Encore – Thoughts on LPYC Tour 2014 – Day One

As I’m working on (yet again) restarting this blog, I thought I’d bring back a series I wrote in 2014 about a youth choir tour, originally published in July 2014.  Enjoy.

This is the start of a set of entries inspired by the 2014 tour of the Living Proof Youth Choir (LPYC) of Christ UMC in Plano, Texas. It isn’t meant to be a summary of the tour, but a set of reflections prompted by events on the trip.

The first stop on the tour is Springhill, an assisted living facility in Neosho, Missouri.  This tour will take us to St. Louis and Chicago and back.  We will sing for churches, for a children’s ministry, for a homeless ministry, and for places like Springhill.

The choir program includes Christ has Broken Down the Wall by Mark Miller. It works the way most powerful songs work, with a simple melody and simple words. It starts with a solo voice:

Christ has broken down the wall. Christ has broken down the wall. Let us join our hearts as one. Christ has broken down the wall.

The soloist this year is Natalie, who sings as if the song was written for her. I can’t listen to this song without feeling the tears, and they start when Natalie starts. By the end of the tour, Natalie will sing through her own tears.

We’re accepted as we are. We’re accepted as we are. Through God’s love all is reconciled. We’re accepted as we are.

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time in assisted living facilities. It’s a place where your limitations seek to define you. As my mother’s dementia worsened, her needs became greater than our ability to respond. My sister and I placed her in a facility that cares for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, where she lived until her death last April. The same week as her death, my father suffered a severe stroke. He’s recovering well, but he now has to learn to live with a set of physical limitations. He’s living in a facility that can assist him with those tasks he can no longer do safely. I associate these places with limitations, with finitude.

The people here live with finitude. The rest of us know in our heads that we’re finite, but we’re able to go for long stretches without thinking about it. In this setting, I listen to a song that tells me how we’re all accepted, limitations and all.

Cast aside your doubts and fears. Cast aside your doubts and fears. Peace and love freely offered here. Cast aside your doubts and fears.

The idea for this entry came from this verse. It seems that life saves some of its biggest challenges until you’re frailest. Your limitations remind you of what you can’t do. You’ve lost friends and loved ones. It takes a lot of courage to grow old. You get to see those who embrace life even at this stage.

We will tear down the wall. We will tear down every wall. God has called us one and all. Christ has broken down the wall.

They sing this verse with such conviction that I believe they will be the ones to do it. The words change from “we will tear down the wall” to “we will tear down every wall”. The singers may be young, but they understand finitude. There are those with chronic health problems, those who have family members with chronic health problems, and those whose parents have divorced. There are those who bring themselves to church; whose families don’t share in the faith they have found. Being a teenager means wanting greater independence, but not being able to claim it just yet. These singers know about walls.

After the choir sings, the students visit with the residents.  They get along so well, everyone smiling and laughing.  The residents share their stories and the students are eager to listen.  There’s a joke that says grandparents and grandchildren get along so well because they have a common enemy. These high school students and these elderly residents have finitude in common. It’s another reminder of how important it is to have each other, how much we really need each other, how important it is for us to connect with each other.

After all, it’s “WE will tear down the walls.”

This link goes to a video of the song being performed on a previous choir tour. You will see that year’s choir performing at churches, visiting the residents of a nursing home and a homeless ministry, and having some fun.