The Back Story

     We had a hymn sing at church a few weeks ago. The song leader was organized and the pianist was excellent, but we did not get to sing everybody's favorite. There just was not time. So there certainly would not be time for people to share why they chose a particular hymn and/or what it means to them--the back story. One man briefly shared about being in the service, in Asia, and desperately lonely, but he comforted himself by singing over and over "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", his request. Not only is there a back story to our own requests, but also to the choices of others. When someone asked for "The Old Rugged Cross", I remembered the first time I heard it, my great grandma's funeral. I thought it was wondrous. Mormons, at least back when I was in the church, were not trying to be as mainstream as they are today. We seldom sang about Jesus, much less the Gospel contained in a hymn like that.
      I had an emergency-back-up hymn chosen (Come Thou Fount), because the song leader threatened to make us lead if our selection was unfamiliar, but my first choice was "What Wondrous Love Is This". To my relief, the song leader remembered it from way back when he was in eighth grade. I first heard it, sung by a children's choir, at my friend Donna's funeral. She died suddenly of hepatitis when we were both 15, from human perspective, because her doctor was an idiot who did not recognize her obvious symptoms until she was beyond treatment. But the main reason she died so young, is that a Sovereign God had appointed her time. And He used her death to move me beyond a head knowledge about Jesus, to a heart cry for a Savior. Since death was no longer something that just happened to old people, I needed to know happens when we die. Donna's death was a giant step on my journey to life.
    Even I, a word miser, could not condense enough to share my story at the hymn sing. We could sing hymns or tell our stories, but we could not do both. Still I wish there was some time and place this side of eternity to share, not just the hymns, but our histories, because those are written, not just about Him, but by Him.