I can clearly remember a time when I was down and depressed for days, and Sue decided it had been long enough.

“This isn’t who you are,” she chided me. “You can’t stay in this slump. You’re a child of the King! You need to sing!”

Right, that’s easier said than done! At first I felt resentful. Angry. Frustrated that I had absolutely no one who understood. It was unwanted advice. But deep inside I grudgingly knew she was right. I had watched her overcome darkness many times with songs of praise.

She would often comment that when she couldn’t pray she could at least sing. And then I would hear it, feeble and faint at first, but increasing in strength and power until it became full-throated singing. Being deaf and off key never stopped Sue from belting out those hymns with every fiber of her being!

So when I was out of the room, out of her sight I tried it. I knew she couldn’t hear me. So I hummed. You guessed it. It’s truly hard to add a song on top of your already heavy heart.

What to do to get through when all feels bleak and dark in the soul?

I Will Sing.

Did you know that the night that Jesus sat down to eat his last meal with his closest earthly friends, they sang a hymn together? His friends thought it was just another evening spent together. But Jesus knew what was coming next. No one else understood like He did that within a few hours it was to become the darkest night in human history with some of the deepest definitions of betrayal, abandonment and death.

And yet with all that, Jesus sang.

Singing does not organically bubble up out of bleakness. It’s a choice. An act of the will. It’s taking a conscious step forward. If it feels like hypocrisy to sing your favorite praise songs, you could at least sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Follow His example of singing.

Jesus sang. And He sings with His friends even today.

The first sounds out of your mouth may resemble a wordless whimper, but opening the mouth is opening the heart to let the light of Glory shine in.
And light
always
overcomes
darkness.

And not only that, but listen to these words,

“So I will sing like I will THERE
…in the fearless Light of Glory.”

Do you hear that resolve? That sudden clenching of the fists, that deep shuddering breath that shouts out, “no matter how I feel, I will sing.”

It’s choosing to sing in the darkness as if you’re already singing in the light of Heaven.

You see, of all the people in this World, the followers of Jesus should always have a fight song on our lips!

Mine? The one I turned to over and over again is by City Alight

“Oh, the night has been won,
and I shall overcome
Yet not I, but through Christ in me!”

And I love this one,

“Though the night is dark
Heaven owns my heart
And I got all I need to sing,
I know You love me
I know You found me
I know You saved me
And Your grace will never fail me.

And while I’m waiting
I’m not waiting
I know Heaven lives in me.

So I will sing like I will There in the fearless light of Glory
Where the darkness cannot find me and Your Face is all I see…”

~ Joel Houston / Hillsong

In your darkest hours,
what is your fight song?