Can you sing?
I can’t. I’m capable of producing sound from my vocal chords, and in my head I sound like Lauren Daigle , but I’m fairly certain that’s a misperception on my part. As a recovering perfectionist, I rarely sing outside of the shower. We almost always have music playing at home and in the car. Sometimes I will hum along to the radio, but if someone comments, I clamp my mouth shut. In church, I almost always stood next to my parents during worship, who both sing beautifully. Now I’m married to a gifted singer so it’s easy to let his beautiful voice drown out my own. Worship isn’t about me, anyway.
But the prideful, fallen side of me still wants it to be.
I want to make a joyful noise unto the Lord and I want it to sound perfect.
Thankfully, in His infinite wisdom, God blessed me with other talents and abilities. Writing is by far a more satisfying endeavor. It is definitely my passion. The creative outlet that makes my heart, well, sing.
Have you ever wanted to achieve a goal, win a race, or master a new hobby? Yet no matter how hard you tried, you missed the mark every time? I’m writing a novel now about a disillusioned songwriter who wants to write a chart-topping hit and change the world with his art, but he can’t even get more than 1,000 people to watch his YouTube videos, much less get his work in front of a recording artist.
Maybe, just maybe, he’s creating for the wrong reasons. Striving for the applause of a fickle audience that will never bring him the satisfaction he craves.
I can’t wait to see what my new fictional friend (and I) learn on this journey together.
Your turn: what comes to mind when you hear the word ‘sing’ ?? Pop on over to KateMotaung.com and share your thoughts. Every Friday this wonderful community of creative souls writes for 5 minutes-unscripted-about a particular prompt. Feel free to jump in, blog what’s on your heart, then link up your post. Visiting other posts and leaving a comment is a great way to make new friends, too.
Blessings!
Photo credit: Jason Rosewell via Unsplash
Okay, first, your book sounds amazing… will keep watching for it for sure! I love this post, He creates ways for our hearts to sing, yes! I wonder if we spent more time expressing how we “sing” in Him and for Him we’d have less time to be so discontented and concerned with others…?
Keep singing for Him, Heidi! Glad to be your neighbour at #38 at the #fmf!
Awww, thank you very much! An author I admire and respect is mentoring me through the plotting process, so I’ve had some help coming up with the premise of the story. Hopefully I’ll sell it to Harlequin Love Inspired at some point. Thanks for the social media love today and I’m glad we could connect through Five Minute Friday, Christine.
Heidi, I grinned as I read your post. I am a singer. I’ll never be a Lauren Daigle, but I carry a tune, and one of my boys recently told me I have a good voice. 🙂 Being able to sing brings its own sorts of lessons in humility. Thinking more highly of my gift than I ought to led to many humbling moments. God is gracious though. He loves us through the lessons, and whether or not we sing well. 🙂
Your new books sounds like it’s going to be fabulous. Looking forward to hearing more about it as it grows. 🙂
Thanks for visiting, Jeanne. I love that your sweet boy complimented your singing, and that using your gift brings you joy and blesses others, too. Thank you for the compliments on my work-in-progress. I’m taking the StoryCrafters class online with Susan May Warren this year and learning so much with each lesson. I’ve heard the teaching before, but she’s giving me a lot of helpful feedback about my plot and structure. Super excited to see how this one shapes up.
Beautiful words Heidi, I went in a similar direction this week. I too, hate to sing, but love to write. Your new character definitely has me hooked, can’t wait to learn more about this fledgling story as it starts to unfold! Blessings.