William Chong

N.B.: This post will make no sense to you if you’re not a Christian, it’s just not that easy to explain in a snippet. (Just ask me.)

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So I’m running. Displacing the air around me, surging upward and onward, and I tell myself I’m in control. Renewed zeal, nothing to war with in my life. I’m desensitised to the world around me bar my iPod, and the cadence of my strides.

And then, through Mark Driscoll, I’m being rightfully rebuked from so many different angles while pacing like a wannabe-harrier, through suburban streets in the evening breeze. His Word pierces me inside, and my priorities in life are unceremoniously realigned, much like a bouncer realigns a drunken soul. Pick it up. Fling him into oblivion.

And just when I’m about to stop running and collapse on my knees (and that’s not because I’m tired)…

… it begins to pour down from the heavens.

Gentle, comforting rain. Rain shy of cats-and-dogs, more like that Laser Eye Surgery TV ad…

But rain so beautifully on cue.

And then this urbane tinfoil voice, a spokesperson reading from God’s Word, strikes a gentler tone and reassures this broken Christian wheezing along Sunderlands Rd…

… “And therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” [Ro 8:1]

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Thank you.

I think the best justification I’ve discovered for singing, writing, recording and worshipping with songs can be summed up below:

“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zeph 3:17, NKJV)

All the good guys sing: the angels (Luke 2:10), the saved people (Rev 15:2-4) and God – isn’t that something? If we were made in God’s image, then I’m looking forward to the day when our glorification might just include a vocal-cord upgrade. At this point I’m trying to imagine what God’s singing voice would sound like. Basso profundo? Frank Sinatra? Mary J Blige? David Caruso? Or maybe it’s a vocal mesh that’s somewhere between Clay Aiken, Brooke Fraser, John Mayer and the Vienna Boy’s Choir.

Here’s another point: in the Bible, there’s no mention of Satan, or his associated cronies singing. It’s not immediately obvious whether they are tonedeaf or musically broke, but here’s the sobering possibility: sin takes away the desire to sing, and to sing happily.

I think I need to sing more.

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