The soloist was gray and balding, years of living clearly seen in his facial lines. The lady soloist two numbers before this was also nearing retirement, gray and heavy-set. Many of the members of the choral group are about the same age – retired or nearing retirement. There are some who are younger, but generally, these are older choristers here. They wore sky blue robes with a white cross on the stole… nothing fancy, no fashion icon or anywhere near it, nothing “cool”here. But why am I sobbing like crazy?
I am here in the General Conference auditorium, attending the National Christian Choir concert – an afternoon “Service of Worship Through Music.” That’s what the printed bulletin says. As we found our seats, the opening notes of the song, “Above All,” floated softly. I can sense a refinement: the piano accompaniment are beautiful and lilting, timed perfectly, the sounds well- controlled. The drums are well modulated, the crescendos slowly building up and then burst into joy and full strength. By the time the lady soloist sang, I was already a mess.
I do not know about you but this kind of music just hits me right between the eyes. I had just finished listening to a youth concert at our church minutes ago. They were really good, they sang the right notes, great tones, expression, but I experienced something here that I did not at the youth concert. I tried to analyze (in the middle of sniffing and stifling my sobs) what was missing.
Ah, I think I got it: these people here have experienced life: loss of a loved one, illness in the family, challenges with children, rejection, failure, poverty – their faces show that they must have been in the crucible one time or another in their lives. And these people also experienced living through all these pain by the grace of God. Yes! That’s it! They experienced how it is to hold on to the Lord every moment of their lives, and they are here not to perform, but to worship. When it is a person’s heart and not just his voice that is singing, it makes all the difference. His every breath is a prayer, a petition, a praise, to the Almighty.
I now understand a little bit of what “the song of Moses and the Lamb” would be like. I am sure it will be something we have never heard of before, the saints singing their song of experience, of all the hurt and pain they have gone through while waiting for the Lord. They will also be singing how the Lamb had wrapped His arms of love around them and led them until they reached heaven’s streets. It will be a majestic, emotion-laden performance, and I am so looking forward to hearing it!
I now have a new respect and admiration for our older singers – age sweetens their music….
The gray and balding soloist stood up and sang one of my favorite songs, “Praise the Lord.”
“When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams, And your hopes have been truly crushed by Satan’s manifested schemes, And you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears, Don’t let the faith you’re standing in seem to disappear.”
“Praise the Lord, He will work through all who praise Him, Praise the Lord! For our God inhabits praise, Praise the Lord, For the chains that seem to bind you, serve only to remind you, that they are powerless behind you, if you praise Him!” (by Mike Hudson & Brown Bannister)
I reached for my purse and searched for another pack of tissue….
