My mom has said that when I was a kid I went through a phase when I sang everything. "May I have another hot dog, please?" was not spoken. It was sung, with gusto :) While I don't remember doing this, I'm not at all surprised. I love to sing. It's a large part of who I am and how God has wired me to experience life. Singing is a vital way I express myself. And I hum too. In fact, I think I hum more than I sing. I cannot tell how many times I've been humming without even knowing it and heard someone ask, "Who's humming?" only to discover it was me. It's so ingrained in me that I do it without even knowing I've started.
Several years ago, while we were in college at Bethel, there was a speaker at Chapel who was also a talented musician and he mentioned Psalm 96:1, "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." He said this verse could literally mean that we should create new songs to sing to the Lord, or it could mean that we sing any song that already exists with a new heart, new understanding, new purpose, etc. At the time this seemed incredibly profound to me, yet this happens all the time. How many times have I discovered new meaning in lyrics, or been moved by a melody that hadn't moved me before, or felt like a song was written just for me the first time I heard it? Countless times.
All this is to say, I love singing. I sing by myself and to myself. I sing to Eli and to Caleb. And I sing to the Lord. It is an essential aspect of my relationship with Him. He's created me to love singing, and to love singing for and to Him.
There are two songs that have recently been pressed on my heart. I've found myself singing and humming them quite a lot. The first is one that we discovered about a year ago and I can't resist sharing it with you. It's called "How Can I Keep From Singing?" which is rather appropriate to the topic of this blog post. This particular rendition makes me weak at the knees. Whenever I hear it I have to stop whatever I'm doing and soak it in, relishing the Celtic-sounding acapella voice that lingers in the air long after it has stopped. I love this song. I love hearing it and I love singing it.
Just this morning another song was pressed on my heart. I was driving to Target and flipping through radio stations when I heard the local Christian station saying a prayer for the victims of the horrific tornado that destroyed Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. My heart has been broken since hearing the news, unable to imagine the shock and devastation felt by that entire community. I've been particularly aware of it since my twin sister lives in Oklahoma, just a 40-minute drive from Moore. Thank God they are perfectly fine where they are, but I am reminded that they live in a dangerous place. I've prayed for their protection many times since they moved there - Oklahoma has many dangers, including tornadoes, of course, but also scorpions, black widow spiders, and brown recluse spiders which sometimes make it into my sister's house and are discovered by my young niece and nephew (I've also prayed many times against them getting stung/bitten).
Oklahoma has its perils, as most everywhere does, but we're reminded this week of the danger of living in Tornado Alley. After praying for the people in Moore, the local Christian radio station played this song, "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman. I thought how appropriate it was. "Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes." I sang along as if this was a new song, like Psalm 96:1 suggests, and let my heart sing to the Lord in the midst of this tragedy that is causing incredible pain to so many people. My prayer for the people who are suffering is that, somehow, when the evening comes (whatever that means for them) they will be able to sing. Sing a new song to the Lord. Let your heart cry out, let your heart grieve, let your heart mourn, let your heart rejoice. Whatever is waiting for these people in the evening, I pray they will be able to sing, especially those who are wired to love singing like I am.
I know these two songs will be sung from my lips and hummed from my throat in the following days. I'm so grateful for the gift of song. What would this world be without singing?
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