Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Singing with your mind too.

If you could see where Jesus brought me from, and where I am today, then you would know the reason why I love Him so. From "It's My Desire"


I've always loved that line from the song "It's my desire" It's the best part of the entire song, though the verses have great words as well.


Maybe I'm just too much of a hanger-oner, but I've got a lot of picture memories locked inside my head. As I sing "If you could see where Jesus brought me from" I can close my eyes and easily remember the countless times I would drive home from church, park in my driveway and then simply lean against the steering wheel and cry because I just couldn't get what everyone else seemed to have.

When I sing "Amazing Grace", every time I get to the verse that mentions "through many dangers toils and snares, we have already come" I can close my eyes and remember walking through the airport corridor on September 10th, 2001 unable to make my flight to Buffalo NY, where I would have been stranded for quite some time.

When I sing "When I think about the Lord" and I get to the line "how He filled me with the Holy Ghost" I remember driving in my car, on the way back from foster parent training and beginning to sing in the Holy Spirit - my very first step into tongues.

So many songs that I sing, have me thinking to myself through much of the song. From "At Calvary" I can't sing "Years I spent in vanity and pride caring not my Lord was crucified" without nodding to myself and saying what a jerk I was back then.

From "Look what the Lord has done" I can't sing "He saved me just in time" without thinking of the many times I thought about giving up on life.

I guess that's why I'm so into music. Music, the words, mean something. Sure they were put there because of the rhyme, or because they fit timing-wise, but they still mean something. The words are not meant to just be sung. The words have already been lived and now they're just meant to be remembered".

No one ever just looks at a photograph and doesn't connect themselves mentally to "that's my uncle bob" or "just after Joe took that picture, Jane sneezed so hard her glasses fell off"
Photos help you relive moments that you might have forgotten about. They bring back details or who was there, or what the place looked like, or how sparse the Christmas tree used to be when you were only 4.

That's exactly what music can do for you too.

When I sing those words "If you could see where Jesus brought me from" and I remember the feeling of just not being able to grasp onto God, of not getting what every other Christian 'got', the hopelessness and futility of trying to be accepted by a God that I could only assume had gotten tired of me and my sinful self - I can't help but shake with utter relief as I reach the words "Then you would know, the reason why I love Him so."

Sing. Live. Relive. Glorify Him.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

this was really good to read.

SLW said...

Nice.

That's why I try to incorporate songs that are meaningful to the folks in the congregation in our worship sets. If I know there's a song that really means something to someone, I'll try to fit it in as the Spirit leads. Old, newer, hymn, contempory, if it's meaningful to, and moves this one or that one, we try to get it in (even though I often don't like it myself).

Flyawaynet said...

Why thank you Nancy.

Flyawaynet said...

SLW, that's why I've gotten more and more careful about taking diggs at some things. Whether it's a speaker, or style of music, or anything.
I've got several things that I enjoy, that some Christians would declare utterly unholy.
I can't be 100% sure they're wrong about my moments, and be 100% sure I'm right about yours. :)

Once Was Lost said...

two of mine...

can barely get out the words "How marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be..." without being overwhelmed by so many things (good though)

and "Lest I forget Your love for me, lead me to.." can't be uttered without remembering how often I have forgotten and how bad it can be, but at the same time, remembering the 'love for me'!

Flyawaynet said...

That "How Marvelous" is one of my favorites as well, it's a song that it should be a sin to sing without your hands raised.
The second one you listed I'm not familiar with? It sounds familiar but I can't place it.
Come back sometime wtih a link wouldja!

Flyawaynet said...

And thanks for sharing your songs btw "Credible Source" I wish more people had.

*nudge nudge*

SLW said...

Jeanette,
You might find this interesting.

Some favs of mine
"The Church's One Foundation"
"There Is A Fountain"

Flyawaynet said...

SLW, thanks for the link. It especially caught my attention when just a few lines into the article I read a line nearly identical to what I wrote in this post.
I agreed, and disagreed with what he said. If you went through and read the comments, I thought Rosa was dead on.
Thanks for the songs - I hadn't heard the first hymn. I'll have to google it to find the words/melody.