Shuck: Keeping a song in your heart

​Are you someone who likes to sing? I mean sing while you’re working, walking, performing or merely keeping yourself company? Whether we have a melodious voice or not, we can still utter a sound, a note of joy, a positive comment or maybe we just keep our singing, silently within. Regardless, we can keep on singing. We may be a professional performer, lighting up the lives of others — and some simply keep it in the shower. Nevertheless we all need to keep singing. We have to keep on pressing forward in spite of what life hands us, and continue doing the best we can. To keep on singing has little to do with having an enviable voice or a voice that sounds more like the bellowing of an angry bull. Singing can create a perfume that spreads our aura of happiness and love to others. Most of all, to sing is balm to our spirit, but we are the benefactor, most of all.

​Lately, I have noticed the sounds of people working in stores and even walking up the street. I almost envy them because I wonder what gives them the desire to sing while working, as they go about performing their duties. Is it something magical or do they have a hidden gift that others do not possess? As I shopped at an area store, recently, I heard the soft sounds of melody coming from somewhere, but where? As my curiosity got the best of me, I bent my ear more earnestly toward the direction of the sounds. I was surprised to see a young man unloading a tall cart of paper goods onto the stores shelves. Failing to notice who was around, oblivious to his surroundings, the person carried on with his tasks while exhaling notes of soft music into the air.” Awesome,” I said to myself.

​I pondered what had happened within the life of the stock-clerk that day. What caused him to want to sing regardless of the audience? What a joy! What a pleasure! From where did the desire come? I dared to think, it came from within his heart. Christian Scripture refers to making melody in our hearts. “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 6:19-20). I noticed that the Scripture speaks of making melody in your heart but it says nothing about only singing in our hearts when everything is going well. Perhaps the clerk was having a good day, perhaps not. When we can sing from inside our heart, conditions make little difference in how we handle life. We have the courage and forbearance to pick up and go on refusing to allow negative thoughts to darken our days and plans. We can clear the negative debris out of our thoughts and shove the rocks of negativity and failure from the steady flowing of our river. We keep on singing within ourselves, thanking in God for everything, not merely the good, desirable and convenient. God puts a song in our hearts. Outside happenings do not determine our mood, excessively, if we keep His song in our hearts.

​God speaks to us in many different ways. Have you ever heard someone say, “God doesn’t speak to me?” I would venture to say that God speaks to everyone but we must be open to his words. What are the birds saying to us, on a day in which we’re sad? Does their warbling lift our spirits and bring a new perspective to us? Does listening to a song lend an unforeseen bit of wisdom when we need to hear what the music and words have to offer to our melancholy? Perhaps a friend makes a pertinent observation concerning our situation, as we linger over lunch. Did we hear it: Did we glean the insight from the passing comment of that friend, as he/she lifted their tea glass to their lips, and did we realize that our insides were singing? God had spoken and again placed a new song in our heart.