I would like to share with you the hymns that I cherish, and a little about why they're important to me.
- "To God Be the Glory": We sang this at my mother's funeral.
- "It Is Well with My Soul": My dad sang this to himself as he and my uncle were leaving the surgical waiting room after just having learned that my mom had died during surgery.
- "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name": Gives me chills every time I sing it. "Bring forth the royal diadem / And crown Him Lord of all...."
- "In the Garden": When I play music with patients at the hospital, I play "In the Garden", and everybody signs along!
- "This Is My Father's World": Reminds me whose world this is, and that I need to quite worrying so much! Fun to play on the banjo too!
- "Blessed Assurance": I have wonderful memories of Sunday night "singspiration" meetings (remember those, anyone?), with the song leader having us hold the notes extra long when we sang "This is my story...." I also have a memory of one of our foster children, Christopher, whenever we sang "Blessed Assurance" in church, rocking back and forth, doing air guitar and singing, "Dis-a my tory, Dis-a my tory...."
- "Jesus Loves Me": Probably the most powerful theological statement anyone can make: "Jesus loves me, this I know, / For the Bible tells me so." What a shame that it's considered only a children's song.
1 comment:
Asking me to choose my favorite hymn is next to the impossible. There are so many and all mean something to me. I suppose the first hymn I remember singing as a child was "I am Jesus' little lamb. Therefore glad at heart I am. Jesus loves me, Jesus knows me, all that's good and fair He shows me. Tends me everyday the same. Even calls me by my name." There are other verses but the first one is the one I remember. As I look over the words now, all the words speak to me but I think the ones that really touch my heart are "even calls me by my name." It is hard for me to fathom that an all knowing, wonderful, loving God calls me by name. There's a song that has been written in the last few years called "You Are Mine" by Haas. I have sung it at many funerals because it speaks about how at our baptism (whether emersed or sprinkled) it states how God has called each one of us and we are his. After God does not have any grandchildren!
Another hymn I would list as one of my top 10,500 is "I Love to Tell the Story." This came about after I realized that becoming an ordained minister was just not going to happen for me. Then it dawned on me - I am a minister. God blessed me with a gift of music and to use it to share His story. If I were ordained I would be "tied" to one congregation, but I can take my gift and share my music ministry with many other people.
In the Worship and Praise genre, I think my new favorite song (at the writing of this response) is Chris Tomlin's, "Amazing Grace." I cannot hear that song without tears streaming down my face. Especially when he sings the words, "my chains are gone, I've been set free..." If only those chains would stay away forever and not return - but they seem to find there way back.
Some people turn to Bible verses when in times of doubt and despair, to tell the truth, I do not have that many committed to memory to do that. (Maybe that should be a goal for next year.) I turn to hymns and songs for my calmness and assurance. Sometimes I have to go through quite a few before that calmness is there but eventually I reach the point when I feel what the psalmist said, "Be still and know that I am God." We have the Great American Smoke Out, the Great American Lights Out and other things to save energy but wouldn't be neat if we could have everyone stop at the same time on the same day and have a "Be Still and Know that I am God" for five minutes.
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