I have songs.  Now let me back up for a minute and identify that I am absolutely one of the LEAST musical people that I know.  I have never produced anything that comes close to music.  I enjoy singing.  I enjoy listening.  I even enjoy trying to dance if the moment is right.  But I don’t play any instruments.  And I madden my family through somewhat intentionally ignorant statements about music.  An example would be something like, “play that in the key of G FLAT on the bass clef with a key signature of 7.”  See, it’s pretty ugly.  I pride myself in making up names for people who play instruments.  My wife is a pianoer. My son and daughter were both percussers.  And for a brief time, my middle son was a trumpetist.

So when I say I have songs, I mean I borrow songs.  But there are songs that speak to me of stages, eras, and times in my life.  One song has been deeply treasured by me recently, and I find it playing in my car often.  It is “Sideways” by an EDM group called Illenium.

It’s my MS song.  My wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the spring of 2023.  And this song expresses my commitment. It holds me accountable to my vows.  It brings out better in me than many hymns.  The chorus says,

“If the world is goin’ sideways
I know my place is here with you
When all our good nights turn to dark days
I know I’ll stay next to you
When your hope’s gone, can barely hold on
When your sky is runnin’ out of blue
When the world is goin’ sideways
I’ll be sideways
Sideways here with you”

My dear wife.  She is strong and holding her own.  There is an unknown reality ahead of us.  But we face it together!  I’m not writing this with any announcement that things have suddenly gotten worse, or she is experiencing some relapse.  I am sharing to some degree the way that music, and yes, even ‘secular’ music has ministered to my soul over the years.  Multiple Sclerosis has brought a tint to all of our future plans.  When I think about the future, I consider the reality of that disease being there, making its presence known in some way.

My commitment to my vows is NOT rooted in this song, as if I suddenly decided to be here to the end when I encountered this song.  But this song speaks to that commitment in a genuinely uplifting way.

I have songs.  Do you have songs too?