Why I Love When We Sing Together

As a life long lover of music, I have been lucky to go see some great live shows over the years. A few were notable because of the production value, the stage and lights (like Coldplay). Some were memorable because the musical performance was breathtaking in excellence (like Ben Folds).

One of the craziest feelings you get when you go to one of these shows is that feeling when the band is kicking into a huge section of a really good and really well known song, and it feels like TWENTY THOUSAND voices are screaming it out at the top of their lungs with the singer. It's really easy to get completely swept up in the music, and this kind of euphoric feeling sets in. (The picture below is from a Coldplay concert I went to a few years ago. They gave everyone these wristbands and at certain points in the show, they would all blink and glow at the same time. It was awesome.)

I've spent a lot of time wondering why these moments grab my heart like this, and I've settled on a few theories.

First, something about music speaks to me, always has. When you attach this melody and this sound and these words, it becomes more than the sum of its parts. James says that every good and perfect gift is from God, and it's not hard for me to make the leap and say the God gave us music as a good thing, a thing that CAN point us toward Him and His beauty and creativity. As I sit here writing this, I'm listening to this awesome instrumental music by Bethel Worship, and just listening to the sounds they make, looking out the window watching the clouds pass by my window, I'm brought to this place of WONDER.

Second, there's something about singing TOGETHER that feels different than singing alone. There is a sense of community you get when you hear all of these people around you singing the same thing, the "ecstasy of perfect recognition" as I've heard it called. All these voices, all these individual lives, singing one thing, together.

I think we can see the edges of why this thing speaks to us when we all belt out a Coldplay song together at a concert, but we miss the bigger picture. When we are all singing words about a relationship, or about how we feel, it's fun but mostly meaningless, ultimately.

How much more amazing is it to think about Christ-followers getting together and using music, this thing God made for good, to sing TRUTH about who He is, about what He has done, about where we stand with Him? That's the whole picture, and it's why my favorite place to sing together is when we gather as Christ-followers in worship. That's what this thing was MADE for.

So now, as I begin to get swept up in music in any setting, my thoughts are drawn back to the One who created the notes when He created the skies.