Hymnal of our Soul Part 5

 

Robert Frost once said, “A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness.” The same could be said for the hymnal that hums and hovers within each of us.  The music that is repeating and replaying on a loop in the cobwebbed corners of your soul.  Some of the hymns call you back to meaningful memories of your life while others evoke and provoke so many emotions.  The melodies have the power to transport you back to that moment when the harmony first tugged at your heartstrings and embedded the notes inside you.  Last week I asked you to begin to make a list of your favorite hymns.  I encouraged you to think about Christmas Carols, camp songs, and what you learned in the cherub church choir.  Or to think about the words you sang at your mother’s funeral with tears streaming down your face maybe you sang, “Great is your faithfulness.  Great is your faithfulness.  Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed your hand has provided.  Great is your faithfulness, God unto me.”

 

I asked you to read the words of some of the hymns humming in you.  For example, the words above can be on the one hand about the faithfulness and dedication to the church of people you have known and even your own expanding/evolving faith.  But on the other hand, the hymn above could be read about God’s faithfulness.  Wait, how often do we think that God has as much faith in us as we have in God?  Or maybe God has more faith in us?!?  Re-read that line above and take the word, morning.  Is there a new mercy you perceive this morning ~ a way God showed up disguised as your life alongside your bowl of oatmeal.  Or consider how the word, “morning” sounds like, “mourning.”  Has there ever been a time in your life when through blurry tears of heartbreak and soul ache you “saw” new mercies, what can be called, a “bright sadness”?  Or to quote Jesus, “Blessed are those who mourn.”  Grief gives us a particular insight that none of us ever want, but a perspective that can change everything. 

 

This is one refrain from one hymn.  Today, I invite you to return to your list from last week.  You may want to keep adding more music and melodies that you are discovering in the hymnal of your heart.  Today, pick one hymn and slowly/prayerfully read the words.  Let each syllable sing, settle, and stir your soul.  Name and notice what is provoked and perceived as you do this.  For example, “Precious Lord, take my hand.”  Pause to hold out your hands and imagine Jesus taking your hands ~ feel the sensation.  How does the sacred hand feel to you?  Is there a warmth, is a weathered-ness to the Holy’s hand?  Is the Holy’s hand soft or rough with creativity?  Is God’s hand splattered with splotches of paint from continued creation?  Is God’s hand one color of skin or all the shades human hands come in?  Let your hand be held by the Holy.  Breathe and be.  Then, keep singing with me, “Lead me on, help me stand.”  Pause to ponder where do you feel lost and in need of God’s GPS (turn-by-turn navigation) right now to lead you.  I am thinking about our search for a new Director of Music.  I am singing, “Lead us O God…” because honestly, I don’t know what will happen as we prepare to post the job description.  Where am I needing God to be the rock that helps steady me as I stand or a stability for me to lean upon?  I think of the Irish saying, “You are the place where I stand on the day when my feet are sore.”  Continue singing with me, “I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.  Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light.  Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home.”  Let all the exhaustion of life be released and rest in God.  Relinquish the responsibility, for a few fleeting moments, that you don’t have to put on a cape and be Superman and Wonder Woman to save the day.  You are called to be you, with all your fabulous foibles.  And may you today find meaningful ways to embrace and embody this line from the hymn, The Summons, “love the you, you hide when God calls your name.”  May you and I keep listening and learning from the holy hymnal that lives inside each of us.  Amen.