A wise mentor once suggested to me that I should keep a record of my life in song. He noticed that I was doing this early on during my college career and told me to keep at it. For music has the power to elicit memories and evoke emotions that we associate with time and place, but also the resources we called forth to endure what has already come down the path of life.
This is why every New Year’s Eve I now spend time creating a song list for the year that has just occurred. A way to catalogue the events and reflect on the Spirit’s movement throughout the months and days. Because music does one thing more: it reminds us of our faith through the journey.
Looking toward the new year ahead, perhaps a question we have not considered is: what song would you choose to guide your path? Or what song would God choose for you?
Would it be a resolute muster of faith from A Mighty Fortress is Our God? Or perhaps a desire to refocus with Be Thou My Vision? Are you barely holding on and having a year when Previous Lord, Take My Hand will need to be your escort? Or maybe you’re wanting to make a difference and the uninhibited exuberance of This Little Light of Mine can’t wait to burst forth from your chest.
And those are just the traditional songs of faith. Maybe you need to kick off the new year with a traveling song like Lady Antebellum’s Compass. Or, if you’re feeling lost or overrun, there’s Ben Platt & Lin-Manuel Miranda singing Found/Tonight. Perhaps you are just trying to push through and you could use Andra Day’s Rise Up. Or maybe you and God just need to go dancing to a little classic Stand By Me, by Ben E. King.
No matter where you are in your personal walk of faith, there is a song that will feed you as we turn the corner into this new chapter in our lives.
And speaking of which, as a community we are heading into our 235th Anniversary in 2023. So much history. Such a long story of this family of faith walking together through the joys and challenges of life. Our body stands as a remarkable testament to God’s presence in our lives and in the life of our church.
As a reminder to us of all God has done and all God is still does in our midst, let the song guiding our entrance into the New Year be Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It is a hymn and a prayer. A healthy reminder that God is always at work and never finished, binding our hearts to Christ and to one another.
Happy New Year and may God continue to lavish blessing upon blessing onto your families and our church in the months ahead.
Blessings, Pastor Janie
First Welcoming All 