We were in the car yesterday, when a tune I hadn’t heard in ages came on the radio.

Roberta Flack.

Killing Me Softly.

I probably would’ve just hummed along, thinking about something else, if I didn’t have a personal history with this song. It was, after all, the very first solo I ever sang in church.

Yes, church.

It struck me, as I sat there listening, how very progressive it was for the church folks to allow me to sing a secular hit during service. This was 1977ish, for crying out loud. Secular and sacred music didn’t really mix, well…ever. I told Kevin that I had sung it in church, and he agreed that it was a little crazy, but not because it was secular.

“Why in the world would you sing Killing Me Softly in church AT ALL? What made you think to do it in the first place?”

I replied with, “Listen to the words.”

I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him
To listen for a while
And there he was this young boy
A stranger to my eyes

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me
As if I wasn’t there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song

My Jesus. I know it wasn’t written about Him, but it could’ve been, and that’s why I sang it in church. He knows it all, singing our whole life with His words. And because He loves us, He allowed Himself to be killed in order that our crazy ol’ sinner selves could be raised up with Him. While He conquered death in that instant, He continually kills us softly, layer by layer – the old us, in the broken places – to allow the new, healed and whole us to live on in freedom. Sometimes it hurts to have to go through some of the past – the painful places – and we wish He would stop; but He keeps on out of love for us, knowing how much better off we’ll be in the end.

I’m thankful for such a song, and a reminder of such a Singer.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Galatians 2:20 ESV

“Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete.” Colossians 3:9-10 MSG

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

“When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.” Romans 6:11-14 MSG