If it could cure cancer

How important is singing to you? How often do you just do it? Do you do it only when you are in the shower or at church? Singing, to me, is how I get spiritually fed. There is nothing I love more than being able to express my thoughts, prayers, blessings and praise to my God through the voice God has given me. To hear that same praise that is escaping my own mouth and also the mouths of all my brothers and sisters, to know that we are saying the same God-pleasing words, encourages me to no end. Even on a completely non spiritual level, scientific studies have proven that those who sing have a lower heart rate, decreased blood pressure and greatly reduced stress levels. It seems then that God created us to sing not only to bless him and others but also to bless ourselves. I remember when I was young in the youth group and this girl started coming to classes and bible studies. She befriended everybody almost immediately, she had, and has now, the most beautiful spirit about her, she was a born servant and an amazing encourager, the only problem with her was she could not carry a tune if it could cure cancer. She would be the first to tell you that too; however, it never stopped her from proclaiming her love for her God, no matter how many people she carried off tune. To see the heart of someone so willing to praise God regardless of how she sounds to others or how others think of her singing; it is both humbling and greatly reaffirming. It humbles us in how we think others hear us when only God is listening, and it affirms our God’s love in hearing us just praising him with what we have. If any of you has ever met Tara Pipes, to say that she has a poor voice is the last thing, if ever, that you would notice in a worship experience with her. The fact that God wants to hear us is such a blessing, is such a great task that we must throw down our assumption of what we sound like and presuppositions of what is culturally acceptable.

I believe that we should become like sunflowers. We should adapt, twist, and turn with the direction of the sun (double meaning, get it?) not because we can or should but because me must to survive. Praising God throughout the day and night, lifting your face in his direction. It frightens me so much that some youth groups have stopped singing for fear of actually repelling people; instead, singing should be that which draws the people to the family. Not because it sounds good, but because the man dying of thirst needs water to survive so does the human soul need words to praise the God that created all things.