Sing Your Song

If you've never listened to or read The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean, I highly recommend it. Those who have may recall the story/song of the angel who wanted to sing with the angelic hosts at the glorious birth of the Savior. The angel shows up for try-outs, sings his best, and knows instantly that his lack of vocal talent relegates him to spectator-status rather than participant in the heavenly celebration. In protest he surges forward, wanting with all of his heart to sing at the birth of his Lord, and as he does so breath-taking music fills the room; we find that this angel is the pre-earth Handel, who's vocal talents are limited, but whose testimony of the divinity of Jesus has now filled the earth with some of the most beautifully composed music in the entire history of the world.

It's a wonderful story but why, you ask, am I thinking about The Forgotten Carols... an obviously Christmas-holiday anchored production... in the middle of May? The answer stems in the wonderful Stake Conference that Erin and I attended this weekend.

Sunday's session was fantastic as we witnessed a North-East-wide broadcast from Salt Lake City and listened to several church leaders including Elder Eyring and President Monson. I also had the privilege to attend a Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting on Saturday afternoon that proved enlightening and, at times, amusing. The Forgotten Carols, however eased their way into my thoughts at a different meeting; the Saturday night adult session of the Stake Conference.

Several local leaders and congregants gave wonderful talks, and half-way through we were treated to a musical number sung by the choir of one of the local branches. I don't remember which hymn they sang, I listened to or sang dozens of hymns this weekend, but the people made a stronger impression. Being from a branch, the choir member count was extremely low (maybe 10 people were singing) and as is often the case with smaller choirs, the voices proved slightly less than professionally trained.

There was one voice in particular that stuck out... not because it was any better than the others, but solely because it was considerably louder than the others. In all honesty it was hard to miss the voice, it was rather shrill and harsh; it was also easy to pinpoint the owner of the voice. An unassuming, elderly lady proved either unaware of the harshness of her voice, or proved that she just didn't care. Whatever the case, it was tempting to snicker, though my own voice would hardly earn me a spot in a Messianically-proclaiming choir. And this is where The Forgotten Carols came to mind.

Despite her shrill voice, or maybe oblivious to it, this sweet woman was singing with all of her heart. To our temporal ears it may have sounded un-trained, or age-strained, but the look on her face told that the song of her heart was far more angelic than we could possibly perceive. She, like the fictionally-presented pre-earth Handel, was singing a hymn, she was singing praises to her Lord, her God, and His holy work on this earth. It made me realize, and I hope I can remember this feeling, that it does not matter whether the notes of a song are out of our optimal range, whether our particular parts are unfamiliar, or whatever reason we may find for holding back our musical prayers; our Father in Heaven doesn't hear with temporal ears the reverberations from our vocal cords, instead He hears the strength, willingness, and love of our hearts. May we unabashedly sing our praises with that knowledge so that our Lord, and those around us, may know the true feelings of our heart.

P.S. Elder Jensen gave a great talk entitled The Nourishing Power of Hymns in April's Saturday Morning session of General Conference.

Labels: music, religion

posted by Brett at 2:01 PM