Songs that lift us up

I've always enjoyed music. Dad could play the guitar and fiddle and the juice harp. Most of what he could play was old-time dancing songs that they played in barn dances and such. About all I could do was twang on the juice harp. Was fun. Probably chipped a few front teeth in the journey. We've bought the boys a juice harp, but they were cheap ones. I need to do some checking and see what a good one would cost. Probably only one that would hear me twanging on it would be Grace.

In high school somehow, the band director got me interested in learning how to play an instrument. I chose the Baritone horn. Really enjoyed learning how to read music and then play the horn. I was decent playing it. Placed in a few competitions. I had a deuce of a time hitting those notes that were short and really fast or those that were either sharps or flats. But I could play London Bridge or Farmer in the Dell with the best of them.

As I got older listened to AM 1600 on the radio dial from down in Oklahoma or somewhere down there. Kind of a rock station, but about all we could get in the Sandhills of Nebraska. And then AM 93 out of Ogallala. It was kind of western. Had swap shop and the weather and such.

Got married, and Marge loved everything Elvis sang, so listened to Elvis. She also liked CCR and songs like that. I tended to like Marty Robbins songs like "El Paso". "Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl." Matter of fact, I loved all his songs. Then there was Merle Haggard. He could sing songs that would touch you down in one's soul. One I enjoyed was the song "Okie from Muskogee".

We started going to Church, so we started adding church songs like "Love Lifted Me" or "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" or "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" or "Amazing Grace". Still liked the old-time songs; we just added a few more. When we were in Oklahoma attending college, most of the professors were Wesleyan and had attended a large United Methodist seminary, so they had been exposed to the songs of John and Charles Wesley.

So we got a steady dose of John and Charles Wesley. Songs like "Oh for A Thousand Tongues to Sing" or "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" or "Christ the Lord is Risen Today". Probably my all-time favorite Wesley song is "And Can It Be". Many of the students at Seminary were guys, so somewhere around 500-600 guys singing in chapel. I'll never forget the song "And Can It Be" being sung there. Pretty awesome. Marge knew how much I loved that song, so she learned to sing it and actually sang it at my ordination here in Scott City.

At one point in time we tried to learn how to play the guitar for Sunday morning worship services. We'd try to pick out the melody, but it wasn't much. Some of the songs we tried to play and sing were "Life Is Like A Mountain Railroad". Another couple were "The Church in the Wildwood" or "This World Is Not My Home, I'm Just Passing through". The tunes we played all sounded the same only the words were different. But it was fun.

We moved on and have gotten older. Now we don't take an active part in the song service by being up front singing or leading the song service. Now we sing or hum along. Most are choruses. I've grumbled under my breath about just choruses and longed for the old gospel songs written back in the 1700s or 1800s or even 1900s. But I got to thinking that maybe we need a message from back then written in the 2000s. Maybe choruses! I've come to realize that during the week I'll find a tune or chorus we sang on Sunday playing in my head all week kind of like the old Wesley hymns. Maybe we need a song book of the choruses.

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.