Years ago, thanks to Uncle Sam, I found myself living in Tornado Alley. (In case you didn’t know, tornadoes come up suddenly with little to no advance warning. “Evacuation” typically includes running to a closet in the middle of your house.) Imagine my feelings when a tornado warning found me huddled in dark closet with an infant in one arm and a toddler on my lap.
Something about being snatched up and pulled into a small space in the middle of a thunderstorm made my toddler lose it. This, of course, sparked tears from my infant. Honestly, I felt like doing the same. Thanks to my habit of storm “fleeing,” I’d never really been through any severe weather.
I started searching my memory for a worship song to sing to calm my frightened boys—and myself—but couldn’t remember a note of any of the choruses we’d just sung at church on Sunday. The only songs I could remember were the oldies I had learned as a child—the same ones I had hated as a teenager because of their “old-fashioned” sound. At that moment, however, I was thrilled to grasp and hold onto the promises the lyrics those older songs held.
The song that calmed two little boys and one quivering mama:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
There’s just something about that Name
Master, Savior, Jesus
Like the frangrance after the rain
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Let all heaven and earth proclaim
King and kingdoms shall all pass away
But there’s just something about that name
Some ten years later, I still think back to the lesson I learned while cowering in the path of that storm: old is not the same as useless. Worship comes in many sounds. From hymns all the way down to contemporary choruses. The older music, hymns especially, is a part of our church history and younger generations can be taught to appreciate it.
Because you just never know what will comfort you during the storm.
Link to song quoted above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SULXKJR3AoQ&feature=related
A more recent worship song I enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbGgA2lIDjc
