In April of 2021 I went to my first Women’s Retreat ever. The women of my church gathered at a camp in the Texas Hill Country and we worshiped, studied, fellowshipped, and prayed together. It was an incredible time for me. One thing that absolutely took my breath away about it was the worship. Listening to so many women’s voices raised in song to our Lord and Savior was incredibly moving, and left me in tears daily.

I was in choir in high school, mainly because my friends were in choir, and I wanted to be with them, but also I have always enjoyed singing. My dad used to tell stories about how, as a small child, I would make up songs about whatever was going on at the time, I recently realized I kind of still do that when I’m alone. Being together in a group of women and creating harmonies with just our voices is a form of absolutely pure worship to me.

However, I am a mezzo soprano or an alto one or two. For those readers who are not choir people, that means I have a middle-range voice, I can’t reach the highest high notes and I can’t reach the lowest low notes. I have never taken a music theory class, even though I would love to now, so forgive the ignorant assertion I am about to make, but it seems to me like most music is set in an octave that my voice can’t fully reach. This 2015 article from Gizmodo says that most music is written in one of four keys, and apparently they’re all hard for me. There are some singers who are similar to me and I can almost always sing their songs, I have learned that I can usually sing pretty much anything Peggy Lee ever wrote without having to change the key, but Frank Sinatra? Dolly Parton? Mariah Carey? Forget it. I have to shift up or down an octave in the middle of the song to be able to reach the notes. It’s for this reason that, when I was in choir, I was almost always relegated to the harmony. Watch this video for an example of what an alto harmony part sounds like sung by itself.

Although I love to listen to harmonic music, I always hated having to sing it, because so much of the beauty of the song is in the melody. You can sing the melody alone and it sounds beautiful, but the harmony alone just sounds weird. Harmony is dependent on melody, but melody is independent. I wanted to be independent. I hated that my voice would screech or crack at the high notes, and I remember feeling so masculine when I was able to reach lower notes than most of my girlfriends. I am already tall, I don’t want a deep voice.

Back to the women’s retreat: as I stood there on the first evening, arms raised, tears streaming down my face, singing the harmony to the worship songs we were singing together, in complete surrender to God, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart. This music is a gift that God gave us, so that we could give it back to Him. Should it sound flat and one-dimensional? Should we all sing the exact same notes? No. God gave me a deeper voice because the low notes make the sound richer. The melody sounds more complex and beautiful with the harmony. The low notes don’t pierce the air like the high notes do, but they rumble and resonate through the music, and create a unique sound that wouldn’t exist without them. If melody alone is a square; two dimensional and seemingly complete, then melody and harmony working together make a cube; three dimensional and exponentially more tangible.

It occurred to me that this is a good metaphor for for our work in the church, because in service to the church (and in life in general) some of us sing the high notes and get a lot of attention, and some of us sing the low notes that seem strange or pointless. Maybe you’re in the background, doing work that seems to be overlooked, but that doesn’t mean you are unimportant. Your work creates resonance that couldn’t exist without your contribution. Maybe you feel out of place in God’s army because you’re trying to do someone else’s job or sing someone else’s part.

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:6-8‬ ‭NIV‬‬