Origins of a Vision

I was burnt out. After two years of college, I felt more purposeless than when I began. Something was missing in my life. To understand what I felt, I had to go back to why I came to Sattler in the first place.

When I was six or seven years old, God gave me a vision for Bible translation and ministry. It was that vision that helped bring me to Sattler where Greek and Hebrew are part of the core curriculum. I quickly realized that I enjoy language and the communicative approach that Sattler uses to teach the biblical languages. I threw myself into classes and studying Scripture. But there was another part of me that was not being cultivated. I always loved music. It stirs my soul. It causes me to feel things deeply. When I decided to come to Sattler, I understood that I would have to sacrifice my desire to play more instruments and write music. I did this because I deemed biblical studies more virtuous than learning music—music didn’t fit in with the burden God gave me for ministry and Bible translation. However, I didn’t know how much this choice would affect me.

A Transformative Conversation

One day in my junior year, Dr. Scheumann approached me after Tea Time and asked how I was doing. I shared that I felt like something in me was dying. I really enjoyed studying the biblical languages, but I didn’t feel like me. I came to Sattler because I wanted to study Scripture and be prepared for ministry. During this process, however, the gift and passion for music that God gave me was buried. I felt like something had to change. Only a day or two later, Dr. Scheumann approached me again and told me that he thought a lot about what I shared. He had an idea that could integrate my poetic and musical heart with my love for Hebrew: I could write pedagogical biblical Hebrew songs.

So much has happened since that conversation. The idea was born, but we didn’t know what the songs would look like. How exactly do you write a song to help students acquire a language? I had never taken music composition classes, and writing original biblical Hebrew text in poetic form was daunting. What if my songs didn’t sound nice? What if they didn’t help students acquire biblical Hebrew? While I was prepared for this project through my time at Sattler, I had to take what I learned and go further. But people encouraged me to keep going. This project integrated my life vision with my love for music and language. It just felt right.

After months of brainstorming, developing a workflow for writing biblical Hebrew lyrics, experimenting with different song ideas, and writing the lyrics and music for several songs, I was still worried that my project wouldn’t be good enough. A pivotal moment was during a conversation with Dr. Jeff Todd. He told me to let go of the pressure and be free to let God work in me. I needed to trust that God is doing His work in me, and that itself will be enough. This advice was so important for me. It reminded me of why I am doing all this work, and who I am doing it for. After this, I was able to write songs, not just as a requirement for an assignment, but as an act of worship. I acknowledged that by myself I can do nothing and came to a place where I realized that my labor will only have meaning if God works through me, in me, and to me. I am incredibly grateful to the people in my life who encouraged me and always pointed me to the source of all our inspiration and strength—the one who created language and music. While I composed the songs, they were not written by me alone.

Inspired

God gave me the music for the Pi’el worship song (“Tov Adonai”) soon after I talked with Dr. Todd. A month or two earlier, I felt that the song was special and was afraid to even start writing the music for it. Phrases and ideas came to my mind as I looked at the available vocabulary and considered how to theme a worship song using the Pi’el verbs Sattler students learn. One day—I think it was maybe in a conversation with my fiancée—the idea for a call-and-response song came to my mind. A soloist would stand alone and sing how he was lost in sin, and the choir (representing the people of God) would sing the truth of how the blood of Jesus covers all sin. After singing about God seeking and finding him, the soloist would join the choir and they would praise God together. As I performed countless Hebrew word searches and documented my Hebrew text, the words became ingrained in my mind. One Friday, a tune began to come to me. I thought about it all weekend, wrote a little more music on Sunday, and woke up Monday feeling inspired. As I walked into my kitchen to make breakfast, I saw my guitar. I just felt drawn to it. The rest of the song (essentially all the music) was composed that day. It just came. That evening, as I composed the final notes and looked out over the rolling hills of Virginia with sheep bleating in the golden sunlight, I felt a true sense of awe. I was fulfilled. I knew that God worked through me. The words of the song were so personal, and the music stirred my heart. I prayed and dedicated the song to Jesus. My fiancée was the first person to listen to the ending of “Tov Adonai.” When I played it for her for the first time, I just started crying. It felt like my heart was being laid bare. The words, the music—they came together. God brought them together. She told me that the song was special—that God would use it for His glory. Later that evening, I sent the recording to my mom in Thailand. She cried when she listened to it, even though she doesn’t know Hebrew. That part of me that had starved for so long had new expression and vision. Just like my youthful love for music tied into my capstone, I believe this project will be part of my life—that it is not just a project that ends with my degree.

The Heart of the Project

I share this story because it shows the heart of my capstone: that God would receive glory. While each song has explicit pedagogical purposes, they are not simply written to memorize grammar points for exams. The reason why I chose music as a means of teaching biblical Hebrew was because of the power music holds in our hearts. I believe that as students listen to these songs and begin to sing them, biblical Hebrew will start to become part of their hearts. When something is personal, emotional, and spiritual, it becomes part of who we are. I want students to worship in biblical Hebrew as they acquire the language. As they acquire the language, I trust that their knowledge of God’s Word will deepen. I dream that some will become Bible translators and bring light to those who live in darkness. Then may these students experience the lyrics of “Tov Adonai” firsthand and sing with the soloist who just joined the fold of God: “All the nations will praise you, for you have given us life according to your steadfast love. And we are all a kingdom of priests to you.”