I love to sing\u2026\u2026 Love. It.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not really all that great at it. In fact, I\u2019m pretty bad.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fact I\u2019m pretty comfortable with by now.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s bad by several well-respected people in my life.\u00a0 When I was in the 7th grade choir, the director pulled me aside one afternoon and suggested that I might want to join the band.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m that bad?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sing like a dying frog.\u201d He answered.\u00a0 We struck a deal.\u00a0 I could stay in the choir class and fill out the group in concerts if I would only promise to not sing out loud.\u00a0 I was a \u201cmouth singer\u201d only.\u00a0 I shrugged my shoulders and didn\u2019t care.\u00a0 I got to stay in the choir with my friends and I got an \u2018A\u2019 because I never sang in class again.<\/p>\n
By the time I went to Catholic school in the 10th grade, I was lip syncing my way through Mass.\u00a0 I had seen the cringe of those around me on Sunday mornings, and I wasn\u2019t risking my high school coolness by screeching my way through the hymns I loved.<\/p>\n
One day, Sr Agnes Marie (old hook-nose herself) pulled me aside after Mass.\u00a0 I was a nice girl and knew the Mass.\u00a0 I actually prayed which was more than many of my classmates would do.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t I sing?\u00a0 I told her simply that I sound like a dying frog when I sing.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what happens to my normal speaking voice once it is set to music, but it\u2019s not pretty.<\/p>\n
She raised her eyebrows and tried not to laugh.\u00a0 (She was a full-habit to the floor wearing nun, so no funny business there.)\u00a0 \u201cPeople with beautiful voices should sing out loud,\u201d she told me. \u201cbut you should sing louder.\u00a0 If you offend the ear of God enough, He might take mercy on us all and change it for you. He is merciful after all.\u00a0 If God, who is the author of all Creation, can see beauty in the face of a warthog, surely He can find the loveliness in the effort that you make.\u201d<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s why I sing out loud at Mass and don\u2019t care one whit who can hear me.\u00a0 I realized long ago that there are people in this world whose voices show the beauty and wonder of our God.\u00a0 They sing and the angels sing with them.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s me, the warthog face singer.\u00a0 I sing and all of creation marvels at his benevolence.\u00a0 He hasn\u2019t struck me mute yet.\u00a0 He truly is a kind and tolerant God, and you can hear it when I sing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love to sing\u2026\u2026 Love. It.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really all that great at it. In fact, I\u2019m pretty bad.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fact I\u2019m pretty comfortable with by now.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been told it\u2019s bad by several well-respected people in my life.\u00a0 When I was in the 7th grade choir, the director pulled me aside one afternoon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n