often, I do it with songs. I remember old hymnals from childhood days, where we all sang together with the words and music in our hands. No slides on the wall. No choreographed worship team. Just me, us, our voices, lifted in song to tell the old, old story.
Now, my voice is strong, but my hearing is imperfect. I struggle with keys, chords, notes, well, you name it. Singing is not my forte. Someone asked me what “part” did I sing; I said, “Mostly loud.” Not sure how to define baritone, tenor, alto, soprano. Just let me sing the melody. Something about my deeper voice fits me to a “T,” and I’m happy it’s not my focus.
Recently, while I was preparing for Wednesday night at church, songs about heaven started humming under my breath. I felt so sad that most younger folks will never be able to sing and worship with these songs, but I hear my grandmother singing them. My parents, and my siblings, in the car headed for some distant place…yep, these were songs of our youth, with the hymnal in hand, and then without as these songs imprinted on my heart.
In a way too many younger folks will not comprehend, I sang about Heaven. Sweet home of the happy and free. How beautiful heaven must be! What a day that will be someday when we are with Jesus and loved ones who have gone before. In the sweet bye and bye, we shall rest on that beautiful shore! It will be then that the family circle will reunite…not just one circle, but linked chains of our family tree going back for generations.
It’s Wednesday
My body was weary. Somewhere, I know my mind was feeling the stress of living through a pandemic. My soul felt like surely we must be getting closer than ever before. One of these days and it won’t be long… Some glad morning we shall see! Jesus in the air! Joy, what joy!
Before you knew it, tears began to flow. My voice choked up, and hardly a word could make itself heard. There was a silence that I could only feel and a renewal that lifted my heart to heaven. Thankful.
With prayers and worship completed (Prayers Never Stop), I could turn my mind back to the bible study I would soon present. Strength flowed through my thoughts! It’s mid-week Bible Study night!
Singing With Others, Not To Them
This takes me down the path of wondering about those who sang in the Bible. Jesus and Paul are two that come to mind. (Click here to read) Would that not have been the thing to participate in! Well. Maybe. Jesus sang with his followers at the Last Supper, the Passover commemorating Israels’ victory over Egypt. – the last time he would sing before the cross. Paul sang from behind prison bars during trying times, but his worship helped lead captive free.
If it was important to them, then it should be important to us!
Maybe this is what we miss the most. Casual singing that is not organized events. I remember going to family and friends’ houses, and before long, someone sat down at the piano and began to sing old songs. For hours we gathered and sang, except us kids, of course. We were coming in, going out, joining here, playing there. But the memories of those days are an excellent source of comfort.
“Words make you think.
Music makes you feel.
A song makes you feel a thought.”
~E.Y. Harburg
For me, scripture makes me think, and music makes me feel, so a scripture song makes me feel the thought.
How about you? What song makes you really feel the words?