Good day to you. Come on in and settle down. Breathe. I pray that this week hasn’t been kind to you…and even as I type that I know for many it hasn’t. For those who have tasted bitterness and defeat…you’re welcome here. In this place we all have a seat.
Take a moment to breathe and quiet down your mind. Are there any songs or melodies that float to the top of your soul? I have always been a person who easily responds to music. Melodies and harmonies float through the caverns of my soul and have done so since I was a child. I can remember Ella Fitzgerald and the way she would shape a note in ways that we cause my whole being to come alive. I can remember the way Coltrane would make me feel simply electric. Songs have the power to move us in all manner of ways. There was a soundtrack that played throughout my childhood that even to this day bring either a smile or a light frown to my face. Those songs tell a story of who I was and the man that I have become.
The songs we sing are important.
When I became a Christian in college I was greatly impacted by the musical library of Christians. Whether it was CCM or Black gospel songs, I was exposed to a range of songs that captured experiences that were alien to me at first. Alien, but in some ways…they called me home. I would weep for hours on end as I listened to music that spoke to the core of my very being. In this spirit I want to share a song within *my* story: Come Thou Fount.
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praiseTeach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming loveHere I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help I've come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at homeJesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
(Precious blood)Oh, that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I'll sing Thy sovereign graceCome my Lord, no longer tarry
Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless daysOh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to TheeProne to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts aboveHere's my heart
Oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
When I heard these words for the first time in church, although I did not understand the meaning fully, my heart shattered and I began to weep uncontrollably. When it reached the “prone to wander, Lord I feel it…” I was unconsolable. Even today, I find myself unable to sing that part without tearing up.
The songs that we sing tell a story. They have the ability to anchor us to who we have been and to who we will be. As we enter a new week…what is your song story? Do you have songs that you are consciously using to anchor yourself to rest and renewal going into this new week? I want to open the comments up to everyone even those who aren’t premium members in case you want to share. Bless you all.
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