Inspirational Songs

Have you ever been inspired by a song? Sometimes the lyrics of a song will strike a “chord” (pardon the pun) with something in your life or sometimes the music sets your feet to dancing!

Dancing is lots of fun and lifts the spirits. Give me a “thank God I’m a country boy” or even “footloose” and I’m inspired to dance! Even better, I enjoy“old time” dance music. Trust me, you will get a goods night sleep after a few hours of dancing!

However, whether its country, rock, or pop, the “Somebody done somebody wrong songs” drag me down and I choose not to listen to them.

In early 2024 when one of many viruses were going around it partially disabled several people including myself. (We didn’t know it was a virus at the time, some professionals called it the “rapid arthritic virus”). I could hardly walk for (what seemed to me) such a long time. I was so used to being active, just get up and go. I was concerned that this was possibly my new norm. It started to get me down. I heard a song by Toby Keith called “Don’t Let the Old Man In”. According to “google”, this song gained huge popularity when Toby Keith recorded it, but even more popular when he became ill and was still performing it. It was also used in the movie called “The Mule” starring Clint Eastwood. “Google” also said, the inspiration for the song was a conversation between Clint Eastwood and Toby Keith in 2018; Toby asking Clint “how do you keep on going”? and the answer Clint Eastwood gave was written in the lyrics of this song “Get up and go outside, don’t let the old man in”.

Since Clint Eastwood was 88 years old at the time of the writing, I figured he knew what he was talking about. If Toby could sing that song right up to the end of his life (2024), and Clint was still in the studio as a director in 2024, age 94, I was determined I would walk just as good as before, and I did!

The question is asked in the lyrics “Ask yourself how old would you be, if you didn’t know the day you were born?” I love this question. I hang around with friends and family who are real go-getters and if I had to guess on one of those days, I’d be young! But if you caught me on a day when my get up and go got up and left, then the answer might be different?! So, then I remember the lyrics and smile, “Get up and go outside, don’t let the old man in”.

I am also inspired by hymns. I have studied the history of certain traditional hymns as well as the lyrics and composers. Their individual life stories are fascinating to say the leastand their story behind the hymn also. The language they spoke is so rich. Hymns are steeped in scripture. Scripture based songs are uplifting.

Those old hymns are fun to sing, especially in the harmonies in which they are written, most designed for a group or choir but certainly effective in a solo too. I love harmonies so every chance I get to join a “hymn sing”, I’m totally in!

“Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” is one of my favorite hymns and a perfect example of the uplifting of the spirit and mood. It was written by Henry Van Dyke in 1907. It is filled with encouragement to live in the joy of the Lord and hope and trust in the Lord. It was intended to be sung with exuberance! How can you not be inspired singing this song!

“Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!”