I Long to Complete the Song

I apologize for being away from this blog for so long. Life has been busy. Absolutely great and wonderful, but busy. More on that later.

Today I want to write a little on second chances. As I mentioned in one of my first blogs, my husband of 38+ years and I have always enjoyed singing together. He has a beautiful tenor/baritone voice and I have a passable voice, with a pretty wide range. We have delighted in making music together, either singing to accompaniment tapes or CDs, or more recently to songs downloaded on the computer. Sometimes I accompany us on the piano.

But my disease took most of that away from us. How I missed it – the joy of making music together had been an incredible blessing for me personally. When I was in treatment, I ran across the phrase “I Long to Complete the Song” in, of all things, a Tom Clancy novel I was reading. The phrase seemed to leap off the page at me and I have been pondering it off and on ever since.

This past July 3^rd, my wonderful husband and I were scheduled to sing for church – not for a wedding or a funeral – but for the special music portion of the service, for the first time in a long time. We chose an old patriotic song called “The Statue of Liberty.”  We practiced and practiced, reveling in the experience of once again singing together. We had a joyful time.

And then it was almost ruined. He mentioned to me on the way to church that morning that he was both happy and terrified. When I asked why, he informed me I used to drink before we’d sing together and the results were always embarrassing. I was shocked, to say the least. I do not remember drinking prior to a “performance.” However, my memory of much of the time I was active in my illness is spotty at best.

I decided I had a choice to make then and there. I could be insulted and hurt at his comment. I could argue that his statement and remembrance of those events were inaccurate. Or I could choose to accept that this was one more item I needed to take responsibility for and move on.

I’m so happy that this time, it only took a few seconds to own up to the hurt I’d caused, ask for and receive forgiveness and move on. And later that morning? We “Completed the Song” to a standing ovation from our congregation.

God is so incredibly good to us and he longs for each of us to complete whatever is unfinished in our lives. He continues to restore the years the locusts had eaten. (Joel 2:25).

Thanks for listening. Caro