Songbird

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Cait came to visit me down in sunny, southern North Carolina. Except… it wasn’t sunny, and really, Winston-Salem isn’t ALL that Southern. Anyway, we were driving around the city and discovered that Maya Angelou lives in Winston and is an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University. WHAT!? Maya…Angelou… as in THE Maya Angelou? Yes. You really would think people would wear this fact on their sleeve, like, “Hello, welcome to Winston-Salem, the home of Maya Angelou.” I know that’s what I would be saying.

A few days later, I came across this quote of hers that rings quite loudly in my own life recently, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” Hmm. I got to thinking about that… analyzing it, wondering what sparked that thought for Maya. After running through a plethora of possibilities, I began to internalize it. I don’t speak because I think I have the answers; I don’t write because I know the solutions to the world’s problems. I speak, sing, write, cry, laugh, scream… all because I have a song. A story. And the story goes like this: I have been rescued by a God that captured my soul and heart, and to Him, I owe my life.

I guess that I hope that the stories we tell, sing, or write are not for the pure sake of knowing answers. I think all of us would agree that it is much easier to pay attention or listen to anyone that actually believes the story they’re telling. When it’s from the heart, suddenly no one cares about cliches, lame jokes, or even repeats. I certainly long to be heard–not because I found the truth, but because the Truth found me. THAT, my friends, is a song worth singing.