God and Music: Intangible and Powerful

I grew up attending a Methodist church every Sunday. But I was an inquisitive child with a strong interest in science, and by the time I reached high school, religion as I understood it no longer made sense to me. Reading the Bible on my own did not help, as I found it dense and inscrutable.

Over the next 15 years, I had many experiences that taught me humility and made me believe there was a God behind the curtain, although I never expected that I would become a regular churchgoer.

But my life has taken some unexpected turns, and now I find myself back in church as an adult. This time, I have approached the altar with an earnest desire to explore the mysteries of faith as a Presbyterian. Although I frequently attend Sunday school class and other functions, my main activities in the church are singing in the choir and playing in a church band.

Is it a coincidence that my strongest ties with the church are through music? I do not think so. For me, it is through music that I feel the closest connection to the divine. It does not matter whether the music is a Bach cantata, an African American spiritual, or "All Things Bright and Beautiful."

Like God, music is invisible and intangible, but undeniably powerful. Like God, music moves me emotionally, though often I do not understand why. Like God, music does not yield to my efforts at logical analysis, although it is infused with logic, order, and beauty. And when I want to praise God, and words utterly fail me, I can play a joyful bluegrass riff on my mandolin and trust that He knows exactly what I am trying to say.

David Bailey, Alexandria