Southern Gospel Harmonies!

I have probably mentioned in past blogs that I began to listen to Southern Gospel music after we moved to North Carolina in the summer of 2014.  At the time, I had been looking for a fifth generation Mustang GT convertible (2005-2012) for well over a year and finally found one in Virginia that met almost all of my extensive list of ‘Must Haves!”  So, with much excitement we made the deal and had it transported to our apartment complex in Morrisville, NC where we were living.

The purchase of the used, but showroom quality vehicle included a year of Sirius XM satellite radio and it was through that medium that we discovered the enLighten, Southern Gospel channel. 

A year or so later after moving into our dream home in the countryside near the booming metropolis of Fuquay-Varina, NC, our son-in-law, who just happens to own a home entertainment installation company in Tulsa, put together and set-up a nice system for our home that included speakers covering the front living areas of the house, the garage and stereo deck speakers outback as well.  It then made sense to add internet access to the Sirius Radio that we enjoyed in the car to our home system.  After that, we began to listen to and enjoy Southern Gospel music all day long… pretty much anywhere we went!

As I have thought about it over the years since then, I realized that one of the main reasons that I am drawn to the Southern Gospel style of music is because of varieties of HARMONY that the singers, quartets and bands employ in the presentation of the songs they perform.  I love good harmony and find myself picking out the individual lines that each participant is singing!

I think that I developed my appreciation of HARMONIES because of my wife Piper.  For not only did she live what I considered to be a life in HARMONY with her faith and her daily activities, but she also brought a soothing and beautiful HARMONY into my life as well as the lives of our children... and for that matter…into the lives of just about anyone that she interacted with.

And besides all that… she was a talented musician and seem to excel at figuring out HARMONIES most every time we sang together and/or led children and youth musical performances over the years!

I thought about HARMONIES this morning as I studied in my Bible from Philippians 3:13-14 in the God’s Word © translation where the Apostle Paul wrote,

“Brothers and sisters, I can't consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don't look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God's heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.” 

As I considered these verses, I found myself focusing on what Paul said that he did throughout the course of his life… which was to not look back and to keep running straight toward the goal that His calling in Christ offered him.  Instead of saying that “I don’t look back” the King James Version puts it as “forgetting those things which are behind.”  And it is interesting to note that in the Bible, “to forget” doesn’t necessary mean to erase bad memories… but “to no longer be influenced by or affected by them.”*

It was the idea of “not looking back” or “forgetting those things which are behind” that got me to thinking about HARMONY in life.  For I realized that “looking back” at your past failures and/or allowing their memories to negatively influence your present and future focus… can and will produce dis-HARMONY which leads to DISSENTION in you and the plans you feel led to pursue.

I remember my days of running track in Junior High where we were taught to never look back while running a race, but to stay fully focused on the finish line ahead.  Looking back can cause you to lose a step and/or break your concentration and possibly trip and fall… effectively taking you out of the race.

In the course of life, Piper and I also learned that there are always going to be people out there who will want you to break your focus on your goals by getting you to look back at what they considered to be your failures and effectively re-focus the pursuit of your future goals through the constant and limiting memory of past mistakes.

In both of these examples (and the personal memories of possible failures in your own past, it is clear that) looking back and allowing past failures or mistakes to negatively influence your future will almost immediately trigger dis-HARMONY and the accompanying effects of DISSENTION that tends to squash future plans, success and happiness in your life!

And you know… it doesn’t just happen in people’s lives, but also in the life of an organization or even a country… as seen by what is going on in our own country as the far left is trying their best to stop our county’s positive forward moving future and get us all to focus on what they consider to be the failures… or sins… of the past… and then plan and re-evaluate our future according to those mistakes… From my Biblical point of view… a move in that direction will do nothing but to exasperate the sounds of dis-HARMONY and DISSENSION that is already being stroked…

But as for me and my family… and I would imagine for each of you as well… we will choose to follow the good advice of Paul and live a life in beautiful HARMONY with the truth of God’s Word and the experience and expectation of His GRACE operating in our daily lives!

Have a great weekend!  Fall has definitely sprung in our part of the country.  We woke up in the low 40’s this morning and I even had to put on a hoodie for our morning walk... and it felt GREAT!  It will still be a while before I break out the thermals… but no matter what I have to wear… I gonna sing in HARMONY and still walk forward and not allow past mistakes to negatively influence my future successes… HOW ABOUT YOU?

 

*Be Joyful, a study on the book of Philippians by Warren W. Wiersbe, published by David C. Cook