My best old friend from high school had been closer than a brother back in the day. We’d even been brothers-in-law for a few years but both ended up divorced from the sisters we’d married. Over the years, Mark and I had drifted apart. In fact, for many years we had not even communicated. But recently we had reconnected and were planning to get together and sing a special at his church near Mayfield, Kentucky.

Mark and I spent a bit of time talking about what song we might sing at his church yesterday morning. Between the two of us, we’d come up with a half dozen or so songs. Being as how it was only two weeks before Christmas, we considered a couple of Christmas songs. Specifically, “What Child Is This?” and “O, Holy Night.” Both fine songs.

Mark had suggested that we try out the different songs, consider which one we seemed to sound best on, and make our selection during our practice. Seemed like a good plan.

But when we met Saturday morning to rehearse, his voice was not in real good shape. We were afraid that if we spent an hour or so practicing different songs that it might be counterproductive. Not much point in perfecting a song if you’re not able to sing it the next morning.

So, when we met, we had mutually arrived at the conclusion that we should just pick out the song we wanted and then practice it. I knew in my heart which one I wanted to do. Apparently, Mark also knew. We looked at each other, grinned, and said, “Let’s do ‘It Is Well With My Soul.'”

And so, we practiced that old hymn, doing it three or four times. Each time, we further refined how we wanted to do it. Deciding who would sing lead, on what verse, and so on. I made part of that easy when I tried to sing harmony on the second verse while Mark sang the lead. We agreed that was not the way to go!

Mark is much better at singing harmony than I am. But I had practiced the harmony “echo” part on the chorus over the years and had it close enough that Mark felt like that would be fine.

We had both been praying for Mark’s voice. Years of leading congregational singing and also singing with his dad’s vocal group had taken their toll. But the biggest impact came from two surgeries he had in which the surgeon had to push his larynx to the side in order to get to the spinal vertebrae in his neck. Immediately after the second surgery. In particular, Mark’s voice had taken a real hit. But we kept praying and practicing and hoped for the best.

Sunday morning’s service began with the congregation singing “Victory in Jesus.” From the first note, there was such a clear and palpable presence of the Spirit. The whole church just seemed immersed in the presence of God and delighted in giving him praise. After the worship team sang a couple more songs, it was our turn to share the music we had prepared.

For the first time in over forty years, Mark Hardison and I were about to sing together in public. Mark gave a brief introduction, describing our friendship and its gap of many years with a recent, deliberate restoration that was spurred by his daughter Bethany contacting me last year and urging me to reach out to him. I was already glad I had done that and I was about to get even gladder. Then we started singing.

It was so wonderful to hear how much stronger his voice was than when we had practiced just twenty-four hours earlier. God had answered our prayers!

I thought about the hours and hours that Mark and I had spent singing together in our younger years. I remembered when we won second place at a talent contest in Fulton, Kentucky, back in 1988. (We lost to an 8-year-old piano prodigy. Really tough to compete with that!)

Mark and I had been praying that we might be a blessing to his church. I think, based on people’s expressions during the song and comments to us later, that we did. I know for certain that the greater blessing was the one we received from being a part of that worship experience and sharing our gift and love for singing once again.

I’ve noticed that it’s not really that unusual that when we put good effort into being a blessing to others, we often receive an even greater blessing than the one we give.