Are there songs and hymns led at your church that are hard for you to sing? Not because of a strange key or peculiar musical intervals, but because of the lyrics?
I have trouble singing “All to Jesus I Surrender.” I want to mean what I say when I sing it. I’m not sure I can and still be honest with God, with myself, and with the people singing around me.
Same thing with the line “Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold.” Well, a mite … maybe, since it’s not a denomination of our current coinage. (Still, it would be a valuable collector piece!) How about just “take my silver” and let me keep the gold?
And there’s the final verse “None of self, and all of Thee.” Can’t quite sing it with all my heart. Wish I could.
Sometimes I have to stifle a verse with a cough. Or just drop out and clear my throat. Or, more honestly, I just don’t sing.
Am I being more harsh in judging myself than God would be? Does He see me the same way I saw my little ones when they used to proudly bring and give me some precious thing they had found … something that was already mine?
Are there songs that are hard for you to sing?
Blog In My Own Eye 
“It is Well with my Soul” Cause most of the time it’s not, and it’s so hard to make it well and ok.
We’ll work ’till Jesus Comes….I am gonna have to sleep some.
I must needs go home by the way of the cross….who talks like this
Our song leader likes to sing America the Beautiful…I just can’t put my country on the same throne with my God
Beulah Land- I have nothing to relate this to!
Funny you should bring this up. Just this past Sunday we sang “Not a mite would I withhold” and I didn’t sing, either. I mean, let’s face it – I usually withhold a lot more than just a mite from the contribution. If I sang it I think I’d be lying. And I stressed about it for about 5 minutes. 🙂
I also have a hard time singing “Are you sowing the seed of the kingdom, brother?” because I think it sounds like “Are you sowing the seed of the King, dumb brother?”
I should confess that, as a child, I had trouble with “Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear” … had trouble not giggling, that is.
I also wondered what a “fountain fly” was, as in “Vile I to the fountain fly.” I figured it must be a poisonous fly, since it required washing and the consequence was death.
I use to have a hard time singing that “there is a bomb in Gilead”.
I never could figure out why that was a good thing!?!?! 🙂
Keep bloggin, bro!
DU
I have a hard time with “I’ve got a mansion, just over the hilltop…”, especially the line “I want a gold one, that’s silver lined”. What should my attitude be about that? Is that a proper one?
“Jesus is coming soon,
morning or night or noon,
Many will meet their doom,
Trumpets will sound.”
The happy, upbeat, gleeful tune does not match the utter sadness of many meeting their doom. Is this something to get all excited about?
Yippeeeeee, all those siners are going to Hell! Yes, the sooner the beeter. I’m going to dance on their sick, sin filled grave.
Ugh.
Two thoughts.
One, that we sing these things (All to Jesus I Surrender, It Is Well With My Soul) that we might absorb them, not that we already have them down pat. Kind of a self-hypnosis or reinforcement.
Two, I agree with Don and Fajita. I’ve always had a hard time with the oompa-loompa arrangement of He Gave it All. The upbeat down-south gospel beat just doesn’t go with the words “My precious Savior suffered pain and agony.”
Nice blog — I’ll be back. As for the question of the moment “Heart of Worship” asks me to say that “I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it (worship)” which of course 90% of the singers don’t get and I’m not all that clear on either. What did I make it?
GHT
Glenn,
I think that what the author, Matt Redman meant when he said “I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it” was a reference to how we’ve turned worship music into entertainment…
Kind of ironic, seeing as that is still one of the most popular songs on Christian radio. I can’t tell you how many different covers of that song I’ve heard.
It means one of two things:
1.) There are a lot of people wanting to repent
2.) People are totally missing the point, and still making mega-bucks off the song.
I’m guessing it is the latter. Not that I think there is anything wrong with an artist making money off of his work, but it’s just kind of funny to me.
Beneath His Mercy,
Brian
Sorry I’ve got one more, I can barely bring myself to sing,
“Blue sky’s and rainbows,
and sunbeams from heaven,
are all I can see when my Lord is living in me.”
It’s sad cause I love the chorus, but come on I’ve had many cloudy days.
I know I’m late to the party, but I wanted to say that I agree with Jema, sort of. I totally agree with this part of what she said: “that we might absorb them, not that we already have them down pat. “She says then that it’s sort of like self-hypnosis- I would say that I sing those songs as a prayer. I want to be more like that. I want to grow spiritually to the point where I really do surrender all to Jesus, where it’s all of him and none of me. That’s not where I am, but I know that, Jesus knows that, and if my brothers and sisters don’t know that, they do know not know me as well as they should and could, because I’ll tell the world I’m not close to perfect. So for me those songs about things to which I have not yet attained are prayers.