This is the 19th of 25 special reflections based on lessons I learned from my mother. These will run from my birthday on October 27 until her birthday on November 20.

Read

Psalm 150

Mom and music. Music and Mom. The two of those have always gone together, kind of like air and lungs. Throughout my life if there’s one thing I remember, it’s my mother playing the piano and singing. And if there’s one thing I miss more than anything else, it’s my mother playing the piano and singing.

When I was younger, she wrote songs about life and she recorded a lot of those on cassettes. I still have several digital copies of those, and most of them are pretty sad. She wasn’t happy in her marriage, and she poured out her pain in song. Later, when she met and married my stepfather, the songs got happier. But her most joyful music was yet to come.

Mom was involved in church music even as a young woman. When we moved to Florida in the late 1960s, she got involved in an Episcopal church and her musical prowess came to the forefront. She formed a choir that had a rock-and-roll edge to it and nicknamed them, “The Crusaders.” I still remember Charlie and Donny Brown playing the guitar and drums, leading the church in Blind Faith’s “In the Presence of the Lord.” It was a complete departure from what most people in the church had experienced – and it was totally engaging. It’s safe to say that St. Andrew’s in Fort Pierce had the best music of any church in town.

In the early 1980s, now remarried and living in Sarasota, Fla., Mom and my stepdad had a huge encounter with the Holy Spirit and she turned all of her musical passion toward praise and worship. She led worship at church and she constantly looked for ways to make it better and more effective. She had been on the right track at St. Andrew’s. There, she had taught the church “In the Presence of the Lord.” Now at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Osprey, she was leading people into the presence of the Lord.

Mom loved everything about worship, and I truly think that she tried to live every minute of every day with at least a little bit of worship in it. That’s why her cancer became so very cruel toward the end. She clearly wasn’t able to lead worship any longer, but she could still sing – until she couldn’t. The breast cancer sapped her lungs of breath, but she had her voice until the cancer invaded her thyroid and deprived her of almost even speaking.

One of my most enduring memories was one Sunday when I went to sit with her during church. The church I was attending was streaming its service, and I put it on my laptop for her to see and hear. Her eyesight was fading and she couldn’t sing, but there was my Mom, raising her hands in worship and communing with the Lord perhaps more than anyone who was in the sanctuary. The cancer was doing its best to ravage her body, but it couldn’t touch her spirit or her desire to reach toward Heaven.

Mom lived a life of worship, and she has inspired me to do the same. I can’t say that I live every minute with worship in it, but I’m doing better. And I’m realizing that she truly was on to something. When we’re worshiping the Lord there isn’t much time to be angry or spiteful or bitter. When we’re in the Lord’s presence, He tends to speak to us in various ways, so our life is generally more productive and fulfilling. When we’re worshiping, we’re closer to being at our very best – because we’re closer to Him.

Reflection copyright © 2024 Doug DeBolt.