The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.

This encore performance of Music & the Spoken Word has been specially selected for airing while the Choir and Orchestra are practicing social distancing. It contains a new Spoken Word written and delivered by Lloyd Newell.

Music

Conductor: Mack Wilberg
Organist: Richard Elliot
Narrator: Lloyd Newell

“Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah”
Music: John Hughes
Lyrics: William Williams
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“If the Savior Stood Beside Me”¹
Music and Lyrics: Sally DeFord
Arrangement: Sam Cardon

“How Great Thou Art” (organ solo)
Music: Swedish folk tune
Arrangement: Dale Wood

“Happy and Blessed Are They” from St. Paul
Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Lyrics: Based on Scripture

“On a Wonderful Day like Today”
Music and Lyrics: Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
Arrangement: Sam Cardon

“All People That on Earth Do Dwell”²
Music: Attributed to Louis Bourgeois
Lyrics: William Kethe
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg 

1. On the CD Teach Me To Walk In The Light and in the CD set The Missionary Collection.
   
2. On the CD Tree of Life.

The Spoken Word

The Great Power in Every Human Heart

More than three decades ago, the Velvet Revolution brought an end to authoritarian rule in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. This was a revolution unlike most in the world’s history: it was entirely nonviolent, accomplishing its goals primarily through peaceful protests. 

Just months later, Václav Havel, the former dissident and newly elected president of Czechoslovakia, spoke to the United States Congress and shared what his experience had taught him. He said, “The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human modesty, and in human responsibility.”

Havel went on to observe that while the revolution had succeeded in securing freedom for his people, the world was not yet united as a great human family. For this reason, he said, “we are in fact far from definite victory. . . . We still don’t know how to put morality ahead of politics, science, and economics.” 

These many years later, Havel’s insightful words echo as loudly as ever. The human world’s need for peace hasn’t changed, and neither has the solution: it lies in the human heart that beats inside us all. The Prince of Peace, the Savior of the World, has placed in each heart a longing for heaven, a sense of morality, and a feeling of responsibility to one another as fellow travelers in life. 

Acting on those feelings is not always easy. The human heart also aches with hurt feelings, anger, and selfishness at times. To reach the more peaceful world we all hope for, we’ll have to cross some troubled waters. But that’s what bridges are for—bridges of understanding, of compassion, and of cooperation. Such bridges are built as we set aside differences and work together as equals, not adversaries.

None of us is perfect. We’ve all made our own contribution to the problem, and so we all can be part of the solution. The power is within each of us, granted by a loving God who trusts us to do the right thing—to put morality above self-interest. May we always remember our shared humanity, our shared responsibility, and the great power that lies in every human heart.