Singing the Lord’s Songs

Summary

Sometimes you just don’t feel like singing.

I once knew a young man—a college student—who was in a car accident. At the end of the fall semester he and three other college students hopped in a car to go home for Christmas. They decided to drive all night. Around 2:00 AM, the driver fell asleep and smacked the side of the car into a pole. My friend was riding in the back seat, sleeping peacefully, but after the accident he never walked again. For the rest of his life he moved around in an electric wheelchair, a quadriplegic. For months afterward, he didn’t feel like singing any songs. How could he sing with those useless legs and almost useless arms?

I once knew a woman whose husband died. He had a heart attack in the bathroom, went down and died, just like that. She and he had grown up on neighboring farms in Kansas, became best friends in third grade and sweethearts in high school. They had known each other for 70 years—and just like that, he died early one morning in the bathroom. For months afterward, she didn’t feel like singing any songs. How could she sing when half of her was dead?