Last night, Saturday, myself and a couple of people from our church family went to the First United Methodist Church for an 'old fashioned hymn' sing. It was sorta fun as the leader would ask a question, such as 'whose the oldest one here?' 'who drove the furthest to get here' 'who has the most family pictures in their wallet' etc. etc., then that individual would pick out one of their favorite hymns.
There was a high school teen there from our church family and her favorite hymn was 'Amazing Grace,' and she was hoping that someone would ask for it to be sung. I was wishing the woman would ask who was the youngest, then she could have requested her favorite hymn, but that ended up not being necessary - and we sang her hymn.
Thinking about Jessie and her favorite hymn, I was reminded, old hymn's don't die because of time changes, because of contemporary musical styles, old hymn's live on and on, even into the hearts of the youngest of every generation because of the message that they bring ...
~amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
~once was lost, but now found
~how precious did that grace appear
~tis grace has brought me save thus far, grace will lead me home
one can't help but realize that the author of thiss eternal hymn of praise [John Newton]had experienced that grace he wrote about first hand. Two quick thoughts come to mind, first we're not teaching our kids about the scriptural truths in these hymns, and consequently we ourselves are losing the joy, the grace and the help that
comes from sharing them. It doesn't matter how updated the music is or isn't the words are a symphony themselves - and this sounds resonates so powerfully when it is sung a capella!!
ENJOY this Sabbath.
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Most certainly my most favorite hymn. It brings tears to my eyes almost every time I here it sung solo. For some reason, singing it in a group doesn't have the same effect and I suspect I am concentrating on singing it instead of listening to it.
ReplyDeleteI am so not a musician that I use to hate hymn sings--but I know other people would enjoy them. I remember, as a kid, being at one and everyone calling out the numbers of their favorite hymns and they called on me and I gave them a number from the "Service Music" section that was a 3-fold "Amen."
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