I Can Sing!!

Psalm 63:1 -- "My body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water."

There is nothing like the feeling of riding down busy San Jose, listening to Christian Radio on the way to Newk's in the company of my two dearest friends on Girl's Night.  No comparison. I revel in the moment.  We talk, these ladies and I.  I have been blessed with their friendship for more than ten years now, and every moment is like a rich dessert.  I savor. I linger over the smoothness and the sweet.

We talk about singing. I remember the busy days of singing at weddings, as guest vocalists for churches that I hadn't even heard of, and....of being televised for an Easter Special as I belted out one of my favorites, Feel The Nails by Ray Boltz.  I remember and share with them the days of being invited to record in a studeo in Nashville, and being so nervous when I got there and stepped up to the Mic.

This was in another life.

I don't sing anymore. [Publicly]

My friend says to me...."I didn't know you could sing!"

Really?  I've known this woman for YEARS.  How could she not know that I sing?

Because I haven't.  In a very, long time.

A very long story....I'll skip to the punch line....I've allowed some hurt feelings and not a little bitterness to keep me from praising the Lord with a gift that He has given to me.  I didn't even realize how very long it's been since I've bumped elbows with fellow choir members and harmonized in praise and worship, voices lifted humbly and eagerly to God. I thirst for those long-lost and deeply missed moments and my mind flashes back to an elderly woman, approaching me after I sung at First Baptist Church of Dickson, Tennessee -  how she grabbed my hand in both of hers with tears in her eyes as she thanked me for singing for the Lord. She expressed that she could hear Him speak to her in the music.

THAT is what it's all about.  Being a vessel through which Jesus reaches people.  I'd somehow forgotten that.  I'd let personal pain and selfishness push that away from my heart and mind.

But just like Girl's Night, just like the rain on the grass, and my daily bread, my body faints for that service.  My soul desires Jesus in a dry, desolate land without water.

I was reminded of that.  It's time to take the voice, the worship, the service out of the shower and back into the hands of God.