SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

PirateKing         A few years ago, when we had a Men’s Sojourner’s Prayer Group in addition to our women’s group, we men would begin our sessions with a period of singing. The six or eight of us would sit around a folding table and sing six or eight songs at the top of lungs into each other’s faces – it was heaven, or at least a taste of it. I have heard, over the years, some say that if we are to spend eternity singing, they expect to be bored. Not me. I like to sing. I like to sing bass. I like to sing loud. I like when we all sing together.

            Which is why it was a terrible blow when my Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist told me I was developing a polyp on the left side of thy third vocal cord, and that I had to rest my vocal cords for several months. This meant no shouting, no whispering, nothing too hot or too cold to drink and absolutely NO singing. I didn’t obey absolutely. I did lead a “call to worship” song every Sunday – softly singing right into the microphone. But I had to forego pre-school chapel, and have had to sit and listen to you all sing these past months without joining in.

            Let me say that you all sound wonderful. I’d rather sit in the midst of my church family and hear them sing the old hymns than listen to the Robert Shaw Chorale sing Barbour’s Adagio at Carnegie Hall any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I love to sit up front with all of you singing into the back of my head, and pick out particular voices. I can remember other voices from other congregations, many of them now gone. I wonder if one day, when we are home, I will be able to identify Neil Kent’s tenor, or my grandmother Bryson’s unmistakable alto somewhere in the heavenly chorus? 

            But - how hard it is not to sing with you. “Is anyone happy? Let him sing song of praise,” (James 5.13). God has provided us a release, a way to express our joy in Him, and that release is singing. David, in the psalms, demonstrates that singing is not just the best tool to express joy – but is suited to the full range of human emotions. There is no substitute which suffices.

            My voice is now back a bit, but it isn’t strong. My vocal cords feel like delicate filaments which a strong blast would surely break. I can sing again, but I can’t cut loose. “I doubt I’ll ever be able so sing again,” I said to my daughter Jill over the holidays. “You can,” she replied “You just don’t have to sing every song like you’re the Pirate King from ‘Pirates of Penzance.’” “Yes I do,” I replied.

            I’ve said a permanent farewell to the Pirate King – at least until this corruptible body is clothed in incorruption. I am blessed to be able to sing along with you again (albeit timidly), and I hope you will sing out more loudly to make up for the deficit (especially you basses). Most of all I hope that you will cherish the blessing we share when we sing together – whether it’s an old hymn or a new favorite, something by J. S. Bach or by A. E. Brumley. Singing together is a gift. We taste that gift now, but will enjoy it fully, eternally when we get home.

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