Sing!

Everyone can sing. You may laugh at that, but it’s true. Singing isn’t something that comes from the vocal mechanism in the throat or even from the diaphragm, no matter what your high-school choir director might have said. Don’t get me wrong—those things can help you make beautiful sounds and maintain the health of your voice. But they don’t help you to sing, because singing comes from the heart.

The music industry has many performers who don’t have particularly lovely voices. And with today’s recording technology an artist can be made to sound far better than they are live. So why do these people still get recording contracts and concert tours? It’s largely because they can sing—they can feel the song and tell the story behind the lyrics in such a way as to draw the audience into the music. Suddenly the concert goes from performance to participation and everyone present shares in the experience.

This is why Paul commanded the saints to “be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord.” Even if your voice cracks with age or warbles from time to time, remember that music isn’t made there, but in the heart. Anyone with a decent voice can produce a note, but it takes a heart that feels the weight of the words of a song to make music.

That’s something to think about.