Friday, February 17, 2012

Our Best Songs

Frederick Buechner once wrote that one's true vocation is found in "the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I believe that our best songs are found there, too. 

Our best songs are the ones that delight us fully while also nourishing others. 

If a song entertains only us, it may not represent our highest calling. But likewise, if it is only written to please others (or to gain recognition or fame), it misses the mark too.

Our songs must speak to our own deepest values first.  Then they can move, in their own way and in their own time, beyond our personal sphere...to that place of divine connection with others.

We seldom know exactly how that will be accomplished, or when, but that's okay.

It's enough to start with the deep gladness, and the deep hunger we all know, and begin to sing.