That Better Be Played at My Funeral

Back in my student days I took a class called Pastoral Ministry. It was a class on the ins-and-outs of pastoral ministry, one of the most practical classes I've ever had. One type of assignment given was to plan out various types of services (funerals, weddings, baptisms, etc), complete with music, sermon and so on. That, of course, got me thinking about how I would like for these services to run in my life. Thus was the beginning stages of something I mentioned way back in the early days of the Hymn of the Week posts: my "That Better Be Played at My Funeral" list.

Some may say it's a bit morbid that I have my funeral planned out. Truthfully, I don't have the entire thing worked out, and have no intentions to do so, but I do have most of the music picked out. I guess I'm just trying to make someone else's life a little easier down the road. Plus, I think it's easier than having a "That Better Be Played at My Wedding" list because that'll probably get shot down when that day comes. I can't be selfish at my wedding, but I can at least attempt to have my funeral go my way (though I'll be dead, I'll be watching).

So here are the hymns that I want played at my funeral, subject to change. In no particular order:

It Is Well With My Soul- this is a no-brainer, what a tremendous song and appropriate for dealing with death and grief (in my top 3 hymns, by the way). I actually could have told you I wanted this sung at my funeral back in my teenage years when we sang this at a funeral for a young boy who had died. Powerful.

Jesus, I Come- I love this hymn so much it was the inaugural Hymn of the Week post, check it out here (also in my top 3 hymns).

Great is Thy Faithfulness- God's faithfulness is something I've experienced and learned in my life, I'd like it to be a theme until the end.

Be Thou My Vision- this one has rapidly moved up my favorites list, I wouldn't mind this being sung at my wedding, too.

Doxology- "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow", I'm a big fan of this ending a service of any kind. So simple, so powerful.

How Great Thou Art- my favorite hymn ever. This is the only song to do double duty on my That Better Be Played at My Wedding list (this would be my one request, well, also that the recessional be Take Me Out to the Ballgame, but I don't expect to win that battle). I haven't put this on a Hymn of the Week post yet, but I will, someday.

You'll notice that my top 3 favorite hymns on here, but there are some other that I love that probably wouldn't fit (All Creatures of our God and King, for example). I haven't blogged about all of these, just It Is Well, Jesus I Come and Be Thou My Vision. This might seem like a lot, but let me warn you that I haven't even started to list out Keith Green songs, so if you attend my funeral, expect to do a lot of singing.

So why such an emphasis on singing, especially these hymns? I'll give you three reasons. First is what I like to call the Charles Wesley Corollary, or what my roommate Jonathan calls the Hymns-Spirit Theorem, which made its public debut on my Be Thou My Vision post. Here is what I wrote then:

Actually, this is a good time to unveil something Jonathan and I discovered a while back. We've found that the power of the Spirit evident in any given meeting is proportional to the quality and quantity of hymns that are sung. I stress quality because one How Great Thou Art is worth at least a dozen renditions of When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder. Maybe we should call this the Charles Wesley Corollary. I'll get back to you on that.

I think I have to play a little loose with the definition of "corollary" in order to make this work, but I'll work on that later. I just like the way it sounds.

Two, I choose these hymns based on my thoughts I gave in my post what would you do if I sang out of tune..., which talked about the role of worship through song within the Church. I'll let you read that at your leisure, but I will say that I think it was the best post/discussion we've had on this blog.

Three, many people come to a funeral to honor and celebrate the life of the deceased person. I suppose that's fine, we should honor the saints who've gone before us and learn from their lives. But when I look at my life I see a life riddled with my own sin and pride. There is little to celebrate that has come from me (and I'm not attempting false modesty here). What I do see, however, is the grace of God through and through. I see blessings beyond number, I see forgiveness that has been thrown my way, I see freedom and joy that I do not deserve. At my funeral I don't want to be talked up or praised (nor should I be so presumptuous to think this would happen). I have one simple request: celebrate the goodness of the Lord. Because whatever is good and praiseworthy in my life owes itself to the goodness of our God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.