How can I sing well with a weak, croaky voice, strong tendency to cough and inability to hold my breath (never mind a note) as long as I need to? The short answer is I can’t. My singing is mostly reduced to bathroom blues and accompanying a CD.
I’m no longer the young child singing freely to friends and family, nor the lost-in-the-moment, worshipping woman standing in church, hitting the high notes with ease, belting out a hymn to the best of my ability. And I haven’t been for years.
Now my voices trembles with M.E induced weariness and my body needs to sit instead, leaving my diaphragm squashed a bit. But here’s the thing: God has shaped our lives to be a song for Him, a perpetual hymn of praise.
We’re meant to make heavenly music out of our dirge filled days. How on earth do we do that? It’s by an unearthly gift of grace, freely available to us all. There are times when our lives naturally sing out God’s wonder, and others where it’s by pure grace alone.
I’m helped and heartened by remembering how tenderly God sings over us, how lovingly He croons to His beloved children.
“The Lord your God is in your midst., the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing” ~ Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV
We also live in a world alive with song. Creation sings out its beauty. God’s goodness wraps us in notes of love that sing to our hurting hearts. Our task is to hear and respond to them.
Thankfully, it doesn’t depend on us alone. We have Holy Spirit’s unlimited resources to equip us to sing freely, joyfully for our Lord, in heart, soul and spirit.
I rejoice to think our lives can become a hymn of praise and glory to God. We can sing inwardly too, in contemplative prayer, with wonder and praise. The important thing is to let our lives sing out God’s grace, as we bear witness for Him.
PS: The image below shows my grandson (aka future rock star) in full, uninhibited throttle! Oh to be like that… 🙂
I’m sharing my words with the fantastic five-minute-friday writing crew gathering at Kate Motaung’s site today. Just click here to join us there. This week’s prompt is ‘sing’.
Words of Joy 
Dear Joy,
Oh what a wonder-filled photo of your little Grandson! I love how those little ones just sing out their songs without any fear or worry of not being good enough. What a lesson for us! “To let our lives sing out God’s Grace as we bear witness for Him,” with all of our broken, weak places pointing even more to God’s Beautiful sustaining grace. I loved your image of the singing bird! Thank you for sharing these encouraging words today, Dear Friend! I can hear your words singing beautifully here! xoxo
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I know, Bettie, isn’t it/he a gem? Our grandson is a natural little poser, having grown up with a camera aimed at him since birth, and he has no real shyness yet! Yes, we can learn a lot from these little ones. Our fear of not being enough and our drive toward perfectionism can really trip us up when it comes to having courage and confidence. I love these words you’ve shared: “all of our broken, weak places pointing even more to God’s Beautiful sustaining grace.” Amen! His strength shines out in our weakness and His grace helps to overcome our limitations. I’m glad you feel my words are “singing beautifully here”, because I hope and pray they do. The singing bird image caught my eye too. It’s been adopted from a free images site and altered a little bit by me. Thank you for always encouraging my heart whenever you stop by! Bless you, sweet friend. xoxo
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Joy, I love the photo of your grandson! What a cutie! And I love your post so full of hope. Maybe we can’t belt out a beautiful hymn of praise, but we can “sing” with our lives! Thank you for that thought. 🙂
That verse about God singing over us also came to mind, but I haven’t written anything yet for Five Minute Friday or the haiku challenge. I might find some time tonight to create a little. 🙂
Thanks so much for your inspiring words today. Much love with hugs and blessings! xoxo
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Thanks, Gayl, we think so too! He brings us so much fun and joy, as I know your grandchildren do for you too. I didn’t think I would write a FMF post this week but God surprised me with some words. Your Twittering Tales were a delight to read! I haven’t participated in the challenge for several weeks now, though I hope to do so soon. Sometimes we shine in one area of creativity and have to rest other things for a while. Though I’m sure inspiration will be there for you if need be. I find it usually helps to feel relaxed about writing, otherwise anxiety can cloud ability. Much love, hugs and blessings to you, dear friend! xoxo
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THIS: “We also live in a world alive with song. Creation sings out its beauty. God’s goodness wraps us in notes of love that sing to our hurting hearts. Our task is to hear and respond to them.” I’m in the 49 spot this week.
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Tara, reading between the lines of your post, I would say you are hearing those holy love notes loud and clear and singing out a few of your own! Your soft spot for children is very apparent, as is your eagerness to embrace worship and praise to God. Keep on singing, my friend! God is listening with a warm glow of pride in His heart and deep inner joy to hear from you. Bless you, sweet friend. xo ❤
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I love the picture of your grandson! So true that it’s not just about our voices but our lives should be a song of praise to God too. It is encouraging to remember that God sings over us too.
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Yes, it’s adorable, isn’t it? I especially love how carefree he is, with no worries about being particularly tuneful or adept at his attempts to play and sing. Lesley, I loved reading about the way you’ve always sung publicly but only now been singled out for solo attention and praise. It’s heartwarming to think all our words matter to God, and our way of worshipping Him is always acceptable when it comes from a heart full of devotion, faith and praise. Thanks for stopping by! xo
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Beautiful words, Joy. I miss the years travelling round with my guitar, singing in services and meetings, leading worship alongside teaching and writing new chants and hymns and songs. It was part of my identity, singing to the Lord with such joy. Lovely reminder here that God sings over us with such love and caring, when an illness like M.E. seems to have stolen our voices, we can hear him clearly through the silence. I’m reminded of Maya Angelou’s saying that ‘A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.’ We don’t always need answers about why some activities are lost to us. As new joys take the place of old, we only need to hold on to that song in our hearts, sing it with our lives, to know God is singing with us and within us. Blessings, dear friend. (P.S Your grandson is a treasure!)
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Joyce, I can just picture you as a kind of Joan Baez figure, singing your way soulfully around various venues, guitar in hand, long hair swaying over your shoulders as you sing, lost in the moment. I sympathise with how hard it is when chronic illness scuppers and steals some of our previous creativity and joy. Though, as you so rightly say, “We don’t always need answers about why some activities are lost to us”, despite seeing how our whole identity shifts and can get lost along the way, while we learn to adjust to a new ‘normal’ way of life. I hope you still sing out to God like you used to, (like my uninhibited grandson, perhaps?!) even in the privacy of your own home. And we still have a song, a hymn of praise to utter privately to our Lord, or maybe share more publicly on a blog. Then “we only need to hold on to that song in our hearts, sing it with our lives, to know God is singing with us and within us.” Indeed He is. Thank you so much for sparing the energy to read and comment. I love you sharing your wise insights here! Blessings, love and gentle hugs to you, dear friend. xoxo
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Love that shot of your grandson, Joy! He displays the truth of your offering today! May our lives be a song that glorifies Him! Blessings on your Sabbath, my friend!
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June, he grabbed my husband’s guitar from upstairs and insisted on playing with it, though he was meant to be taking a nap! Once our son brought it downstairs for him, he put on an impromptu performance, and I couldn’t resist trying to capture it. It was definitely timely for this post! Amen to your words here: “May our lives be a song that glorifies (God) Him!” I’ve had to rest up a lot this weekend, but it was worth it to have extended myself a bit while the family were here. I hope and pray you were able to find a place of rest and refreshment this Sabbath, dear friend. xo
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