Songs of faith offer hope and strength

No matter what our religious tradition, there is One who does hold our hand and comforts us, even in the midst of a pandemic that has changed all of our lives and forced us to adapt in so many ways.

Ever heard a song of faith that you could not forget?

If so, you know the power of that moment. If not, it is only a matter of time that you will have such an experience.

One person I knew described it as a “down in your guzzle” moment. I don’t really know how deep that is but I do believe It is a special experience, a deep moment and, in many ways, a lifechanging event.

I remember my pastormentor calling members to sing long meter songs — poems that were converted to a familiar rhythm — as a complement to his sermon and a form of encouragement to think more deeply about faith, life and purpose.

Someone would “line” a verse of that song – speak the words of the song because there was no musical accompaniment or hymnal from which to read the words — and the worshippers would repeat it.

Songs like “A Charge to Keep I Have” and“Amazing Grace” offered encouragement and hope to church members and built the common congregational experience and community.

Many of them included multiple verses that described a specific circumstance, challenge or change in the songwriter’s life.

They captured the essence of our “sometimes up, sometimes down, almost level with the ground” journey through life. Some people use a fancy word, like “vicissitudes,” to describe this uneven and, sometimes, uneasy and most personal journey through life.

As Andre Couch wrote and put to music: “I’ve had many tears and sorrows, I’ve had questions for tomorrow, there’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong. But in every situation, God gave me blessed consolation, let my trials come to only make me strong.”

These words are from a different time. Yet they offer hope and strength.

Most recently, words from a song by Tasha Cobb Leonard “accosted” me on radio as I was driving to church and I have not been able to “let go” of its most personal message – YOU, God know my name and my circumstance — and can affirm that:

“And now I'm walking in

your victory

Cause your power is within me

No giant can defeat me Cause you hold my hand No fire can burn me No battle can turn me No mountain can stop me All because (you hold my hand)

Oh and I'm walking, yeah, in your victory

Cause your power, it lives within me

No giant can defeat me You hold my hand.”

I am not alone.

In the collective, God walks with and comforts us. Because of that personal relationship with God, we are not what we’ve been through or defined by a specific circumstance.

No matter what our religious tradition, there is One who does hold our hand and comforts us, even in the midst of a pandemic that has changed all of our lives and forced us to adapt in so many ways.

That is a reason to have and embrace this hope and live by faith ... that better days are coming.