One Hit Wonder

I noticed on Yahoo today that Billboard has named it's One Hit Wonder of the Decade.  A dubious honor to be sure.  But hey, isn't one hit better than no hit.  You probably remember Daniel Powter's 2006 hit song, Bad Day.  After the first few months, it indeed induced a few bad days of it's own.  It was everywhere.  You couldn't get away from it.  From grocery store muzak, to the local high school ballgame, it seemed relentless.

There's another "one hit wonder" that gets overplayed this time of the year.  I still enjoy it though.  In 1818, German Catholic Priest Joseph Morh brought a text to Austrian organist and school master Franz Gruber.  He asked if Gruber might compose a suitable melody with guitar accompaniment.  While Gruber did write a few more pieces that may still be found in print today, neither he, nor Morh ever wrote anything nearly as popular as Silent Night.  The exact details surrounding the composition are in dispute and many of the popular stories have failed historical scrutiny.  (Like the one about the broken organ)  Yet, we still sing it today in a version that is fairly close to the original.  The text that we most often sing in America is John Freeman Young's 1859 translation.

So here's the point that we need to take from this.  By all accounts Morh and Gruber were pretty ordinary fellows.  But God used them to create a song that has touched millions of lives, and reminded all of us of the relentless peace available when God shows up on planet earth.  One moment of inspired creativity can be used by God.  It can ring throughout the decades or even the centuries.  If you are someone with any artistic inclination, let God use it.  You never know what he might do with it.