Raise Your Voice in Song

September 8, 2008 at 5:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Sunday as we were sitting in the fellowship hall for our untraditional worship service/study hour, an amazing thing happened: My oldest son actually shared a hymnal with me and sang #499, “Lord, speak to me.” I’m the kind of parent that doesn’t want my kids to do things without meaning. While I told my son I loved him many times each day, I never said, “tell mommy you love her.” It wasn’t until he was 2 years old and sitting with his brand new baby brother that I heard him say, “I love you, baby brother.” It’s been the same with hymn sings. I don’t want to force him to sing. I want him to sing when he can do it with meaning. I’ve tried to hold out the hymnal to share it with him. I’ve told him he would be welcome to join us in singing. But it wasn’t until today I actually ever heard him sing a hymn in church. Given that he’s 11, it’s been a long time coming. It happened on an interesting Sunday. One might say it was thematic. Later in the service Pastor Doug played some songs from The Yurt Folks (a group from N. Manchester, Indiana). One song was entitled Anybody Can Sing, and the other was Three Tone Deaf Mice. The message was that everyone should feel free to raise their voice in song. Darlene V. spoke at one point and told us how her mother never sang out loud in church, but always lipped the songs. She’d been told as a child that she couldn’t carry a tune and thus she should just move her lips. Darlene said her mom told her, “I know I can sing, because I sing in my heart.” I’m glad we are part of a fellowship that encourages people to sing in their hearts AND with their voices, no matter how polished we are. I still remember the church I grew up in, the thing I liked most was the music. And that wasn’t because we had lots of great voices. It was because everyone could sing (and sing loudly) if they desired. Sometimes they weren’t even singing the right words. Many time they were probably off key. But there was something about us all singing together that sounded great to me. Hope is one of the first churches I’ve attended as an adult that sounds as good to me as that church I grew up in. I’m glad Tristen is beginning to join us as we sing.

Permalink