~By Sharon Czerwien
Do you have a favorite singer at your church? One of my favorites is an awesome lady who desires to remain anonymous. She’s on our worship team and has a beautiful voice that is strong but never overwhelming. Back in the day when I used to sing in choir, I wanted to be near her during practice and while singing on stage (as she helped me in big ways with the harmony!).
Not too long ago, she and I were both at a local church conference. She happened to be sitting in front of me during the opening worship time.
I had just returned from dropping off my heavy bag in another area (to be done with it for the time being!), and I had quickly walked back to the auditorium where the main group—including the aforementioned awesome lady—were already singing.
I was out of breath and was not going to be able to “catch back up” until having the chance to sit for a while. With my health condition, breathlessness is no surprise to me while standing and singing, especially after any exertion.
If I feel overly-exerted at my own church, I just sit down and sing. Problem solved!
At this conference, though, I had the (not right, I know!) fear of others’ opinions and chose to stand the whole time—even though it meant I had to lip-sync everything. I was, otherwise, totally out of breath to do more.
The POINT???
Remember my friend!? I heard her singing beautifully and heartily to the Lord at that conference.
Me??? I wanted to sing heartily but could not. Then, I was otherwise too distracted with my own bummer feelings that I forgot I could still praise God to the best of my own ability.
The COOL THING
The following is incredible to me…
One of the conference songs that we sang was “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me” (CityAlight).
The lyric that struck me hardest was:
“With every breath, I long to follow Jesus…”
Medically-speaking, MY breath is minimal compared to others. However, I can still choose to follow Jesus (or in that case sing to Him) with the amount of breath I have at any point in time! Isn’t that truly cool!?
God is awesome. He was still not done teaching me a lesson during that conference song time. The next song was, "Great Are You Lord” (Casting Crowns).
There was more about our breath being from the Lord, and we can pour out our praise to Him!
So convicting!! =]
The NEXT Day!
Guess what…
At church the following day, we sang “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me”. Wooowhooo, I thought to myself. I knew what lyrics were coming, and I was prepared to sing them (yes, while sitting down!).
We also sang, “Hymn of Heaven” (Phil Wickham). The very beginning of the song is about one day breathing the air of heaven. Plus, in Heaven, God’s children will be healed of everything. I will then be able to sing to God with full breath. What a profound thought!!
Hymn of Heaven also had neat concepts such as:
One day in heaven, we will stand with the heroes of the faith and then praise God together. Imagine those breaths! Beautiful and praiseworthy to God!
Other "Hymn of Heaven" Possibilities
Here’s some neat songs that we may all sing together in heaven one day:
Revelation 4:8b
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Revelation 4:11
“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will, they exist and were created.”
Revelation 5:13b
“Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Revelation 7:12
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
~Let’s breathe easy as we praise,
Sharon