Hi John,
I had a neat thing happen at work yesterday. A week or so ago we had our annual company meeting. This year’s meeting was in a format in which there were stations that we rotated through in small groups, to accommodate the COVID rules. At each station, just for fun, everyone was supposed to answer a simple question and write it down on a note card. Questions like, “What is your favorite color”, or “What do you like to do to unwind”. One of the questions was, “What is your favorite song?” I wasn’t sure what to answer, because I have so many favorites. I wrote the first song that came to mind: “I Wouldn’t Take Nothin’ for my Journey Now, by the Happy Goodmans, as sung by Earl Pittman”.
Well, it turns out the reason they asked our favorite songs was that each day they would play someone’s favorite song over the intercom (this is something they do at my work to let everyone know it’s time for our daily stand-up meeting). My day was yesterday. Jason, the guy who plays the music every morning, said he had a hard time finding the song, and that when he found it, it was from a video that I had uploaded on YouTube! It was interesting to watch people’s reactions as the song played. Some were curious about the song, some had a look like “What in the world is this?”, others just had a blank stare, and a few were bouncing to the beat of the song. Whatever the reaction, I noticed that the song seemed to bring a peace to the whole building for the rest of the day. Everyone seemed cheery, and several people who normally don’t have much to do with me made some sort of kind gesture or greeting to me during the day. And they only played the first half of the song 🙂
At the end of our stand-up meeting, our COO announced whose favorite song it was that was played, and I got to tell everyone how it was a special song to me, and that my father-in-law was the one singing. One of the guys from our shipping department came up to me and said his grandfather used to be in a gospel music group who was around the Happy Goodmans, and he said he hadn’t heard that kind of music in a long time. He thought the name of the group was the Southernaires, but he wasn’t sure. He said he’s going to see if he can find the album and the name and let me know. I told him a little about our music, and that this was a live recording at one of our prayer meetings.
I loved how this all played out, and to see the effect a song with the Spirit in it has on people. I remember this being the first song I had ever heard, when I first started seeking the holy Ghost, that I could FEEL something from God. Hope it blessed someone!
Vince