Sing For Bowen
One of our closest family friends (Matt & Sarah Hammitt of Sanctus Real) is in the middle of one of their hardest seasons yet. Their son Bowen has a serious and rare congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. Just a few days after birth, Bowen, whose name means “small, victorious one,” underwent his first open heart surgery and it’s been a crazy journey ever since.
Today, Bowen who’s 7, has a pretty revealing and invasive procedure that has us all interceding and praying on his behalf. I am reminded of how often music and songs were used to pray throughout the generations. Often times, in our culture, “Worship music” can become an inoculating wall of sound that lulls us away from the power that God intended for it. Music is one of the rare divinely created vehicles that can align our heads and our hearts. And if prayer is aligning with God, then this is a beautiful way to pray with our body, mind, spirit, heart and soul.
Remember the story of Jehoshaphat the King of Israel? He was greatly outnumbered and all but surrounded before the battle even began when God invited him to align his people’s hearts, minds, and spirits through singing.
Picture this: God told Jehoshaphat to send out men ahead of his army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”
As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.
There are so many lessons to be learned from this story and posture, but this week, I’d love for us to get the bigger picture.
10000MINUTES Practice:
Let’s sing our prayers all week long. This doesn’t need to be a cheesy prayer musical, but an aligning tool for your soul to the heart and movement of God.
I am singing my prayers today for my little buddy Bowen Hammitt and his amazing family. What song do you need to pray today?
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