Singing as an act of love

Human beings are singing, musical beings. Our heart and breath pulse in time. Our bodies respond to sonic frequencies. Created in the image of our musical God, music helps us tell and hear the whole truth. Music helps us be what God means for us to be – agents of God’s love in this world.
 
Several times this fall, I have found myself again in awe of the power of singing together.  It is a profound and holy thing when poetry, melody, and the breath of God’s people unite. Singing together is an act of love. It requires courage because nobody sings perfectly, and humility because we all make mistakes. When we sing imperfectly and make ourselves vulnerable, we are declaring to ourselves and those around us, we are worthy of love just as God created us.
 
Dr. Henry Knight, Professor of Wesleyan studies at St. Paul’s School of Theology, writes about our hymnody being more than just doctrine and theology that direct us to God. Our hymnody is “a means to encounter the realities to which they point. They not only teach us about God, they enable us to experience God. In this way they are analogous to prayer, proclamation, and sacraments. As we sing them or even read them devotionally, they are a means of grace the Holy Spirit uses to transform our lives.”1.  
 
This past week a small group of us gathered around the bedside of a dear choir member who now rejoices in heaven. Last month our song stirred action as we raised over $1500 for the Wytheville Training School Cultural Center. And not long ago our singing together celebrated the faithfulness, generosity, gratitude and love of this place and her people, past, present, and future. In each of these, the message of scripture on wings of song found nesting places in our hearts where words alone cannot go. We experienced God and our lives were transformed.  
 
Singing together is an act of love that transforms, heals, and unites us. May our singing of hymns together on unified breath be a blessing and healing, a reassuring and energizing force in our hearts and souls and in those around us. Go ahead, sing loudly, even if you think you can’t. 
 
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley, Minister of Music
 
1.Knight III, Henry H. – Wesley and the Doctrinal Role of Hymnody. https://catalystresources.org/consider-wesley-27/