The other night, I sat in one of Nashville’s libraries of culture, a honky-tonk.
It had been, well let’s say, a “rousing” evening. The crowd was good and the band was cookin’, “Okie from Muskogee,” “Mountain Dew,” “I Hear that Train a Comin’,” “I’m a Rambling Man,” just good stuff. The singer fronting the band was good and the musicians behind him gave the group a tight sound. They were all good.
As the evening neared closing, the singer did something that probably took many by surprise. I’m sure some were only interested in “Where is that girl/guy I was talking to or dancing with?” The singer said, “I’d like to do a song here some of you might think it’s a bit out of place being sung in a place like this, but this song has been on my mind. Its one hundred years old this year, so I’d like to sing it and I hope you don’t mind.” With that, he turned to the fiddle player, called him by name, “Pappy kick it off.”
The crowd paid little attention at first and probably cared little. But as the song progressed, it was interesting how they quieted and began to listen, most even stopped dancing.
If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have uttered idle words or vain,
If I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I myself shall suffer through the strain,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have been perverse or hard, or cold,
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold,
When Thou hast given me some fort to hold,
Dear Lord, forgive!
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee;
Forgive the secret sins I do not see;
O guide me, watch over me and my keeper be,
Dear Lord, Amen
Sometimes special things do happen in unlikely locations. Whatever one might feel about the location, I think there is little argument about the message.
March 17, 2013
Keep on,
Larry Adamson