Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hard Wired to Sing

I know I haven't directly mentioned Colossians 3:15-17 (my Lent theme verse) everyday, but it's been on my mind just about everyday.  I thought about verse 15 a lot for the first 10+ days  ("Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as member of one body you were called to peace.  And be thankful.")  and it led me to all the stuff about grace.  While there will always be more to learn about living out that verse, I've moved on to meditating (for me that equals thinking a lot) about verse 16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."  

thought I was starting with just the first half of that verse and would get to the second half in a week or so, but I was wrong.  It turns out that for me, memorizing and thinking deeply about God's word goes hand in hand with singing.  (I shouldn't be surprised.)  I've been reminded in the last day or two that one of the most effective ways for me to let God's word dwell (i.e. inhabit, abide, LIVE) in me is to sing it!  Often when I am memorizing scripture, I either turn it into a song in order to help me memorize it, or it just turns into a song all on it's own as I'm repeating the words over and over.  It's just the way God makes my brain work.

I've been thinking a lot about Psalm 23 lately and finished last night turning it into a song...  (in Spanish!  It's the first song I've ever written that was in Spanish first and not a translation, so I'm excited about that!)  The song was running through my head all night (when Timothy was climbing in bed with me) and all day...  and that's a much better thing than grumpy thoughts or that other song that was running through my head the other night that I couldn't get out.  It's good for me to remember anew that my brain is wired by God to have music running through it and if I want the lyrics to be His Word, working them into a song is a great way to help that happen.

Do you have music running through your mind constantly?  How do you memorize scripture most easily?  Just wondering...  : )

Day 15

3 comments:

  1. I want to hear the song!!! please??? it has made a difference for me too, just to listen to more worship music. It´s more likely that I´ll make a coreography out of music than make a song, but I get the idea :). You´re a musical thinker for sure :).

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  2. Since I don't have much time every day to just sit still and read the bible, I try to take a second in the morning to write down a verse or two to stick in my pocket and read throughout the day.

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  3. It seems we've been thinking alike lately! I love this. That's awesome that you wrote a song in Spanish!! :)

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts and heart with me.