I Can’t Sing

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued. – Psalm 71:23 (NRSV) 

“I can’t sing.” 

If you started to say, “Yes you can! Everybody can sing!” before you even finished reading that last line, this one is for you. 

When someone says, “I can’t sing,” they are almost never saying they literally can’t. They’re almost never asserting that they are unable to make complex, repeatable, musical vocalizations. What they’re saying, usually, is that they’ve had painful experiences when singing. 

These experiences might have been in the past: unpleasant looks or comments when they’ve sung. They might be ongoing: a sense of discomfort or disconnect, for whatever reason, when singing around others. They might be new and acute: a depression or a death that fills the throat with tears whenever the mouth opens in song. They’re not really saying they can’t do it; they’re saying it hurts when they do. 

In that way, a jolly “Everybody can sing!” is a response that means well but doesn’t do well. 

Christianity is one of the great singing faiths of the world. Where does that leave those for whom singing is painful, for whom “My life flows on in endless song” feels like a challenge at best and a prison sentence at worst? 

As odd ones out, mostly. Unless somebody becomes curious and caring instead of declarative when they hear, “I can’t sing.” Unless somebody, especially one of the ones for whom singing seems to come so easily, says, “Tell me more about that” and then listens when they do. 

Prayer
For all the singers—the pained and the lighthearted, the skilled and the enthusiastic, the divas and the shower soloists, the ones who sing out loud and the ones who sing inside—we pray. Amen.

About the Author
Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.