Songs Sung and Unsung

Thought on 82 days of quarantine.


This is a video from a talk "Songs Sung and Unsung" by Elder Holland given at General Conference on April 2017. He explained, “In those moments when the melody of joy falter below our power of expression, we may have to stand silent for a time and simply listen to others, drawing strength from the splendor of the music around us. It is by divine design that not all the voices in God’s choir are the same. 

It takes variety—sopranos and altos, baritones and bases—to make rich music… all God’s critters got a place in the choir. When we disparage our uniqueness or try to conform to fictitious stereotypes driven by an insatiable consumer culture and idealized beyond any possible realization by social media—we lose the richness of tone and timbre that God intended when He created a world of diversity… don’t demean your worth or denigrate your contribution. Above all, don’t abandon our role in the chorus. Why? Because you are unique; you are irreplaceable. The loss of even one voice diminishes every other singer in this great mortal choir of ours…

And someday I hope a great global chorus will harmonize across all racial and ethnic lines, declaring that guns, slurs, and vitriol are not the way to deal with human conflict. The declaration of heaven cry out to us that the only way complex societal issues can ever be satisfactorily resolved is by loving God and keeping His commandments, thus opening the door to the one lasting, salvific way to love each other as neighbors…

… Brothers and sisters, we live in a mortal world with many songs we cannot or do not yet sing. But I plead with each of us to stay permanently and faithfully in the choir, where we will be able to savor forever that most precious anthem of all—the song of redeeming love. 

Fortunately, the seats for this particular number are limitless. There is room for those who speak different languages, celebrate diverse cultures, and live in a host of locations. There is room for the single, for the married, for large families, and for the childless. There is room for those who once had questions regarding their faith and room for those who still do. There is room for those with differing sexual attractions. In short, there is place for everyone who loves God and honors His commandments as the Inviolable measuring rod for personal behavior, for if love of God is the melody of our shared harmony in it. With divine imperatives of love and faith, repentance for all who wish to be there. “Come as you are,” a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, “ Don’t plan to stay as you are, We smile and remember that God is determined to make of us more than we thought we could be.”   

Con amor,
Vero