JPF Home Page Forums Hangin' with Harriet

This is a great chapter, Harriet and one I relate to very well. Most of the songs I write are liturgical and meant to be sung by the congregation. One day after the service had featured a number of my songs, a lady came up to me and asked where she could buy a CD of the music. She said the songs put into words what she had been feeling but could never express. She also said that when she sang along with the songs, she felt better. (She didn't realize that I had written the songs because I write under my maiden name.) On another occasion, a young man (late twenties/early thirties) came up to me after the service. He told me that he never sang in church but he did this time. He liked the beat and the melodies and what the songs were saying. He said they were meaningful to him and he wanted to let me know that.

The whole purpose of my ministry is to create singable music that could help others express their feelings to God and, through the use of scripture, let people learn of God's love for them. On both these occasions, I had been wondering if I had just been fooling myself and was considering ending my ministry. When those two people came up to me and let me know how the music had touched them, it not only moved me but also encouraged me. There have been other times when I was reassured but these two impressed and uplifted me the most.

Whether the music is religious or secular, when people are touched or moved or impacted in a special way, the song becomes more than clever words put to a tune. The moment a person is touched by it, the song becomes a part of them and more than just a song. It takes on a life of its own.