A Harmony that Hisses

Harmony: the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. An interweaving of different accounts into a single narrative.

Synonyms: accord, agreement, peace, peacefulness, amity, friendship, fellowship, cooperation, understanding, unity, sympathy, rapport, like-mindedness.

Origin of HARMONY: First Known Use: 14th Century. Middle English armony, from Anglo-French armonie, from Latin harmonia,from Greek, joint, harmony, from harmos joint

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I love harmony. I have as long as I can remember. But as far as I can tell, we don’t just know harmony. It is learned. We know melody, well some of us do. 🙂 We hear melody. We need to then train the brain to learn the harmony. If we choose to. Some people do and some people don’t or maybe they can’t. I’m not sure. I’m not trained in musical theory. Some people only hear one layer of harmony, some two and some three. Four part harmony jazzes me. I love it so much when it’s done well (aka everyone on pitch). As the definition above states, it has a pleasing affect.

I have been in choirs and sung in multiple groups and played instruments. Harmony is my thing. It is the part of music that speaks to my heart. It brings me peace. It connects me to my Creator. The Creator of all the parts. I hear and learn harmony parts of songs before I even know the words to.

I mostly grew up in an traditional Southern Baptist Church in South Texas. Maybe SBC churches don’t do it all right (really none do) but they know how to “sang”. As a young girl I would sit by my Mom in church and listen. Listen to the congregation belt it out, some not so well but you know what they say about a joyful noise. My mom had great pitch though and a great ear. She either sang alto or tenor to every song and sometimes switched back and forth in the same song. She knew harmony. It was beautiful. I listened. I heard. I learned.

I recently was accepted to be on a launch team for Jen Hatmaker’s new book, For the Love. It comes out in August and you should pre-order it now! Here’s the link and the shameless plug. There’s no shame in plugging this book because it’s fabulously written with laughter and tears. It frees a part of us that we may have kept locked up for a while. You’ll be hearing more about the book here in the coming months.

Anyhoo…. the launch team is made up of 496 women and 4 men from ALL walks of life. The diversity among this group of 500 has the potential of causing something far different than harmony. But, miraculously, it doesn’t!

As I’ve sat back and watch the communications happen (oh my, you wouldn’t believe how much is happening!! These people have some words!) on the closed fb group, people are sharing themselves and being accepted. People are asking for prayer and getting it and then being encouragement on top of that. People are being nice to each other. Like crazy nice. Even in our differences. Accepting. I haven’t seen one judgmental or condemning word yet. And there have been lots of words. 🙂

It’s been like watching a choir sing together. Not like a well trained, professional chamber choir but more like a small town church choir. With all the hisses. You know when the choir sings and the phrase ends with an “s” it’s like you here “s s s s s s”. Right? That annoys so many choir directors. Makes the rebel in me smile just thinking about it.

As best as I can determine, this launch team is singing in harmony with all the s’s because of one common denominator – our love for and devotion to Jen Hatmaker and wanting the best for her and her book that we’ve agreed to help promote. To share what she created with all of her heart. Oh yeah, you know where I’m going with this right? We will sing in harmony, even with all of our s’s, when we have one common denominator – our love for and devotion to Christ. To share what He has created with all of His heart.

Some days, weeks, even years, music may escape us. Harmony may be something we can’t even reach much less hear. May I encourage you to find the melody. Christ sings it over us. When we can hear His melody. Sit with Him and listen to Him sing over you. Sit with His people as they sing harmony around you. It is beautiful. Listen. Hear. Learn. One day you might just find yourself in smack in the middle of harmony. Interweaving different parts into a single song. Even if it hisses a little.

We sing because we’re happy. We sing because it frees us. We sing because it pleases our hearts and it SO pleases God’s heart. Even when the harmony hisses a little. We’re different but we can find a way to sing together. Whether it’s 2 part harmony, 4 part harmony or 500 part harmony. Beautiful hissing to follow. Our Choir Director doesn’t require perfection. But He sure does love harmony.

A harmony that hisses…. let those “s’s” fly free!

~Andrea

Sing because you’re happy… Sing because you’re free!