It’s been a particularly challenging back half of the week. I got up this morning to catch a flight home from Houston when the old hymn “Trust and Obey” came to mind. It’s remarkable how you can go years without thinking of those rich old hymns, and then suddenly one comes back to you as if it had never left.
I sometimes wonder if God hid one of music’s greatest miracles in plain view for us—the memory of melody; the wordless portion of a song written upon the heart as surely as ink upon the page.
A melody, not just to be pretty and not just to enjoy a song in worship, but to remember! Melody provides a timeless anchor for our hearts to remember, so that no matter how far life’s sails carry us, our hearts are never farther offshore from Him than a melody of the soul. Because the mooring of the melody never forgets, the message, in a very real sense, becomes anchored to our spirits.
That was my morning. God used a lyric that I sang as a child to remind this 50 year old man that, in God’s eyes, I’m still a child. I can’t describe the odd comfort this brings to someone my age. That despite the years and the many names now worn—husband, dad, brother, worship-pastor—the name, child comes back to the forefront. My great purpose, despite names and regardless of distance, is not forgotten because the memory of melody brings me right back to the anchor of the soul and the child sings:
“Trust and obey
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey”
Today, I get to be the kid again. I don’t have to act like I know all the answers because my Dad does. Today, I simply get to trust and obey.
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