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The days before Holy Week were filled with grief.
Six souls – including three children – gunned down in Nashville. A middle-aged bicyclist killed by a distracted driver a mere three blocks from our home. The memorial service I couldn’t attend for a high school friend who died from pancreatic cancer one week after her diagnosis. And most crushing, our family friend’s son losing his seven-year battle with mental illness.
So much sadness.
Little did I expect that music would be the balm I needed. Going to see Hairspray, not exactly a spiritual musical mind you, found me inexplicably crying at the end of nearly every song during the first act. It seems silly to say that You Can’t Stop the Beat and Good Morning Baltimore were just what I needed but there you have it, they were.
On Good Friday, we sang that beautiful and mournful old-timey hymn, What Wondrous Love is This? The last verse always brings tears, but this time especially so.
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be
And through eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on
And through eternity, I'll sing on
Easter Sunday, I didn’t particularly feel in a Christ the Lord is Risen Today mood. It almost seemed selfish to be rejoicing knowing that so many people were hurting. Who was I to be singing a long, drawn out “Alleluia”?
An unexpected song that I had never heard helped. Rise Up (Lazarus) – sung here by Cain but sung in worship by my daughter and an amazing group of singers and instrumentalists – moved me ever-closer into a “He is Risen!” mode.
Come on and rise up, take a breath, you're alive now
Can't you hear the voice of Jesus calling us
Out from the grave like Lazarus
You're brand new, the power of death couldn't hold you
Can't you hear the voice of Jesus calling us
Out from the grave like Lazarus
Rise up, rise up, rise up
Out from the grave like Lazarus
For many Christians, the main reason to come to church is to be healed…
physically,
emotionally,
spiritually.
That healing often comes through music. You can cry without embarrassment, rejoice whole-heartedly, and (if the organ or band is playing loudly enough) sing full-throated with abandon.
If you haven’t recently recognized the power of music in worship, it’s time to do so. Through the many ways we are inspired by it – classical, contemporary, rock, rap, jazz – music has the power to transform and heal and help us through our grief.
If God can use “Hairspray” to heal, you know God can use your music too.
What a blessed gift. Alleluia!
Image: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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