Episode
Two Voices
- Podcast
- Grace for All
- Published
- Jun 21, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 266
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://graceforall.captivate.fm/episode/two-voices
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Summary
Psalm 98:4 (NRSV) “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.” My mother couldn’t sing a lick. That never stopped her. She sang in church every Sunday — loud, joyful, enthusiastically off-key. And she sang the same way around the house whenever the spirit moved her. She couldn’t have carried a tune in a bucket, as she would have been the first to tell you. She just didn’t think that was any reason not to sing. My wife Carla has a demure, slightly southern speaking voice — soft, measured, the kind that makes you lean in a little. What I didn’t know when I married her was what happened to that voice when she opened her mouth to sing. She has the voice of an angel. Maybe three angels. The first time I went to church with her, she was gracious enough to forego the choir and sit in the pew with me. When we stood for the first hymn, I found the page in my bulletin — and then this voice came out of the woman standing next to me. I nearly dropped my hymnal. Two people I love. Two entirely different sets of gifts. Both making a joyful noise to the Lord. Something happens to a voice on the way to God. It arrives in tune. The psalm doesn’t say make a beautiful noise. It doesn’t say make a skilled noise, or a trained noise, or a noise that stays within the lines of the musical staff. It says make a joyful noise. The qualifier is about what’s in your heart, not what’s coming out of your throat. My mother understood this in her bones. She wasn’t performing. She wasn’t auditioning. She was just responding to a God she loved, in the only voice she had. That was entirely sufficient. Carla understands it too. Her voice is a genuine gift, and she uses it beautifully. But what moves God isn’t the three angels. It’s the same thing that mo…