People Who Lead Us to Our Soul’s Home Part 3

September 24, 2026

Though it grew to be much larger, the fledgling church of my childhood had fewer than fifty people at any given service. We had a devoted minister, a loyal congregation, and a choir that really tried despite its sparse membership. My mother was in the choir because our neighbor and friend, Mrs. Winifred Bell, had invited her.

Mrs. Bell was the grand dame of our little church—one of its founders and benefactors, a faithful member, a caring and well-studied Sunday school teacher, a worker, and a soprano with a trained operatic voice. Truth be told, her volume and larger-than-life presence would have allowed her to serve as the entire choir. Mrs. Bell’s vibrato voice practically shook the entire chapel.

Nobody said “no” to Mrs. Bell, so when she invited my mother to join the choir, Mom complied and was also honored to have been asked. Soon Mrs. Bell took our mother under her wing and began giving her singing lessons.

I remember watching Mrs. Bell teach my mother to breathe from her diaphragm and expand her lungs, demonstrating the deep breath required to support a voice. One day we were all invited to place our hands on Mrs. Bell’s back to feel the volume of air she inhaled. When she came over for those lessons, we heard stories of her childhood, her music scholarship to college, her life experiences, and especially her deep love of God. She and my mother became close friends and eventually began a small Bible study together.

As the years passed, the church grew, and so did the choir. The original members were accustomed to Mrs. Bell’s voice. It was simply part of the magnanimous, giving, warm, faithful person she was.

But some of the newer members did not quite know what to make of this woman with the enormous operatic voice that seemed to take center stage every Sunday.

Though I was only a child, I could tell that some people in the congregation were put off by Mrs. Bell’s high-pitched, reverberating voice. During her solos, I noticed a few people turning toward one another and whispering. Sometimes they covered their mouths to giggle.

I knew Mrs. Bell’s heart, and although I was too young to explain what I felt, their laughter hurt me. They made fun of her voice. They saw a church character; we saw the person we knew. I also overheard adults talking about her. They said she was odd, excessive, an “over-doer.” I felt embarrassed for our Mrs. Bell, although I am not certain she was embarrassed for herself.

As I grew into adolescence and young adulthood, I began to understand something I had somehow known as a child but had no words for then. Mrs. Bell was not singing for applause. She was not a leader to control. She was not trying to impress anyone or draw attention to herself. She was simply doing what she believed she had been called to do, even when doing so brought criticism, ridicule, or rejection. She was not singing to the congregation.

She was singing to God.

And she was not helping to build a church as a monument to herself. She was giving herself to something she loved and believed in. What Mrs. Bell taught me was never in anything she said to me. Her life itself was the lesson.

She taught me that there comes a time when each of us must decide whose voice we are listening for—the voice of the crowd, with its approval and disapproval, or that deeper voice within us that tells us what we are here to do.

Mrs. Bell chose her calling. Looking back, I realize that she influenced my life simply by living hers. And perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts one person can give another:

The courage to become more faithful to what we love than to what others think of us. This is our true home. 

Spiritual Practice and Inquiry

In what respects might you be like Mrs. Bell? What criticism, rejection or even laughter have you endured in order to follow your heart? 

Prayer

Dear God, 

For the living lesson of Mrs. Bell, I give You thanks. She is in my heart forever because from childhood onward she has continued to teach me—not Sunday school lessons, but how to follow our heart and remain faithful, regardless. As You know, I have to turn toward that lesson a lot, and when I do, Mrs. Bell is always there to remind me and to help lead me home.

Amen