Through art, music, and any creative gift that we have, we can invite others into our lives without dominating or threatening in any way their own unique goals and purpose in life. There is almost no greater power than faith. Indeed faith is the seed that nurtures hope. Hope becomes the plant that produces the flower. The flower in full bloom is the essence of love! Faith transcends all that we can see, touch, and feel into a beyond that has no limits. When art and music are created as a response or reflection of this faith, they are then supported by an internal power that is far above and beyond ourselves. When our hearts, minds, and souls have transcended the natural worries, frustrations, and fears of life, then a dimension is added that can sweep aside the hurts and pains. This then enables our abilities to understand and forgive those things and people that have caused us annoyance and pain.

The beat, the tune, the harmonies, and the lyrics lift beyond the boundaries of ourselves, soar above our pettiness, and open our capacity to embrace others beyond their own human limitations. There is nothing like music to communicate joy, a sense of celebration, and deliver a freedom beyond the captivity of everyday life. There was no better demonstration of this than in the days of slavery in the United States, when the music of our African American brethren soared above the sorrow and suffering of a people held captive.

When my little brother died in 1959, I was introduced to Handel’s Messiah at the age of nine. The music was majestic; the poetry was beautiful. About the mid-1980s through a brief encounter with Tom Sine, author of A Mustard Seed Conspiracy, these same words and music were transformed to power: the power of transformation, the power of life, the power of healing, and most importantly, the power of love—perhaps the rarest ingredient in our world today. It was in this frame of mind that I left my comfort zones behind and went into some of the darkest places in America and Canada—jails and prisons. It was in one of these settings that I had the opportunity to meet the president of the most feared street gang in Canada. His picture had been on the front pages of newspapers across the nation for two years. It was to this reformed man I held up the absolute belief that life could be different, and so it became!

I leave you with this article unfinished, unanswered, so you, too, can search the depths of your heart and write the finishing chapter with your own life.