How Can I Keep from Singing – the unlikely singer

These anecdotes demonstrate the deepest purpose of singing. Words are not enough, once the circumstances of life become overwhelming. Whether a heartbroken teenager listening to the top 40, or a grown-up living through an unimaginable torment, people are ill-equipped to express themselves through language alone. Singing allows more of our thoughts to be seen by others. It allows us to order our chaotic thoughts. These are the times when we “see through a glass darkly,” and singing sheds light.

 

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Theology requires 500 pages to cogently express the experience of the slave who sings, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.” A world-class theological conference would be required to derive verbal expression for the experience of the Jew who sings to the Nazi, “Day of wrath, that day will dissolve the world in ashes…When therefore the judge will sit, whatever hides will appear, nothing will remain unpunished.” A sermon would be confounded to attempt to express the experience of Ena Zizi, who had prayed alone for days, and then couldn’t help singing.

The purpose of singing is not to set words to music. It is to take up where the words leave off, delving deeper into the human experience and our need to express it.