How Can I Keep From Singing?

Just in a few days, March 20 will mark one year since Governor Newsom declared a lockdown throughout the state of California. It was when I officially felt that the pandemic was real and that we are all, in one way or another, going to be affected by it. One year. Back then, I remember feeling helpless and uncertain. I never imagined that something like this could pass in my lifetime.

However, a lot of other things have happened since then. Some good and wonderful things. We, as a church, have proudly risen up to the challenges of this pandemic. We persisted and endured. We stayed together as a community and as a family, and supported each other even more than we would normally do. We have shared time when we can, within our bubbles, delivered food and essentials to members who couldn’t go out and get the items themselves, continued to give financial offering, and outstandingly remained consistent in holding our worship and sustaining our different ministries.

As choir director, music remained a constant influence for me to press on, and helped me maintain a sense of normalcy through this challenging situation. I’m very grateful for our musicians and choir members who stepped up and stepped out of their comfort zones to continue to be involved in our ministry. With the surging of everything virtual, I realized that not everyone was comfortable singing and recording in front of the camera. And yet, our singers did it, and shared their musical offerings in our worships.

By doing so, and with the help of technology, we’ve reached more people in sharing and proclaiming God’s message. Congregations without the ability to have online choir have used our choir’s offerings in their own worship. People who have found our music on social media have told us it that it proclaimed God’s grace to them.

​It’s amazing that because of everyone’s dedication, despite the struggles, our singing continued, music remained, and ministry grew. As a verse goes in the hymn - Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?  
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In this season of Lent, I see this pandemic as our time in the wilderness. A preparation for our ministry with new perspective, inspiration, and renewed enthusiasm, as we wait with joyful anticipation the time when it is over, and we can gather once again to celebrate the Resurrection.

- Rey Lambatin