A New Song

And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.  No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. (Revelation 14:3)

Everyone has, from time to time, picked up an earworm.  It's one of those songs that plays over and over in your head that you just can't seem to get rid of.  In those situations, you long for a new song to replace this tune that just won't go away.

A few years back, I had a series of arguments that played over and over in my head with various people, some of whom I was very close to but with whom I had significant differences of opinion on a variety of topics.  I honed these arguments to a razor's edge and waited for just one of these folks to say something and I was ready to jump in with the speech I had practiced over and over to really nail them.  These mental arguments became for me vile ear worms with no melody.  At some point I realized a couple of truths: first, because I cared about these folks, I was probably never going to jump into a debate from which we could probably never fully recover; and second, harboring these noxious arguments in my head was robbing me of my peace and making it difficult to have civil if not loving interactions with those folks who were the targets of my internal battles. 

So, I decided for one Lent to give up the arguments in my head. However, it was not enough to just decide to stop the ear worm of these internal debates. That's not how ear worms work. They had to be replaced with something different, a new song if you will.  I found that it's difficult to have a raging internal battle with someone if you reflect on what, instead, brings you together.  It's also difficult to pursue these virtual arguments if you pray for the folks who were the targets of those debates. These can be the new songs that return peace to your own heart and restore a loving outlook towards those who have been the targets of your internal wrath. 

The good news is that these new songs can be sung by any of us; they are not limited to the 144,000 from the book of Revelation. Any of us can learn to sing a new song of love and compassion to replace those nasty earworms that plague us. 

Prayer:  Dear Father, create in me a clean heart; teach me a new song; help me to be more loving in my internal musings as well as my external words and actions. Amen

This devotion was written by Charlie Barton and read by Joey Smith.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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