The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain daylight time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.
Music
Conductor: Mack Wilberg
Organist: Linda Margetts
Announcer: Lloyd Newell
With special guest Leticia Oaks Strong, viola soloist
“Antiphon”
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lyrics: George Herbert
“Look to the Day”1
Music and lyrics: John Rutter
“Sing Praise to God” (Organ solo)
Music: Paul Laubengayer
“Be Thou My Vision”
Irish melody
Ancient Irish text; versed by Elenor H. Hull
Arrangement: Cameron Joel Rose
Featuring Leticia Oaks Strong
“Who Will Buy?”2 from Oliver!
by Lionel Bart
Arrangement: Michael Davis
“It Is Well with My Soul”3
Music: Philip P. Bliss
Lyrics: Horatio G. Spafford
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
- On the CD Glory! Music of Rejoicing.
- On the CD Showtime! and in the CD set Encore Collection.
- On the CD Tree of Life.
The Spoken Word
“Great Days Ahead”
Do you consider yourself a creative person? Whether or not we know how to paint, decorate, or compose music, in a sense we are all creators. We create our own future, day by day. Our life is our creation, and we make the kind of life we want. That doesn’t mean we can control every detail—we all face circumstances we would never choose—but if our minds and hearts are open, we will be given opportunities to step up to the challenges we face and make something of ourselves.
“God left a world unfinished for [men and women] to work [their] skill upon,” an insightful writer once observed. “He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gave to [us] the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He left the problems unsolved and the pictures unpainted and the music unsung that [we] might know the joys and glories of creation.”1
What could be more joyful and glorious than creating something worthwhile and good, turning randomness and chaos into a thing of beauty? That’s what we can do with the small portion of time we have been given—we can help create a better world and a better future. In fact, this is our common creation; we all share in the task of fashioning a better future.
It certainly isn’t easy, but effective creators take responsibility and work hard to make things happen. They try to remain positive even in the face of difficulty and discouragement. They see opportunities where others see problems. The poet Carl Sandberg described such a mindset when he spoke of the future as “the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning creative hand of God. I see great days ahead,” he declared, “great days possible to men and women of will and vision.”2
With that approach to the world, almost anything is possible. We need only to put our mind and heart to the artistic work of creating our lives.
- Attributed to Alan Stockdale; see Sterling W. Sill, in Conference Report, Apr. 1960, 70.
- In Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 13.