This post is a mixture of complete fun-ness and dead-seriousness.
When I entered college my goal was to revolutionize the Christian music industry. My journey began on a music scholarship as a vocal performance major. Now, I recognize that my aim was most likely 90% ego and 10% talent and ability. I was 18 years old, after all. However, even with those odds I thought “so there is a chance.” (Yes, that’s a quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber.) I will leave any accolades on my vocal ability to all the people in this world who have an opinion. (They’re going to say it anyway. This I did learn from my years of singing.) As for the performance part I can humbly say, I’ve never lacked to excel in this area.
When I reached the end of my first semester in college, I was miserable. I loved music more than ever and the people I met in the OBU School of Music. I was having a blast, but I was miserable to the core. I wanted to sing. I didn’t care to bother with all the other stuff, like studying. I remember my lowest point came at the end of my freshman year. Vocal majors were required to perform an annual “recital,” of sorts. (I don’t remember the official name for it.) As a freshman I performed for a panel who served as the jury. This included my principle voice professor and a few other music professors. I had been sick for a couple of weeks prior and had not practiced sufficiently. One of my pieces was in French, and I didn’t care for it very much. When my accompanist began to play I sang the first couple of lines and stopped. My professor, the endless optimist, said, “Okay, Lane, just relax, and let’s go from the top.” We did, and I stopped at exactly the same place. I could tell he was a bit frustrated, so I wanted to alleviate his pain. I told him, I’m not going to be able to continue because I don’t know it. That moment was a real “downer,” but it captured much of my angst in trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life, since taking over the music world had not gone as planned. That was the end of my “music career,” but nothing could steal my love for singing.
I love to sing. When I say I love it, I mean I really love to sing. I love to sing loud. I love to sing soft. I love to sing.
Singing is the grace of God for the expression of spirit and soul. It is the first instrument of all worship and praise. I recently shared with LifePoint how I feel about it and what I envision for us as a church regarding singing. The last thing I’ll say before I share the video is this, I mean it.
What do you love most about singing?