Sometimes when I wake up with the blues, I like to sip a cup of black coffee before praying and softly play old-school Gospel tunes. One of my all time favorites is the song titled “Sometimes Alleluia” by Chuck Girard.
“Sometimes Alleluia” evokes memories from my youth in Puerto Rico, when my best friend Jose Carlos and I used to go to his dad’s church during non-service hours and rehearse new Christian songs.
We especially used to like Jimmy Swaggart’s interpretation of “Sometimes Alleluia.” We even tried translating the song into Spanish for one of our revival services, but in the end, it didn’t sound that great, and we never sang it again – in Spanish.
As I was surfing through Apple Music, I felt the urge to praise the Lord, so I did a search for “Sometimes Alleluia.” Of course, Jimmy Swaggart’s albums appeared, but to my surprise, next to Jimmy’s album there is advertised an album by a fellow named Paul Dhinakaran.
Wikipedia writes the following about Dhinakaran:
“Paul Dhinakaran (currently 57 years old) is an Indian academic and evangelical preacher. He is the Chancellor of the Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, which he owns, and an operator of the Jesus Calls ministry. He received a Ph.D. degree in marketing from Madras University.”
After listening to Dhinakaran’s album, all I could do was marvel at the reality of how the message of the Gospel unifies people of completely different colors and cultures in one accord. How beautiful it is to see the One Light of Christ manifesting through our human prism, shining through our given colors, to the glory of God!
I am praying for a day when Christians from all stripes, colors and cultures put down their differences aside and simply gather around The Name of Jesus and sing. Oh, if we did this often our nation would shine forth like a city on a hill, and true concord would spread in the land!
“Sometimes alleluia,
Sometimes praise the Lord.
Sometimes gently singing,
Our hearts in one accord.”
Juan Rivera is the Missions Ambassador for Church of The Cross in Bluffton.
