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: Andrew Unsworth
Announcer: Lloyd Newell

“Antiphon” from Five Mystical Songs
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lyrics: George Herbert

“I Sing the Mighty Power of God”¹
Music: English melody
Lyrics: Isaac Watts
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Menuet Gothique” from Suite Gothique (organ solo)
Music: Léon Boĕllmann

“Come to My Garden” from The Secret Garden
Music: Lucy Simon
Lyrics: Marsha Norman
Arrangement: Kurt Bestor

“Where Love Is”²
Music: Joanne Bushman Doxey and Marjorie Castleton Kjar
Lyrics: Joanne Bushman Doxey and Norma B. Smith
Arrangement: Sam Cardon

“How Firm a Foundation”
Music: J. Ellis
Lyrics: Robert Keen
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

1. On the CD Consider the Lilies and in the CD set Encore Collection.
2. On the CD Love Is Spoken Here and in the CD set Anniversary Collection.

The Spoken Word

Mindfulness Matters

As big as this world is, it can sometimes feel crowded. Not crowded with people, but crowded with facts and opinions, with tasks and demands. Sometimes the hectic pace of life doesn’t leave us much time to process the experiences that bombard us. As a result, we can feel trapped—like we’ve been hurried onto a high-speed train before we have time to find out where it’s going.

What we need is space. Not necessarily physical space, but mental space—space for our own thoughts and feelings. Life is not likely to give it to us; we have to create it intentionally. Mental health professionals call this mindfulness: the practice of slowing down to ponder and think and evaluate our experiences. It’s like pressing a pause button, so that instead of mindlessly reacting to life, we can mindfully respond to it.

An unknown author put it this way: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”¹ We don’t have to act on instinct. We can decide what matters to us. We can align our actions with our values. And as we do, we determine where we are going and who we are becoming.

A young man decided to take time each day to “unplug,” to set his devices down and listen to his thoughts and feelings. It helped him in many unexpected ways. While walking to an appointment, he took out his earbuds and listened to nature’s softer sounds. He felt more calm and confident. While doing dishes and folding laundry, he turned off the television and the music and listened, for a while, to his own thoughts. By stopping the steady flow of information and stimuli, even for a few minutes, he felt more peaceful, more joyful.

When we slow down, we find peace and joy because we find God. We can hear more than just our own thoughts—we can hear His voice. He is found, most often, in that quiet space we create between the world and ourselves. In the words of the psalm: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). In stillness, we find the divinity within us and the God who loves us.

1. Quoted in Steven R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill, First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy (1994), 59.