Metro Minute: The Power of Music

Words are seriously lacking, have you noticed? I'm sitting here on the metro after an amazing several hours at the SOLA conference here in Montreal. The thing was, though, that the worship was all in French with a few English stanzas thrown in but the message was in English. I found myself a little lost, I'll admit, when it came to trying to follow along with the worship. However, this is my whole point. Despite my limited understanding of the lyrics I still just felt, well, I can't describe it. But this kind of plays into my whole worship mindset anyways.

See, I've never been able to sing well. And, despite my piano teacher's insistence otherwise, I don't think I ever will. When it comes to corporate worship I tend to just stand quietly, letting the music wash over me, possibly humming a cello line or thinking about what I would do where I playing the piano for that piece. But what I'm often thinking about is how much I just want to go home right away, pull out my piano worship solo book, and just play the piano for as long as I can, just me and God. That's my worship. No words necessary.

Why do I write about this now? Well, partly because I just had that experience. There was something about being in there that just gave me the shivers; not the creepy kind of shivers, the good kind. But, the trouble was, I realized, yes, on this one metro ride, that I had no idea what I was thinking about. I tried to find words in my head to process and basically make all my thoughts real and categorize-able (as anyone who knows me will know I love to do). But I can't. It's not actually possible. Forgive my failings of memory (it has been a loooooong day and it's late) but a certain songwriter speaks about how if the ocean was ink, the sky a scroll, and every man a scribe by trade we would not be able to describe God. That is the reason, I think, that he gave us music; not because it lets us describe Him, no, of course not. Nothing earthly can. But because it says so much more than words do.