Singing More Than Words

   Not long ago, I heard a pastor quote the words of A.W. Tozer who said: "Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them."
   When I worship, I often don't pay attention to the words that I'm singing. They are familiar, old hymns that I could sing in my sleep, with words like "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine", "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound", or "Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever". I don't always listen to the lines that role off my tongue, I just follow the words. I don't always mean the things I so readily sing, I am only following the music.

   This is not what worship should be.
    I bet Fanny Crosby meant it when, after living a life in blindness and having lost her husband, she wrote the words, "If He my Lord is with me still, and I in Him abide, If He but whispers to my heart, then I am satisfied."
   I bet Joseph Scriven, after losing the love of his life hours before they were to be married, wrote in earnest the words, "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer."
   I bet even Horatio Spafford, after the tragic lose of his four young daughters at sea, meant it when he wrote, "Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul."
   Why do I think this? Because the men and woman who penned these hymns believed every word that they wrote. If not these hymns would never have been written at all, and theses writers' faith has changed the world.
   Hymns are so much more than just another piece of music. They are a testimony of our faith, love and worship towards Christ. Do you really mean the words you are singing? Or are you simply following the music?
   If I am willing to sing a hymn so readily, I should also be willing to take it's words as my own, or I am not worshiping - I am simply chanting a rhythm that means nothing and will never change my heart or make Jesus smile.

.