Since April 2008 my daily "diet" has been psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. That was the month and year I began the consuming task of "engraving" over 400 songs for our proposed church hymnal.
As a school teacher there was no three-month summer vacation in 2008. The days were often twelve or even fourteen hours sitting at the computer inputting music. In fact, I worked on the project every day of Christmas vacation (even on the Chicago - Los Angeles - Chicago flights to visit family).
So why do I submit to this "torture" (as my chiropractor calls it)? Because I believe in congregational song and will give what I can to encourage its survival.
I like the title of this. I'd always wondered why we are told so many times in the Bible to sing our praises. Why not just say them? In the process of researching aphasia to help myself understand why a friend lost the ability to speak but not the ability to sing, I learned that when we sing, we are using our entire brains! To speak takes less brain power than singing. So there was my answer. We are to sing our praises because we are more connected in every way to the words we sing than to the words we speak. Fortunately, I haven't found any exhortation to sing well, just to sing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ed!
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