I envy the broad swath of humanity that is able to clap and sing at the same time. Either activity I can perform adequately, provided I am only responsible for one at a time. But the moment I attempt to peel off a chunk of my singing brain in order to direct it toward the task of clapping I become a stroke victim.
For most people, clapping while singing requires no additional mental effort; for them it is as rhythmic and natural as walking and breathing. For me, on the other hand, clapping requires the same level of attention as playing whack-a-mole; I can do it, but I can’t play chess at the same time. As a result, I cringe every time a song leader encourages me to clap in the middle of a worship song—particularly when they decide to spice it up with a little clap-clap-double-clap action; such things could reduce me to a fit of epilepsy and I would probably bite off small pieces of my tongue.
As musically handicapped as I am, when the opportunity came to be involved in writing a hymn, I hesitated the way you might before embarking on a thousand-mile road trip after learning that your urinary tract infection could possibly lead to sudden incontinence. Fortunately, I had a patient and competent partner in this endeavor. Luke Schrieber, an old friend from MBI, did all of the musical creation on this beautiful hymn that we worked together to adapt from another poem, which is also featured on this blog.
Since I can’t read music, I had no idea how pretty it sounded until Luke was kind enough to send me a rough recording a few weeks back. We are both very happy with the song, but neither of us have the resources to make a quality recording of it. So the appeal goes out to all my musically gifted friends: if you have a guitar, or piano, or microphone and voice and time and patience and inclination, we’d love it if you’d give the song a whirl. If you like what you see, we’d love it if you’d make a quick recording and send us a link so that I can post it here on the blog.
Here are the words and music. Have fun.
Felix Culpa means ‘Happy Fall’ and is a theological term meant to convey that the plan of God which includes the fall of man, with all its sin and suffering and pain, will ultimately result in a greater and more glorious world than an innocent world that never experienced pain or the need of a savior.