This weekend we are host to the Piedmont College Singers. 47 Piedmont students will descend upon Gainesville and delight the old and the young alike with their beautiful music. We’ll highlight them in our worship service, and be able to participate in the gift of music they bring to us, and to the world.

When I was in high school I sang in my high school and church choirs. At first it was the kind of thing I was forced to do—my mother scooting my friends and me over to the church on those awful Midwest wintry afternoons to go sing with Mr. Winfield. And I have no doubt he grudgingly put up with our obnoxious antics simply because he had a deep love of music. Well, that and because he was paid to do it…but still.

What came of those experiences was a basic understanding of the musical staffs, but more than that, a deeper understanding of just how powerful it can be when we combine our voices in sacred harmony to make the world a more beautiful space.

Music has since become a deep and enriching practice of faith for me. There is nothing more transcendent than hanging on that last whole note, wishing the Choir’s song wouldn’t end. Whenever my son practices piano, it is as if a switch goes off in my heart and I am able to rest in the peace of the world, even if only for a little while.

I do hope you’ll join us this weekend to hear the Piedmont Singers, to see what kind of mystical mischief they can create. And I hope their gifts of music will inspire in you a deeper sense of connection to our world and beyond our world; a place where the peace of God drifts in beautiful harmony with life.