Prayers for Choir

Prayers for Choirs: No. 4

Prayers for Choirs: No. 4

I noticed it today for the first time.

The first buds on the dogwood, the first tiny green leaves on the bush near the fence. Spring is here.

There was something sacred about that moment. I stood, stick in hand, playing with the dog in the backyard. And those little green leaves made me stand still, made me take notice, made me look for signs of spring and newness and change and growth.

How long have they been there? I wondered.

How many times did I walk right past them, too absorbed in my own thoughts to take notice? What else have I been ignoring in my heart and life?

God is always at work in our lives. Are we taking notice? Are we looking for signs of growth and newness of life? Are we looking for those tender signs of spring in our own lives?

Prayers for Choirs: No. 3

Prayers for Choirs: No. 3

I often think of Lent as a quiet season - stillness, simplicity, stripping away. But as much as we might try to have a quiet, reflective season, life doesn't always work out like that. Sometimes, life is anything but quiet and simple. Sometimes, it's overwhelming and sometimes, it's just plain complicated.

Restlessness.
Uncertainty.
Fear.
Loss.

Sometimes, it's hard to get out of our own heads. How do we escape? How do we find peace, contentment, and joy in the midst of hardship?

It begins with renewal. 

"Opening the hand to receive the moments. Trusting what is received to be grace. Taking it as bread. Recount how we laughed today. How we cried today and it too was grace. How He fed us. We ate. We filled. We swept up the crumbs. So He lays us down to sleep. Trust tucks in. He has blessed today. Will He not bless again tomorrow?" - Ann Voskamp, 1000 Gifts

Prayers for Choirs: No. 2

Prayers for Choirs: No. 2

It's that time of the year again. It's hard to ignore the daily reminders - pink and red hearts in the store windows, chocolate displays, and flower delivery ads in the sidebar of your browser.

Valentine's Day. Perhaps more of a "Hallmark holiday" than a true representation of what it means to love and be loved, but still, isn't it worth thinking about?

"Love one another" was the greatest commandment ever given, after all.

Love one another - no qualifiers, no rules, no exceptions. Just love. It's a way of life, a calling, really. But, you should know: This kind of love is not the kind you read about in Hallmark cards.

"The kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence." - Bob Goff, Love Does

This kind of love asks us to give of ourselves and set aside our own wants and needs. It's time-consuming and it won't always be reciprocated. But it also never fades. It "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). This kind of love never fails.

Prayers for Choirs: No. 1

Prayers for Choirs: No. 1

I've been thinking a lot about joy and sorrow lately.

At first, they seem like opposites: Most people don't feel a sense of joy in the midst of sorrow, right? But joy - it's hard to describe joy in a way that isn't tinged by sorrow. Joy is wise - it recognizes where we've come from, what we've been through; it acknowledges the sorrowful parts of our lives.

Someone recently described it like this:

We carry joy in our right hand, sorrow in our left. 

We walk through life with both in front of us, like we walk, one foot in front of the other. We can't have one without the other without losing balance. 

We walk through life knowing that it can't all be joy and it won't all be sorrow. But we recognize the value of both. 

We hold onto our joy in times of sorrow and remember our sorrow in times of joy. And when we come to God in prayer, we bring our hands - our joy and sorrow - together, and we pray.

Prayers for Church Choirs

Prayers for Church Choirs

"To sing is to pray twice." - Saint Augustine

I've always thought of church choirs as small groups, in a way - a community, a fellowship, a place to come together. Choir gives people a place to sing and make music, yes, but also feel safe, be vulnerable, and supportive as we carry one another's burdens.

This is one of the reasons why I feel it's important to end each rehearsal with prayer.

I grew up singing in a fairly large choir in a Methodist church in Georgia (I say "grew up" because I joined when I was 11!). At the end of each rehearsal, we put down our folders, joined hands, and made a circle around the choir room. We stood there for a few moments, sharing joys and concerns with one another and closing our time together with prayer. It was meaningful to me then and has stayed with me; it's a tradition I've carried with me to all the churches I've served.

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