The Song Beneath the Storm
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
No storm can shake my inmost calm, While to that refuge clinging…Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing? — Hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing?”
The world feels endlessly chaotic right now. War spreads across borders in the Middle East. Nations are pouring staggering sums into weapons while the work of building peace grows harder and more fragile. The US President now threatens to invade Cuba. Communities that once trusted one another now fracture along lines of ideology, race, religion, and power.
The machinery of conflict has become efficient. Peace, by comparison, looks slow and fragile.
Many people I speak with feel exhausted. They carry the sense that the ground beneath our common life is shifting, and no one seems entirely sure how to steady it.
Moments like this make an old question rise again: How do we stay human in the middle of the storm?
I was reminded yesterday by a friend that one answer comes from an unlikely place: a hymn written more than 150 years ago.
How Can I Keep from Singing? first appeared in the late 1860s, just after the Civil War had torn the United States apart. The war left over 600,000 people dead. Families were divided. Cities were burned. The nation was trying to find its footing again after unimaginable loss.
In that moment, Baptist minister Robert Lowry wrote a song about an inner calm that no storm could shake. Take a moment to listen…
The hymn does not pretend the storm is small. It was written for a people who had seen devastation up close. They understood grief. They knew what it meant to live in a time when the future felt uncertain.
But they also believed something else.
They believed that beneath the chaos of history runs a deeper current, a steady river of courage and compassion that no empire, no war, and no tyrant can fully silence.
Decades later, the hymn found its way into Quaker communities. There, another verse emerged from Doris Plenn:
When tyrants tremble, sick with fear
And hear their death knell ringing…
The song took on a new meaning. It became more than a private expression of faith. It became a declaration that even in the presence of injustice, the human spirit can refuse to surrender its center.
In the twentieth century, the song surfaced again during the civil rights movement and the peace movement. Activists sang it in churches and on picket lines. They sang it not because the storm had passed, but because the storm had arrived.
The refrain of the hymn carries a profound spiritual insight:
No storm can shake my inmost calm…
Notice what the song does not say. It does not say the storm will stop. Storms are part of history. Institutions we trust falter. Nations make destructive choices. Violence erupts where we hoped wisdom would prevail.
The hymn asks a different question: Where is your center when the storm rages?
The mystics across many traditions speak of a deeper current running beneath the turbulence of the world. Beneath the shouting and fear and political spectacle flows something more enduring.
Howard Thurman once called it “the sound of the genuine.” It is the place where love refuses to give up on the world.
When the authors of this hymn spoke of an “inmost calm,” they were not describing denial or naïve optimism. They were describing the practice of rooting one’s life in that deeper current. From that place, singing becomes something more than music. It becomes resistance.
Every time we refuse to let cynicism define us, we are singing.
Every time we choose compassion when the world rewards cruelty, we are singing.
Every time we stand beside those who are vulnerable or targeted or afraid, we are singing.
The storms of history will come and go. But the deeper music of love and justice continues beneath them.
And when we begin to hear that music again—how can we keep from singing?
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What storms in the world right now weigh most heavily on your heart?
Where in your life do you experience a deeper calm that is not shaken by those storms?
What might it look like for your life to become a kind of song, an expression of courage, compassion, or hope?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer for Peace
God of the deeper current, when the noise of the world grows overwhelming, help us remember the quiet strength of your Spirit. Steady our hearts so that fear does not shape who we become. Give us courage to stand with those who suffer. Give us hope that does not depend on easy answers. And when we hear the deeper music of love moving through the world, teach us to join it with our lives. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Practice listening beneath the noise.
Today, step away from the constant stream of news and commentary for a few minutes. Find a quiet place and take several slow breaths.
Ask yourself: What is the deeper song moving through my life right now?
Perhaps it sounds like gratitude.
Perhaps it sounds like grief that is finally being honored.
Perhaps it sounds like courage quietly gathering strength.
Whatever you hear, let it guide one small act of kindness or courage today. Every act of love adds another note to the song the world most needs to hear.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
STARTING TONIGHT! March 17, 23, 31 and April 7, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET - Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox and I will be hosting another 4-part series on “Visions for the Common Good.” This series will include sessions with David Abram (cultural ecologist), Lynne Twist (global activist), Randy Woodley (Cherokee scholar and wisdom-keeper), and yours truly! All sessions are recorded, and you will get the link if you can’t make it. Learn more here.
March 26, 2026, 7–8:30pm ET – FREE WEBINAR - I’ll be joined by Ruth Dearnley, OBE, Founder and President of Stop the Traffik (London), for “Stop the Exploitation of Children: Disrupting Human Trafficking at Its Source.” As Board Chair of Stop the Traffik USA, this work is deeply personal to me. We cannot rescue our way out of trafficking; we must prevent exploitation by disrupting the systems and financial flows that profit from vulnerability—and congregations can play a powerful role in building community resilience. Ruth will share how technology and data are exposing trafficking networks globally, and how congregations can lead local awareness and prevention campaigns that reduce vulnerability and protect children. I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and register here.
March 28, 2026 - No Kings Protest! We are marching again. Mark your calendars and find the nearest protest site. Make your protest signs. Knit your red hats. Get your water bottles and sunscreen ready. We head back into the streets for peaceful protest on behalf of a more just world. I'll see you out there. Register here.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
Each spring, Jewish clergy, musicians, and community leaders gather at Hava Nashira, a long-running conference devoted to the sacred practice of communal singing in Jewish life. Participants learn how music, chant, and shared prayer can deepen spiritual life and strengthen community by helping whole communities lift their voices together. I love that this exists in the world, and that my friend, Cantor Rosalie Will, helps lead it. If your path is in the Jewish tradition, check it out.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace filed a shareholder resolution with Palantir asking the company to publish a human rights impact assessment. Palantir is the AI software behind ICE, predictive policing, algorithm-determined drone killings, merging of private health data, and more. The sisters released a video explaining why they filed the proposal. They are now reaching out to Faith Leaders and asking them to sign the petition in support. The signatures need to be collected by/before March 23.
I have just discovered the coolest group! The All We Can Save Project grew out of the powerful climate anthology All We Can Save and has become a growing network of people committed to climate courage and community leadership. Their work reminds us that responding to the climate crisis isn’t only about policy or technology; it’s also about cultivating the relationships, imagination, and moral courage needed to protect and restore the living world. Check them out here: https://www.allwecansave.earth/
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Cameron. Thank you so much for this message and for including that choir singing this profoundly helpful reminder. None of us are in this alone. And going into our deepest knowing at our core that even in the midst of the storm we are held and loved amd guided by a Divine Presence.
Ah! thank you for remembering this lovely hymn with us. I was talking to a buddhist friend yesterday about the insanity visited up us by our president, and he said this: "MLK,Jr was only part right. The arc of history bends toward justice ONLY IF WE RECOGNIZE THAT IT WILL TAKE ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER TO MAKE THAT ARC BEND." Clearly we're not there yet. May God give us the courage and stamina to make this a priority.