Everyone has some physical issue that they live with. When we are younger we just breeze right through it, but as we get older it begins to become a real road block in our lives. Some of the physical issues come on for the first time as we get older. Except for back pain, I was wonderfully healthy until I hit 48. Now, although my back pain has gradually gotten worse, I rarely think of it because of the many new health problems I face. Getting older is not a piece of cake.

          There is an issue I have had my entire life, although I wasn’t aware of it until I was in my mid-twenties. Always, after church, I had a brutal headache. When Marsha and I went for a drive, I would have a headache. If we went to a high school football game, I came home with a headache. Marsha became concerned and made me go to the doctor. He sent me to an audiologist and she checked my hearing. It turned out that whenever there is a musical note played, I hear it in one key in my right ear and in another key in my left. The resulting clash of noise always gave me a headache. The music in church, the music Marsha would play on the radio, the marching band music at a football game, all give me headaches. I had always disliked music. It never made much sense to me and I couldn’t, for the life of me, see what it was everyone found so wonderful about music. Over the years my brain had isolated the correct note that was playing, I suppose by locking into whatever other people were singing, and I learned to follow in singing what my right was telling me, but I still had the headache. Of course, I married someone who loves music. Pray for Marsha.

          As in all things, though, there is a blessing. For me, I have always been very locked into the lyrics of a song. If I concentrate on the words, the music doesn’t seem to bother me as much, at least not at that moment. I enjoy traditional music because there was a great emotional feeling that went into the words. The theology of the old songs is sometimes skewed (There is no fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins. That song terrified me as a child. I didn’t want to be plunged beneath that flood of blood, even if it meant losing all my guilty stain.) but the intensity of feeling is there. I enjoy contemporary music because it very often uses actual Scripture in the lyrics and tends to be true to the Scripture. The music, though, makes me miserable.

          The little country church we went to for a few years when I was in elementary school would have a Gospel sing one Sunday night a month. I always dreaded it without knowing why. But that is where I really learned the old songs. The words fascinated me. On the way home in the family car the conversation was about Sister Tilley’s horrible piano playing or how bad Brother John sounded or how good Dickie and Dottie sounded, both with their singing and guitar playing. But, I kept running the words through my mind. All the music, including Dickie and Dottie, was bad to me.

          This past Sunday our church had the 4 the Light Quartet play at our outdoor service. I am sure they were very good. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. My interest, though, was the words to the songs. And I wasn’t disappointed.

          Their second song was “Just a Little Talk with Jesus,” which everyone loves for its quick beat and its bass part. All of it is great, but the first verse and chorus is this:

I once was lost in sin but Jesus took me in
And then a little light from heaven filled my soul
It bathed my heart in love and it wrote my name above
And just a little talk with my Jesus made me whole

Now let us have a little talk with Jesus, let us  tell him all about our troubles
He will hear our fainted cry and He will answer by and by
Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning then you’ll know a little fire is burning
You will find a little talk with Jesus makes it right.

          What could be better than that? For me, the words are just awesome!

          They sang another song from those old Sunday night sings, “I Saw the Light,” and they explained the origins of the song, which is something I love.

I wandered so aimless life filed with sin
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I'm so happy no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord I saw the light

          Can’t you just see a wondering, lost soul? Not even realizing he was lost until the Light of Jesus shone down upon him. Praise the Lord, he saw the light!

          Then they sang a song that I have always kept the words to in my heart. This World is not My Home:

This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

I guess that what it  is that draws me to this song is the sure knowledge that all the struggle, all the disappointments, all the pain of this world is just a passing thing. The older I get, the more blessed heaven seems and the more disagreeable this world is for me.

They sang 18 songs altogether, including my favorite song of all. Victory in Jesus:

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How He gave His life on Calvary
To save a wretch like me;
I heard about His groaning,
Of His precious blood's atoning,
Then I repented of my sins
And won the victory.

O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

Yes, it ends with being plunged beneath the blood, but even as a kid the words always lifted me up. It is one of the few songs that brings me to tears. Everything He went through, He went through for me. Now I, and all who believe, have the victory!

Listen to the words of the songs you sing. Let the words stir you, rather than the music. Words are where the lasting power resides. Enjoy!