The Hymnal that Hums in our Soul Part 2

 

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentations;

I hear the real though far off hymn that hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging;

While love is Lord o’er heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing.

 

I love the rhetorical question this hymn asks, “How can we keep from singing?”  Because, the truth is, we can’t.  This isn’t saying that we sing beautifully or will be asked to cut a record going on to fame and fortune.  Singing, like all art, is meant to shine a light on the ineffable.  Singing is about giving in to that which is both within us and around us.  The final verse of Richard Gillard’s Won’t You Let Me Be Your Servant preaches and proclaims, “When we sing to God in heaven, we shall such harmony, born of all we’ve known together, of God’s love and agony.”  Music will evoke something within that is bigger than our own individual and isolated story. 

 

What hymns did you write down yesterday?  Maybe you found typing into Google fragmented verses where you could only remember every other word.  I pray you found that title.  If not, ask someone else.  What Christmas Carols, camp songs, hymns that stir emotions within you began to surface?  Because hymns are art, music in church will stir different sensations in each of us.  Some people can’t get enough of “Immortal, Invisible God only Wise.”  Others of you are thinking, who is that person?  For the record, I do enjoy that hymn!  Other readers long for a certain category of church music.  Others find meaning in chant or repeated refrains that are part of Taizé music.  Still others are an eclectic mix of eccentric titles that break down barriers between centuries and country of origin and race and religious understanding.  Today, keep expanding your list to let your soul roam through the soundtrack of your life that has nourished and nurtured your faith this far.