"Sorry, Michael's Mom"

PODCAST
Written By Bryan Schiele

EPISODE 180

Find Strength and Hope in Hymns

It’s Acapeldridge week at the Bible Geeks! We’re excited to welcome our dear friend, Michael Eldridge, to this conversation all about spiritual songs and how they impact us. If you’re not familiar with Michael’s singing and hymn writing (@acapeldridge on YouTube) you’re missing out on some beautiful and edifying music. So we enlisted his help building an A-Team of beloved hymns. And along the way we talk about our secret un-favorite songs of the church and some stories about how spiritual music weaves into every part of our lives.

 

Takeaways

The Big Idea: Spiritual songs are life-bringing treasures worth spending time with each day.

This Week's Challenge: Sing!

 

Episode Transcription

On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye. Yeah, that sounds like a super weird version of my favorite song. So yeah. Don't let my mom hear you say that. Yeah, sorry, Michael's mom. Definitely apologize. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 180. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We are about to get started on a brand new guided study coming up in just a couple of weeks. But before we do that, we really wanted to talk to another guest. This is going to be the third episode in which we actually have somebody else besides us on the show. And we are pleased as punch today, I think the kids still say that, to welcome Michael Eldridge to the show. Welcome aboard, sir. Thank you very much. I'm pretty sure the kids don't say that, but we are. We are just that pleased that we're breaking out old idioms. And we've been trying to do this episode for a while and many things have gotten in the way, including a flood of the Grand Canyon that stopped Bryan from recording with us. So this has been months in the making and we're very excited to have Michael here. That's right. I totally forgot about that. Michael is a pharmacist by day, but he has a passion. He has a gift really for singing hymns. He publishes beautiful acapella music under the name "Acapeldridge." And you can find videos of him singing four-part harmony on all kinds of hymns, including a couple of my favorites that he has written on his popular YouTube channel. Michael is a member of the North Church of Christ here in Fort Wayne. One of my favorite people to talk Bible with, and we're going to talk Bible here today, but we're also going to talk a lot about hymns. So welcome again, Michael. and I hope that throwing you into the wilds of our A-Team NFL style draft of hymns is not too strange of an exercise. - Oh, this is gonna be a lot of fun. I've been looking forward to it for a long time. I was about to say I'm pleased as punch, but I can tell that's gotten worn out already. (laughing) - Yeah, yeah, that's already old. We're gonna move on from that one for sure. Yeah, so maybe if we're not starting this thing off lightly enough, maybe let's lighten the mood ever so slightly and begin this thing with an icebreaker question. And we're going to talk a lot about hymns, some of our favorites here on the episode, but there are some hymns that maybe aren't our favorites. I was actually in preparation for this question looking online and I found a ton of people talking about hymns that they weren't the biggest fan of. So if you had to pick a hymn that you're not so secretly fond of, what would that be for you? Ryan, do you want to kick this thing off? you not like to sing? I'm just going to take the low lying fruit here and hopefully there's no digital tomatoes thrown at me after saying this, but I am not a fan of amazing grace. It is beautiful in its words. And there's a version that we sing sometimes that has an additional chorus that kind of helps it. And maybe part of it is the way we tend to sing it. It's just drags so much, but it feels like even when I'm leading it, I have a hard time finding a way to inject life. It's, I love singing songs that we all know and everybody knows that song. So it should have so much power, but for me, it does not. - Yeah, you might have some digital tomatoes thrown at you for that one, I'm pretty sure. (laughing) - I do not apologize. It's just how I feel, but I respect everybody who loves it. That's great. It's a beautiful sentiment. How about you, Michael? I know that hymns are a big part of your life And I don't want to have you in a place to have a hundred comments on your YouTube channel about how Michael hates my favorite song. But you want to weigh in on this? Well, you can't make this up. Amazing Grace is at the top of my list for a different reason. It's particularly the mashup, the Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone. And I also put Just As I Am, I Come Broken. I think mashing up a new song on the back of an old one is just a really lazy thing to do. And what makes it worse is when Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone in particular is written in four. And I'm pretty sure it's done by Chris Tomlin. And the way that he sings it is in four four time. But that's not how it's originally written. And that's not how anybody knows it. We know it all and three, four times. - Yeah. - And so if you've not heard Chris Tomlin's specific rendition of it and you see that pop up, you try to sing a song which is written in four in three, and it never goes well. No one never knows how to do it. It just is constantly people feeling awkward throughout the song, which is the last thing you want when you're singing a hymn. - That's interesting. So we're starting from different places on where we dislike it, but that does explain that tension. I definitely have felt that when leading or singing that version of Amazing Grace. It doesn't feel right because you're like holding certain notes, a little extra, and nobody knows what to do. Yeah. That's interesting. What about you, Bryan? Do you have a song that you want to just throw some hate on? I don't, it's not even so much that I hate the song or I dislike the song, but there are a lot of hymns like that. I think just miss the boat and I love the tunes and I love the words and everything in general as poetry, but like any hymn that uses the word bosom, I'm just going to put that out there. Please don't use the word bosom in a hymn. That's probably not my favorite also, but, uh, yeah, that's a really good point. I've got a similar song. It's not sung very often anymore. Although when you go to some of the older, smaller country churches, sometimes it's sung and it's called farther along. Oh yeah. Yes. Farther along. There's a particular lyric in there which may have been appropriate at the time it was written about 95 years ago, but is now just distracting at best and inappropriate at worst. The line goes, "Never molested, though in the wrong." As if to say, "I'm living a good life and I am getting molested, and all of those other people out there are living sinful lives, how come they ain't getting molested? It's just, ugh, ugh, man, it's terrible. It's gotta go. - It's so loaded, loaded, yeah, I hear you. I've never thought that, - Wow. - and thank you both for now putting those things in my head so that every time I sing those songs, that's what I'm gonna think. There's a family out in Hawaii that shared with me, in Hawaii, Japanese food is a big deal, And so miso soup, everybody eats miso soup. And so somebody told me once about why did my savior come to earth? Because he loves miso. And I think I shared that with you, Bryan. That has gotten stuck in my head so many times and it's such a beautiful song and I'm trying to hold onto it and then that comes in. So anyway, maybe we go from there. - It makes you ready for lunch. - Yeah. - All right, so let's move on and talk a little bit more seriously about something that connects us back to Jesus. And back in our guided study series where we were talking about what's good, we did have a whole episode about singing. And I think throughout the Bible, Jesus participating in these sort of acts of worship. And there's a verse in Hebrews chapter two that actually doesn't really come from Jesus directly, but it's the Hebrew writers' statement about what Jesus would say. And I think this is a powerful way to connect us with what Jesus feels about singing. It is, and so we call this segment "Like the Teacher" because we want to be like the teacher. We always like to start with Jesus, something about Jesus. And so this verse quoted in Hebrews 2, 11 to 12, it's from Psalm 22, it says, "Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, "I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly. I will sing your praises." So we just thought before we go on, isn't it neat to see Jesus described in this quote from Psalm 22 as singing praises to the Father. And Jesus is often glorifying God. His prayer, the great prayer in the Sermon on the Mount begins talking about how he wants God's name to be held in reverence, to hallowed be your name. And often, even though Jesus is God the Son, He is constantly glorifying God. His whole life here and His whole ministry is glorifying the Father. And then we see Him here in this song, like we see Him before He exits to the garden, we see him singing praise to God the Father. And I think that's beautiful as we think about how we want to be like Jesus. Even God the Son is happily singing with us the praises of the Father. It just, for me, highlights, I think, how important singing is just in the general feeling of how we express ourselves in this world. Like, just the natural reaction to being excited to be united with someone, just to sing with them or to sing about them. I think that's so natural for us. It's such a hard thing for me to describe how singing is just like woven into the fabric of who we are and what we do. Like, whenever you're happy about something, you want to sing about it. It feels like singing is a way that the soul is able to reach out as if singing is a vehicle. When you've got something on your heart, if it's weighing heavily on you, singing is a way to help lift your spirit out of your circumstances. And when you're thrilled about something and you're wanting to testify about something, singing lifts you up. It performs an action that your body simply couldn't because it's more than just vocal chords and a vocal exercise and it's more than just words that have been written in ink on a page. It's a combination of all of those things. It's a tool to help us reach out to God that is so unique in its efficacy and what it accomplishes and such a unique gift that God's given us to communicate with Him and with each other. Yeah, that with each other aspect really strikes me in this verse as much as it's a personal thing that you're just pouring out your own heart, making melody in your heart. This verse talks about how the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, I'll declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly, in the congregation of God's people, Jesus is singing the Father's praise. And so that sense of in communion, there is a unique declaration, a unique sharing in something unlike anything else when we praise God together and it's something that when When we're together, we are a family. It expresses our deep bonds that you see this about God, I see this about God, Jesus sees this about God the Father. We're all just in awe about how great He is. So let's just sing. That's the most, like you said, it's almost like a visceral, natural, one of the most human things to do. Whether it's a beautiful song or you can't hold a tune, singing just comes out from our heart whenever we have that sense of, in this case, how great God is. Yeah, the picture of Romans chapter 8, the spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. Oh yeah. That seems to be made true in song as well, not necessarily groanings, but in chords and in tones where a word is never enough to say what you're wanting to say or to have the emotion behind what you're trying to say. But I love the connection with communion because, like Ryan said, we proclaim the Lord's death together. All of us, while we partake of communion, are proclaiming something. And that's the fellowship of song as well, which makes it so meaningful. And I think why God prescribed it for us, when we sing these songs together, we're all saying the same thing. We're finding unity in those concepts and in unity, at least on this side of eternity, great comfort as well. I think singing is a great thing to focus on, which is what we're doing here on the episode. Maybe let's move on to our second segment, because I think as we start thinking about hymns, it probably makes sense for us to start picking our favorite hymns, and that's in a segment we're gonna call the A Team. - If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A Team. - So with the A Team, we are gonna pick a few of our favorite hymns, and Ryan's got some really fussy rules for this particular A-Team. Ryan, would you like to run us through the fussy rules for the A-Team of our favorite hymns? - All right, I prefer nerdy rules, but fussy is fine. So what we did is just to make it more interesting than just picking our favorite hymns or something like that, since we're with a true hymn aficionado, such as Michael, we're real lovers of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as well. We broke it down into three eras. And so each of us will pick one classical hymn, is what I've called it, which is before 1820, it was written, "Words and Music." And then one traditional hymn, which is from 1820 to 1978, that's totally, I just picked those dates, it's from the year Fanny Crosby was born, until the year A.W. Dykus died. So the two of the great hymn writers of Dykus, at least that have affected my life with some of the songs that are part of our congregations. And so that's the period for that second group, the traditional hymns. And then one modern hymn, which we've said is Post 1978. And we're doing this, if you haven't heard the A-Teams, it's like a fantasy football style draft and we'll do a snake draft. So you pick any category at any time, as long as you end up with one of each of those three at the end. And the snake draft means that whoever goes last picks first the next round. In this case, Michael's gonna go first, Bryan's gonna go second, and I will have the third pick. All right, jumping in, Michael. - All right, I'm gonna go with the obvious number one pick and I'm gonna take it 'cause I think one of you two probably would if I don't. and that is gonna fall under the traditional hymn category written in 1873 by Horatio Spafford. It is well with my soul. - Oh wow. - Yeah. - You nailed it. That was my number one pick. That was right there at the top of the traditional list. Okay. - And that particular hymn just has such a depth to it, right? There's such a story behind it. And that's the one, if you really think about a hymn, that's probably had a huge impact on you from early on, that's gotta be a big one. Yeah, I remember the first time I heard it sung. I remember the first time I heard the story. And even if you haven't heard the story, the lyrics and the music itself are enough to make it a great number one overall pick. My favorite verse has gotta be, though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. That is just deep. It brings you to tears, just, whoo. - I was just gonna say, that's about the point in the song where I always start crying. So yeah, good one for sure. - Everybody does, yeah. - All right, so my first hymn out of the pick here, I'm gonna go with a newbie, 'cause I know probably none of you are gonna pick this one, but it's one for me that's been a big help in my life, I think, and it's "L.L.Yan." It was written in 2004 by C.E. Couchman. Very cool hymn. - Charlie. - Yeah. I think Ryan and I, we first sung this hymn like a year and a half ago in a cabin. That's the first time I had ever heard it. This was, this is a big one for me and I've enjoyed this hymn a lot. I've actually never heard that one before. I need to look it up. I've sung other songs by Charlie Couchman. I know she's a fantastic hymn writer, but I've not heard that song. I have to look that one up. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. It's really just focusing on the Lord as the Lord above all lords, clearly as the one who who is at the pinnacle and above everyone. So very cool. I love L. Allian, Pavilion High Above the Earth. - I also am gonna go with a modern song because I feel like that was the hardest thing for me to find was modern songs that felt like they belonged in this pantheon of hymns. And I found two and I'm gonna go with one that I think at least in our congregation and a lot of people's lives that I know has become a classic. It was written in 2001 and that is In Christ Alone. - Yep. - Oh yeah. - And it just, it feels like a song that works well in congregational singing, which is to me, one of the great marks of a truly great hymn is it feels almost like an anthem when you're singing it. It is not one of those seven words, a verse song. It is packed with theology and doctrine and ideas, but it's inspiring. And so it was written in 2001 by Keith Getty and Stuart Townen. And like I said, to me, it's a new classic. Yeah, totally agree. Well, as, as you kick this thing off, I'm glad you went with that one. Cause that was also in the contention for one of my top newer songs, but definitely I can even remember the very first time I heard that song led and who led it and even just that the person who taught me that song was just such a foundational person in my life. So I think everybody's probably got those kinds of people who love to teach new songs and lead new songs, which is by the way why it's really cool to have Michael on the show 'cause Michael is the kind of guy who gets people introduced to a lot of new hymns. I don't even know if we've talked about it on the episode yet up to this point, but the fact that you have just this huge list of available resources to go listen to hymns on your YouTube page and on Apple Music and wherever else you can find it, Very cool that if you want to get introduced to some of these newer hymns and even older hymns that you got us covered there Michael. Yeah I do my best. I have a set number for each CD and album that I put together of at least this number of new songs that I try to put in there because just hearing a song and knowing how it goes is a huge barrier for a lot of people to singing new songs. But if you've heard it before and you can sing it and you know the melody then when it's it's sung in your congregation, you're able to jump right in. And there are a lot of really good songs out there. I know sometimes we hate on newer songs, like, oh, wow, they're only singing Jesus is my boyfriend music and the new music, you know, there are a lot of really good songs out there that are being written and bringing those to light and making them familiar with people is something I'm really happy to do. And it teaches me new songs too, that I've, I've never heard. All right. So as snake drafts go, I think Ryan, you're going to get to pick again. Is that how this works? I do. I do. and I'm going to go with a traditional song, and I'm going to go abide with me. This is a song that has just always had a lot of power with me, but I don't think I'm alone. I think it has settled into our collective imagination with its pictures of the Eventide and the darkness deepening, and all of those things. It was written by Henry Francis Light and set to "Even Tide" by William Henry, Monk in 1847. So "Abide With Me" is the first pick of round number two. - I like that song. That's a good one. I'm gonna pick one that I think it probably fits into the category of the classics from the standpoint of being back in the 1700s. I'm gonna pick on Jordan's "Stormy Bank, I Stand." That's a good one by Samuel Stenit. 1787 and just even the tune of that song, that'll get stuck in your head, like nobody's business for sure. - Now there are two tunes to that song. Which one are you thinking of? - Oh yeah, that's true. Well, I'm probably thinking of ♪ On Jordan Stormy banks I stand ♪ So here I am, I'm actually singing on the episode. - I know this is one of my mom's favorite songs too. And I think she actually prefers the other one, which starts. ♪ On Jordan's stormy banks ♪ ♪ I stand and cast a wishful eye ♪ - Yeah, that sounds like a super weird version of my favorite song. So yeah. - Don't let my mom hear you say that. (laughing) - Yeah, sorry, Michael's mom. Definitely apologize. - Yeah, back to hating on everybody's favorite songs again. I was wondering how long it would take before we started actually singing in the draft. So round two is where that happened. - That's right, that's right. Seems fitting. - Michael, onto your pick number two. - Okay, I'm going to stay in the classical hymn category. I'm very fiercely between two really great hymns here, but I am going to go with "On Zion's Glorious Summit" written in around 1810 by John Kent. I looked up his list of other hymns. He was very prolific handwriting, but not many of them are known. This is by far the most popular and even it's not very well known, but the imagery of this song is one that is hard to match. As I've grown older and some of my loved ones have passed away and my cloud of witnesses, as the book of Hebrews would say, is my cloud of witnesses has grown. This is a song that I think about because it's all about those who have died in Christ and we miss them so terribly and it's about them. What are they doing? They're in heaven. They're around the throne. They're praising God. And when you think about your loved ones, all who suffered sword or flame for truth or Jesus lovely name, shall victory now and hail the lamb and bow before the great I am. It makes me so happy and tearful in a happy way to think about my aunt and my grandpa and my grandma who are a part of that huge number that are praising God and His presence. - That's a goosebumpable song right there. - Yeah. - That's one of those that just, even just thinking about the lyrics like you're reading, you can't help but make connections in your own life and just really think about the power of that imagery there. I love that one for sure. - Yeah, it seems like meditating on heaven is one of my favorite things to do. And I don't do it enough, but we do it the most, it seems like, in our hymns. And that's where the hope of what is ahead starts to catch in our throat. and in our perspective, broadening to an eternal picture that we're looking forward to. I love that and the connection to relationships. Then in that song, that swelling chorus at the end is so powerful. Michael, you actually get the next pick as well. You can round out all of your picks. >> Okay. Sounds good. Well, I've got a modern hymn left, modern meaning post-1978. Pretty wide berth on our definition there. But this one is very new to me. It's called "My Soul Waits." It comes from Psalm 130, and this is a song which was written by Sarah Ship and Jack Reese as part of a project called The Timeless Salter. They've got their work on YouTube. I think it's just called Timeless now, but they've been going through and writing songs to all the Psalms. And it's not the first time that anybody's ever done that, but they're doing really fantastic work. And I remember being introduced to this song particularly. The text is relatable. I think we can all relate to feeling like we're waiting on the deliverance of the Lord. But then the combination of this one for me with the music really tugs at my heartstrings. So that's the one I'm going to pick. Probably not one on your guys' not one on many people's lists, but it should be. It's a great one that I've come to love. - It seems like this is the power in making these three categories a thing because obviously we're going to the ones that we all know and that we can all connect to. And then there's a handful of them that we're wrapping up here that are basically brand new to all of us. So very cool. And we'll definitely try as best we can to throw links to these in the show notes for sure. I suppose that leads to my last pick here. If I have to pick something, that what is this? the post-Fanny J. Crosby era and the traditional category here. Okay, it remains to be said and just needs to be out there for all to hear that my favorite song forever and ever has been "The New Song" by JR Baxter. I love this song. It thrills my soul to hear the songs of praise we mortals sing below. I think this is basically like the meta description of why this episode is really cool. thinking about hymns, it just fills my soul with praise to think about these words and to think that someday we will be able to sing a new song around the throne, a song none of us even know yet. That's pretty cool to me. I love thinking about that for sure. Yeah, that's a great choice. That's always been a favorite of mine. When I was younger and just starting to learn how to sing, I learned with my family, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles and parents and siblings. And this was one of the first songs that I love, that made me love him, Kims. And at that point in time, I was in junior high. So most of the songs that I loved were the biggest and the fastest or the most emotional. And I called them Two Pagers. And this was my favorite Two Pager. And again, for the same reasons that I love on Zion's Gloria Summit, I love to think about that mighty chorus. I want to hear that Mighty chorus sweetly sing. And I think about my family who are a part now of that mighty chorus. I just want to be there and sing with them. Such a great song. - Amen. Yeah, that's great. So I have four in the classical category and all are still on the board. I'm gonna choose the Charles Wesley song because nobody has put Charles Wesley, I think, in the draft yet. - I think by law he has to be mentioned at least once. - He has to be, yeah. - Yeah, so I'm gonna go with "Soldiers of Christ Arise," which is written by Charles Wesley in 1749. And you were talking about, it's not a two pager, but it is one of those belted out four parts doing different things. Whether you're a 10 year old who just likes to think of the idea of you as a soldier, or you're a mature saint who can see the depth of some of the teaching that's in that song. It's a really powerful hymn. So that rounds us out here with our picks. Michael ended up with, "It is Well with My Soul" and "On Zion's Glorious Summit" and "My Soul Waits," great collection. "My Soul Waits" being the outlier for me in that I don't know that one, but I'm excited now to look at it. And Bryan also in his three had a new one. I have sang it before, but a new one, which is "El Elion" in the modern category. And then he had on Jordan Stormy Banks, "I Stand" and the new song. So some take your breath away songs there. And then my three were "In Christ Alone", "Abide With Me" and "Soldiers of Christ Arise". Pretty good collection of nine hymns. I'd say any singing service would be pretty solid if you picked out of those nine hymns. What was on your list that didn't get picked? What were the top ones that you were like, "Oh, I really wanna work this in, "but I couldn't get it in." - For the classical section for me, I had "Be Still My Soul" as a close number two. That one's a great one. It's lyrics were written in the 1600s, but the melody that we know is actually from Sibelius. I think it was written like in 1899. So I didn't know if I could put that in because by technicality, it's crossing two different categories. But that's a great point too. - Yeah, I kept running into that too, but yeah, that is beautiful. I love that. I often quote that line, "The winds and waves still know his voice "who ruled them while on earth below." It just changes your whole perspective of Christ's sovereignty and that your life is in his hands. What about you, Bryan? What was on your list? - So I have a hymn that I am embarrassed to say my family makes fun of me for. Basically, there's a video of me when at my seventh birthday, we had a trip out to Rawhide, which was a ghost town kind of place out in the middle of Phoenix. We go in there and there's a guy playing guitar and a bunch of us kids from church are all there on video and he's asking us what song should he play for us at my birthday party? And all the rest of us could say, we want you to sing 10,000 Angels. And the guy was like, I have no idea what that song is. So there in the video, I'm sitting there with all of my friends, seven years old, singing at the top of our lungs, "10,000 Angels." And you really think about that song, it starts off depressing at a birthday party, but there we are, we're all singing the, and then it gets to obviously the chorus and it's just such a great song. - But imagine how proud your parents must have been in that moment. - Oh, for sure, yes. What song do you wanna sing, little boy? Oh, I wanna sing "10,000 Angels." I guess at the top of my list for each one, I had a pretty good contender, I felt like. I think just as I am in the traditional, may have been the one I should have gone with instead of Abide With Me, just in the general status for everybody. And Joyful Joyful, We Adore Thee, I almost went with there too. And then, Oh Thou Fount of Every Blessing, in the classical. And then in the modern, I really considered As the Deer. That's a newer song, 1984, that is definitely a classic for me. So that you can make a whole nother draft set, pretty good hymns. But maybe we move on from there into our reach out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ Okay, so our reach out question for this week is how has a hymn helped you? Bryan, you wanna get us started there? - Yeah, I would say for me, this particular hymn, I can remember the moment that I heard this song that touched me in a way that I couldn't even describe. The hymn was sung by a person who just loved to sing. And he was one of my favorite song leaders ever. And the very last time that I heard him lead this song, it was such a powerful moment because the next day he actually died. And it was sudden, it was unexpected. And this was the last hymn that he led. And believe it or not, it was, "It Is Well With My Soul." the last hymn I ever heard this person lead and just one of my favorite song leaders ever. And I even get choked up now just thinking about it, but thinking about that hymn, the connection that I have with this really close brother of mine who sang that song just gave it his all. And then that's now what I think about every time I think about him, because yeah, the next day he was gone. And it was like, wow, to think about that kind of connection that he had no idea he was leaving this earth. And the very next day, he was at his reward. And what an amazing thing to think that it was well with his soul. And I know that those words weren't just something he was repeating over and over again, but like those were real, true, convicting words that he sang from his heart. And what a great thing to think about how, like Michael, you were talking about seeing the cloud of witnesses on ahead of us, thinking about them, thinking about our family, and even just the connection with some of these songs, for me, is really relatable. And when you were talking about that, it was hard not to bring up this example, 'cause this is what's been on my mind this whole episode, really. - Boy, as if that hymn wasn't emotional enough, right? - Yeah, I know, right? - That is really powerful. (laughs) I think that is the power of that hymn, is just, there's something about, even if it's not in a hymn, just in talking to Christians, hearing confidence, hearing assurance, I'm ready, I'm ready. Whenever it happens, I am a man that is thinking about and ready to go home. And I like it here, but it's gonna be better there. What about you, Michael? What is a hymn that has helped you? - It's hard to pick just one. I know we've talked about a lot of them. for all of them, what helps me is bringing back to my remembrance who I am, what's most important. Sometimes we just get so lost in our day-to-day life and we get worried and concerned and new challenges pop up which distract us. And sometimes it's not until you go back to church or you're with family and whatever the case may be or you're listening to the song on a CD in your car, whatever, that you hear what you needed to hear. And it's not something you've never heard before, it's something that you've known your entire life, but for a moment you just forgot. And hymns have a way of pulling you back and reminding you of what's most important and centering your life around God again. - Yeah, I gave a lesson not long ago about how that is, remembering, is really one of the hardest things to do and really the key to actually following Jesus. After we learned to listen to him, it's your moment of opportunity, your moment of temptation, your moment where you need focus on the right things is not usually while you're reading the Bible. It's later on. And that key, James 1 talks about it as being a doer. And he says the difference between a doer and not a doer is the one who's not a doer is forgetful. So the key to being a doer is remembering with not just your mind, but with your will, what you're committed to in that moment. And yeah, a hymn is like pocket wisdom, pocket commitment and resolve that you just carry with you and you can always pull it out because we work really hard on memory verses, but songs just get stuck so easily and they're designed for us to, with their rhyme and their rhythm and their melody, for us to just have it sticky in our brain. And so it is, I love that idea. That's a really helpful, just functional aspect of hymns. - Well, they're supposed to be a tool, I think. Paul says that we're supposed to teach and admonish one another. Sometimes we need to teach and admonish ourselves. And I think what I didn't realize learning these songs growing up and singing them with my family is that I was adding tools to my toolbox. So that if any point in time, if I were to just get out of my own head and think, okay, what song do I need to hear right now? I could probably name two or three for any given challenge I'm facing. - That is, that's a really cool way to think of it too. What do I need right now? And there's always a song. And that goes with kind of what I was thinking for this Reach Out question, which is that the way that hymns have become, very intentionally, I have made hymns integrated as a soundtrack in my life. And I'm just so thankful that I've had them woven into my life in this way. So that like what you were saying, Bryan, about certain relations, you too, Michael, certain relationships just are tied to him. Certain moments are tied to a him. I think about the birth of each of my kids and there's a him that goes with it. And we actually, I remember the one that I just chose just to pick one is the moment that we called in for the first time we brought in my mother-in-law and father-in-law and my dad and my mom. And we were holding our first child, Anna, and the six of us and Anna circled around together and sang "God is So Good." Just quietly, just singing it together. And that was how we marked that moment. And that sticks with me. And then each of my kids have a song that I chose to be their song that I sang to them when I was holding them and putting them asleep or whatever. And I like the way that one hymn, sometimes it's a curse, it's like a problem the way a song gets stuck in your head. But when a hymn gets stuck in your head, it just sticks with you. And so rather than having a playlist of 17 songs, having a hymn that I sing, you know, what's six o'clock on Sunday morning when I'm preparing my heart to go and teach, that song getting stuck in my head affects me in a special way. And I just love how hymns work that way. - Well, and you think about the Psalms, right? And how some of these Psalms were supposed to be sung at different moments and on the journey up to Jerusalem or at different times during different festivals and feasts and things. And it's like, yeah, you can see why that is because it is basically God gluing his truth into your brain and connecting that to a moment so that every time you think about it, you're always thinking about that song, you're always making that connection in a deeper way than maybe you would have otherwise. So very cool. I think there's so many good things we can say about singing. Maybe it leads us to the challenge here for this episode. - I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. - And the challenge this week is the shortest one I think we've ever had. And it's sing. Sing is the challenge this week. If you do nothing else for the rest of the week, just find an opportunity to sing. We've obviously given you plenty of ammunition to load into your songbook if you wanna sing along. And by the way, like we already mentioned, go check out Acapeldridge, go check out Michael's work on YouTube and all the places where you can find him because if you wanna sing along with someone, definitely a good resource to sing along with for sure. Amen. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much for being on here with us, Michael. It's just been awesome to talk to you about this. As usual, just so excited about all the work you do. You're such a blessing to God's church and to the world with the work you do and the way you use your gifts. So keep it up, man. Thanks. I appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun doing this. So if people are looking to find you online, where can they find you? Where's the best way to follow along with your work? And is there anything you want to plug as we're wrapping this thing up? So you can find all of my work. Anything I've ever sung is on YouTube. My page, as has been mentioned, is called Acapelderge. A-C-A-P-E-L-D-R-I-D-G-E. I'm on Facebook and you can go to my website, acapelderge.com. If you want to send me an email, you can do that too. acapelderge@gmail.com. A lot of different ways to get a hold of me and find my music. Not really too much to plug, although later this fall, I'm gonna be having another album come out. It's going to be the last in my "Whatever Is" series, "Whatever Is Worthy of Praise" or "Whatever's Praiseworthy I've Not Figured Out Yet." But that's going to be coming out this fall, so something to look forward to and keep your eyes open for. - Very cool. You know, anytime you want to come by and talk about hymns or whatever else, door is always open. So thanks so much everyone for tuning into the Bible Geeks Podcast. You can find us on our website at BibleGeeks.fm, find show notes for this episode with tons of links there at BibleGeeks.fm/180 and wait until two weeks from now when we come back we are going to announce our new upcoming guided study and it's going to be a little bit different than some of the ones we've done in the past. Thanks for tuning in. Until two weeks, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Bryan Schiele
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