Singing In a Strange Land

By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there, our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion! How could we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Psalm 137:1-4

“How do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” That was the question posed by the Israelites when they were enslaved in the land of Babylon.

Psalm 137 is a psalm of lament. It was written while the people of Israel were being held captive. Far away from their homeland, their oppressors chided them requiring of them a song. “Sing us the songs of Zion,” they teased. And the cry of the Lord’s children came back, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

At this time in the history of Israel, God’s people were homesick. They were mournful. They were robbed of their physical and emotional energy to sing the songs of Zion, even to the point of hanging up their harps among the willow trees. They gave up their song.

Singing is one of my joys. I have a memory of being around the age of nine years old and riding in the car with my mom. As she drove, I was singing along to the radio when she remarked that I had a pretty voice and asked if I would like to take some voice lessons. That moment marked a beginning for me. My mom recognized something in me and gave me the opportunity to develop that skill.

From that point on, music became a driving force in my life. It was my joy and passion to sing. There were piano lessons, guitar lessons, school choruses, church choirs, and lots of practice sessions. I would go on to major in music in college and seminary and earn degrees in church music and vocal performance.

Music has been a gift in my life. Beyond giving me an academic and career focus, music has been a means for experiencing the Divine in my life. There have been times when music has taken me into a sacred space where I have felt closer to God than in any other time or space. It has been in those moments when I have felt that I was experiencing “the Lord’s song” much like the Hebrew children did.

For many years, I dwelt in a land where I could sing my songs. I was in a place where the melodies flowed easily and the harmonies were pleasing. To make music with fellow musicians who share the same passion; to stand beside my brothers and sisters in the church and proclaim the goodness of God through hymn singing; to listen to the quiet joy of children singing; and to feel the power of a lone voice raising an Easter alleluia – that was my Zion.

Things changed. Life changed. I had to leave the familiar place and travel to a distant land. It is a place I never expected to be. The ground is unfamiliar. The scenery has changed. No, I am not a slave like the Israelites, but I have found myself in an unexpected place and the question of the Hebrew children has become my question. – “how do I sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

The strange land may look different for each of us. For some, it may be a new job, a new home, or a new relationship. For others, it may be a diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, or the severing of a relationship. Like the Israelites, we have intentionally laid aside our song, hung up our harps, and wept. Our tears have mingled with the streams that have flowed through our lives, and we have only had the energy to sit down and cry.

How do we take up the song again? When will the Lord give us a voice that is loosened from the tight grip of grief? When will we retrieve our harps from the willows and make music again? How do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

What I am learning through my experience of living in a foreign land, is that God dwells in foreign places too. I am learning that there are other places to sing and other people to sing the song with me. I am discovering that my True Self goes with me – the essence of who I am is never lost to God.

Frederick Buechner says it this way, “Maybe, in the end, it is Zion that we are lonely for, the place we know best by longing for it, where at last we become who we are, where finally we find home.”

Nice News

Word Genius is an email that pops up in my inbox on a daily basis. When I open my computer each morning, it is there to greet me with a new word to define and understand. Most days it is a word that I have heard before, but its meaning is either vague or unknown to me.

Recently, the creators behind Word Genius made the announcement that a new resource called Nice News would become available for subscription. Since the last thing I need is a new daily email to read, I debated whether or not to subscribe. However, Nice News sounded appealing. With all of the not-so-nice news flooding the headlines, I decided that this bit of goodness would be a welcome addition.

Nice News brings articles of inspiration and hope to my inbox. The stories aren’t ones I find in the newspaper or hear on the local news regularly. One recent article shared the story of two women with the same unusual name who found each other on social media and established a meaningful friendship.

Other articles tell of amazing heroic rescues, scientific discoveries that will make a difference, useful ways to live simply and improve the environment, and people who are living lives that inspire others.

Nice News has been a daily reminder to me that I need good news in my life – that I need some words that remind me that all of life isn’t set on a trajectory towards doom and gloom. I read this email each morning after my time of meditation and devotional reading. The combination of these readings catapults me into my day with a question: what do I do with this good news?

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”

Each of us has a worldview. Our worldview is the lens through which we see. This view is shaped by our life experiences, our culture, our family and friends, and our observations. Understanding our worldview is important because it influences the way we live. We may not be conscious of its influence, but it is there.

Consciously or not, we internalize things and they take shape within us. I believe that making the choice to put good news into my life on a daily basis is an exercise in shaping my worldview in a more positive way.

Whether I call it nice news or good news, scripture calls it the gospel. If the word “gospel” popped up in my Word Genius email, I would have an immediate identification with it. I learned early in my life through my weekly attendance at Sunday School that, “the gospel means good news.”

Nice news, good news, gospel, no matter what you call it, God has given us love and holy presence to carry us through our days. That’s the good news. Our days may not be filled with nice stories like those I read about in my daily email, but God has given us the means to shape our worldview in a way that causes us to live a life awakened by goodness and grace.

How does the gospel, the good news, stir us? How does it change our lives, our relationships, and our worldview?

Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”

Be beautiful, my friends! Walk into this world with the gospel upon your heart and be messengers of goodness and peace wherever you go.

Take Heart

Heart-stopping moments. They happen quickly and without warning.

A car runs a red light and misses your car by what seems like inches. Your heart begins beating so hard and fast within your chest that you have to pull over and let it settle before continuing your journey.

In the department store, your young child wanders out of sight, and suddenly your heart is in your throat. The search seems to take forever, and then you find her slyly hidden underneath a rack of clothes.

Getting a cancer diagnosis, walking away from your firstborn when you drop them off at college or watching someone lose the love of their life are the moments when the ache in your chest must be what a broken heart feels like.

We are most aware of our heart when it beats heavy and hard within us, or when something goes amiss with its function and requires medical attention.

The heart is a muscular organ that is about the size of our fist. It lies beneath our breastbone slightly to the left. Its function is to pump blood through the network of arteries and veins within our body. It controls our blood pressure and our pulse. Without it, we are useless (and dead).

On the metaphorical side, the heart has been described as “the spark of life,” “the fount of emotions,” and “the house of the soul.”

People say, “I love you with my whole heart.” “He broke my heart.” “Take heart.” “Bless your heart.”

Biologically we know that our bodies cannot function without a healthy heart. Emotionally we know that our heart requires tending and relationships to feel whole.

But what is the function of the heart as it relates to our spiritual nature?

Cynthia Bourgeault, in her book, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart, says, “The heart…is an organ for the perception of divine purpose and beauty…finding the way to where our true heart lies is the great journey of spiritual life.”

Mystics have often described the heart as the “spiritual mind” – the organ that was prepared by God for contemplation.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God makes a promise to the people of Israel.

I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:24-28 NRSV)

Instead of a heart of stone – one that is unchangeable and inflexible – God wants to give the people a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh that is soft and tender. This heart has spiritual sensitivity. God wants to offer the Israelites an inward change.

Jesus says it this way, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

Bourgeault goes on to explain that the work of cleansing the heart and restoring the heart as a spiritual organ requires the act of letting go.

“The core practice for cleansing the heart, for restoring the heart to its organ of spiritual seeing, becomes supremely, in Christianity, the path of kenosis, of letting go. The seeing will come, and it’s a part we still have to work on in Christianity, but the real heart of emotion is the willingness to let go, to sacrifice . . . your personal drama, the letting go at that level so that you can begin to see.” (An Introductory Wisdom School with Cynthia Bourgeault: Course Transcript and Companion Guide [Wisdom Way of Knowing: 201]), 124)

Having the willingness to let go is the beginning. That is the beautiful part – knowing that God meets us in our willingness. When we are willing to let God work in us at chipping away our “heart of stone” that is when our “heart of flesh” begins to be revealed.

That chipping away can’t happen unless we open ourselves to the spiritual practices of meditation, contemplation, and prayer. These spiritual disciplines lead us into a deeper way of living. This is the way to the heart of flesh – a heart that is soft and tender - a heart that begins to see God.