Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. My
absolute all-time favorite holiday is Christmas, and Easter runs a close
second. To me, Easter symbolizes, of course, Christ’s triumph over the grave. The
fact that death no longer holds any power over the Christian, and the idea that
we can truly rejoice—in all circumstances—always brings a spirit of joy to the whole
day for me. But this year, Easter was different, and it was my own stupid
fault.
Have I mentioned I love singing? Probably. I love singing.
Music and words are my heart and soul, and, as I’m also a Christian, I think
singing is one of the best ways I can worship God. And a cappella singing is my
obsession. I am a fan of The Isaacs, a family bluegrass group often connected
with the Gaither Homecomings. In 2011,
they released an a cappella arrangement of the hymn “I Will Praise Him.”
(You can check out their version here.) My friends and I heard them perform
this live last September, and were utterly enthralled. Then somebody got an
idea.
See, every Christmas, the past few years, our girls’ group
leader got us together to sing an a cappella song or two. The four of us
have pretty well learned our harmony parts, and, at the risk of sounding
prideful, we sound kind of good. So when we heard “I Will Praise Him”, we
thought it’d be such a great idea to teach ourselves the arrangement, and sing
it on Easter Sunday morning as a surprise for our leader.
Eheheheheheheh. You know how quickly 8 months goes by?? Because
we decided to sing about 5 keys lower than the original, I transposed the notes
on paper. (Which is a literal headache, by the way.) However, my friend’s voice
teacher finally transposed the actual track, which saved our necks, because my
way was taking too long.
Long story short…we didn’t start learning our parts until 2
months before Easter, and by 10 a.m. Easter Sunday morning, we had yet to
practice as a group of four. My brain was alternating between small panic
attacks and bursts of excited nerves. Then my friend casually mentioned that
our girls’ group leader (also her mother) wasn’t coming because she had to work
that morning
So our main “audience”—the only reason we were doing the
song—wouldn’t be there to hear our surprise. (My friend says she told me
before, but I don’t remember this at all.) Trying to refrain from screaming out
loud, I calmly informed the other two girls, just arriving, that we would be
singing in the evening.
To be honest, I didn’t care when we sang. It was that
we had planned and worried and prepared, and now we had to stretch this out a
little longer. So I sulked. Morning service held zero appeal for me, and I have
no idea what my pastor was preaching on. Then I went home. After dinner, I did
what any self-pitying girl would do: vented to my best friend, who lives 12
hours away. I bemoaned what a TERRIBLE day I was having, and how I could just
CRY from frustration.
Her reply came a few minutes later. “I’m sorry. Nannie is no
longer with us. Please pray for mom especially and Pawpaw.
Then I really did cry. I felt like someone had just slapped
me upside the head, and with good reason. Here I was, whining like a 5 year old
about something completely irrelevant to the rest of the universe, and my best
friend was dealing with matters of life and death, literally.
I texted her back my love and prayers, and then I thought
about what I was doing. I had worked so hard on something so temporal. I was so
concerned about meeting man’s approval that I was completely missing the point
of the song. “I Will Praise Him.” Isn’t that the point of Easter? Jesus made himself
the lowest Person on the planet, and made Himself utterly detestable in His own
Father’s eyes, and for what? So we ridiculous humans could have a fighting
chance at eternal life. And not just to improve our eternal life, but our
present life as well. What is the point of living on this earth, and living well
here, if this is all there is?
Easter Sunday should be a joyous occasion for every
Christian to remember, and to celebrate, and praise God for the Crucifixion and
Resurrection. Easter is so much more than a new suit, or chocolate eggs, or lilies
on the platform. It is a reminder of why we live and why we have life.
We sang our song Sunday night, and we sang it WELL, if you
ask me. It turned out for the better, because we had the afternoon to practice
together. But I couldn’t help feeling a little bummed that I had ruined pretty
much my whole day, because I let my frustrations get the better of me. I had
lost focus of the only reason I could sing the song in the first place.
Lord, let the lesson stick with me for the rest of my life.
Linking up today to these wonderful bloggers!
