[Article Provided by Conejo Member, Jim White]
Speaking for myself, singing praises to God is the purest form of worship. Said another way, I feel closest to God during a worship service when we sing as a congregation.
God gave me a heart for music. I have a pretty good ear for music and I enjoy music. I’m sure many have larger music collections but I have hundreds of CDs of music, mostly classical music, that I play regularly and I mostly listen to music when driving. When Penny and I go out for cultural events it is usually to a concert. But I can’t sing. I know that I can’t because I have a pretty good ear for music and I know that I don’t even sound good in the shower, which raises in my mind the following questions. Why would God give me a heart for music? Why do I feel closest to God when singing hymns and choruses, and yet among my talents God did not give me a talent for singing?
In contemplating this admittedly self-imposed dilemma, I have come to two conclusions. One, which is of no consequence to this meditation, is that God must have a sense of humor. The other is that God must be tone deaf. Think about it. If God requires that I sing well for my praises to be acceptable to Him, then singing to God becomes a matter of works, of measuring up, of being good enough. Others are good enough when it comes to singing but I am not…and I’m convinced it doesn’t matter to God, hence his tone deafness when it comes to my singing. To come to the point, when I sing to God I experience God’s grace. I experience this grace because I know that I sing poorly. To make a loose analogy, it is not the size of the gift we have to offer that pleases God but how we give, given what we have to give. I have other talents by which I can give richly, which also pleases God. But for me it is when I confront those things which I know I am most inadequate to do and still do them to the best of my meager ability that I most strongly experience God’s grace.
Much of our understanding of God’s grace comes from the writings of the apostle Paul. It is tempting to write that, unlike sin, I sing so that grace may abound, but that doesn’t capture the grace I feel when I sing. A statement by Paul that comes closer is found in 2 Corinthians 12:9. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
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