For Wilshire Baptist Church
“I wish I had been in the room when that song was written.”
Singer Gary Morris said that recently at a concert in downtown Garland just before he sang “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” Everyone knows Bette Midler turned the song into an international hit in conjunction with the movie “Beaches,” but Morris was one of eight artists to record it before Midler. His recording was a top 10 hit on the country charts and Song of the Year in 1984 at the Academy of Country Music. He didn’t write the song but apparently wished he had been part of that process or at least witnessed its creation.
So, is there a room you wish you had been in when something big was happening? Something noteworthy, even historic?
I think it would have been interesting to be in the capitol rotunda this week to hear and see the presidential inauguration; to witness history being made, for better or worse.
Better yet, I wish I’d been in the Philadelphia State House in 1787 where the founders argued and negotiated as they drafted the Constitution of the United States. I’d like to have heard firsthand – and not from historians and the writers of “Hamilton” – what they were thinking we would need today and what they thought the future of this country would look like as shaped by their document.
I’m thinking the ultimate “want to be in the room” moment might be in the upper room in Jerusalem when Jesus had his last meal with his disciples. The Gospels provide some details, but what was it really like – that mixture of fellowship and fear, comfort and confusion, expectation and dread?
The fact is, we don’t get to be there most of the time when something big is happening. All we can do is make the most of what we receive from that event.
For Gary Morris, it was helping turn someone else’s words and music into a beautiful song about friendship and love.
For us 21st century disciples, it’s sharing the life-changing gospel of Christ with compassion, love, hope and humility.
Even if we weren’t in the rotunda earlier this week — whether cheering or jeering — we still have a role to play in what happens in our country and our communities. We do that on election days but every day in between as we interact with our neighbors.
And, don’t we all occupy “rooms” of sorts where we get to create or do something that makes our world a better place?