Blog 110 – 9.7.15

The Psalmist wrote, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD.” There are far more beautiful voices than mine. Three that come immediately to mind are Josh Groban, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion. And I am sure you could add many more. But I know a secret my daughter and her mother taught me. It is that the feeling, the passion, behind the song, touches the listener even more that a beautiful natural or trained singing voice.

As a young man I worked in a children’s church program and one of the kids’, and my own favorite parts was the singing together of choruses. One of the most popular was the “The Joy Of The Lord Is My Strength.”
If you have never heard it, it goes like this:

The joy of the Lord is my strength.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.

He fills my mouth with laughter I go ha ha ha.
He fills my mouth with laughter I go ha ha ha.
He fills my mouth with laughter I go ha ha ha.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.

If I can figure out how to attach a link I will sing it for you so you can get a real flavor for what a hoot this song can be. I lead the kids with such gusto they were cracking up laughing before the last chorus was half done. It worked the same way with adults in their church service. I believe there is great power in words to encourage or discourage, to heal or to stir up hatred to kill. But there is also power in music to soothe the savage beast or prod that beast to march to war with his brothers against his other brothers. Words and music together have a tremendous power to move the spirit within us.

I may have shared this story before but it is worth repeating. The first documented case of anyone retuning from the catatonic state, where one is so overwhelmed with mental problems that they are completely withdrawn from contact with this world, follows: A young man in a mental institution had been in this condition for many months when for no apparent reason he just snapped out of it and came to himself, was again in his right mind. When asked by the psychiatrists for his own explanation of the events he said that he believed that people in the catatonic state are so focused on one question that they shut all the world out to ponder it. He went on to say that he thought most conclude the answer to the question, “Am I Worth Anything?” is “No” and therefore never come back. In his case, he said, a chorus he had learned as a child helped him to say “Yes” to life and so he came back. That chorus was:

Jesus loves me.
This I know
For the Bible
Tells me so.

I believe to paraphrase the founders of the United States of America – we are endowed by our creator with the knowledge within us that we are loved and have self worth. Sadly we often listen to all the negative voices that tell us that we are worthless. You are worth it all. Jesus thought so, so did his Dad, our Dad, and so do I, and all your brothers and sisters, those on the other side of this life for sure. Oh, some of the preoccupied, sleeping, or half awake ones on this side may not realize yet your inestimable worth but they will and so my friend should you. You are a treasure.

Sing it loud with ole Blue Eyes, “I’ve got the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow, got the string around my finger… I’m so in love.” Not necessarily the romantic kind but right smack dab in the middle of LOVE. You don’t need to feel small at all for you, and I, we are the Center of the Universe.

One more song quote, The Carpenter’s this time:

Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud, sing out strong
Don’t worry that it’s not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

You friend and fellow traveler, Singer, at least joyful noise maker,
David White