Sing

Sing

I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.

DRIVING DOWN THE FREEWAY, I can hear my daughter singing in the back of the car. Small face dwarfed by the car seat she’s buckled into, she stares out the window as she sings her heart out. First humming along, then crescendoing on the chorus, she mumbles the lyrics she’s forgotten and sings loudest on the words she remembers best.

“It is well with my soul,” she sings. “It is well, it is well with my soul!”

Each time I hear her warbling little voice sing praises to Jesus and peek back to see the earnestness written large across her small face, my heart lifts.

Physically, singing is good for us. It releases endorphins, the brain’s feel-good chemicals that boost our mood. It gets more oxygen into the blood for better circulation, another mood-boosting activity. And the deep breathing we do when singing reduces anxiety.

But on a spiritual level, choosing to sing praise to God is a deliberate choice. It’s an act of worship. It’s a cry for help, a promise, an admission that we trust him. It’s contemplative, joyful, triumphant, mournful. Singing expresses the deepest part of ourselves in ways we can’t always verbalize. On days when we are glad, singing is a confirmation of the beauty and promise life holds. But on days when we are afraid or worried, it’s a lifeline—because it’s impossible to sing praises to God and be fearful at the same time. Too often, we can default to fear when we should instead turn to praise. As author Lisa Whittle has said, because God inhabits the praises of his people, he’s never further than a breath away. When we choose to sing praise to God, our fears will lift, and our spirits will rise.

Lord, thank you that there is power in singing. Help us to lift our eyes from our circumstances and choose to sing in the face of our joys and our sorrows. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Put together a playlist of ten worship songs you can listen to when life feels especially hard. If you don’t have ten songs, explore stations on your favorite music streaming app until you find ten songs that resonate with you.