Rich Mullins, "If I Stand"
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the giver of all good things.
In life the things of this world can capture our passions. A sunrise, a dancing fire, loyalties, music, relationships, and so on, are all such good things, but if our hope is invested in them, what happens on a cloudy day, or when the music stops? It is because of this question that I believe Rich Mullins wrote "If I Stand." I will just print the lyrics to the chorus, and let you look up the biblical references Rich included with the full lyrics in the album jacket.
If I stand, let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to you.
If I sing, let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Friday, January 02, 2004
"Maybe There's a Loving God," by Sara Groves and Nate Sabin
I'm not a trekkie, but I remember one Star Trek quote, and it helps explain how good this song is. One crewman asks another, when encountering a new civilization, whether a sane person would appear insane in an insane world. "Maybe There's a Loving God" is written in first person from the point of view of a girl who "hears a rhythm call" from the universe and recognizes it as "the echo of a grand design." Scripture says creation proclaims God's invisible attributes, so when in the song the young girl's mother and therapist fret over her and try to straighten her out, the pathos of the song is that they may be persuading her away from truth in the name of reason.
It's the imagination and wonder of the speaker, of which Sara and Nate must be capable, that caught my attention. The girl "spends all night in the backyard / staring up at the stars and the sky," and thinks to herself,
Maybe this was made for me
For lying on my back in the middle of a field
Maybe that's a selfish thought
Or maybe there's a loving God.
Of course the speaker would be right, if she could just be convinced of it. The adults in charge of her mental health
... have a chart and graph
of [her] despondency
They want to chart a path
For self-recovery
As a listener, it strikes me that if she came to a rational conclusion about the existence of God she would be more sane than all the self-recovery plans could make her. In fact, the professionals' help may interfere with her heart's journey back to its Maker. The feeling of the moment Groves and Sabin capture, of a young woman whose inductive reasoning about the universe has brought her to the verge of belief, is beautiful, sacred and fragile.
All of Sara Groves' songs are remarkable, but I found this one particularly original and thought-provoking. I'll conclude with a few last lines from the song.
Maybe I was made this way
To think and to reason and to question and to pray
And I have never prayed a lot
But maybe there's a loving God
And that may be a foolish thought
Or maybe there is a God
"Maybe There's a Loving God" is on Sara Groves' CD All Right Here, released by Sponge records in 2002
I'm not a trekkie, but I remember one Star Trek quote, and it helps explain how good this song is. One crewman asks another, when encountering a new civilization, whether a sane person would appear insane in an insane world. "Maybe There's a Loving God" is written in first person from the point of view of a girl who "hears a rhythm call" from the universe and recognizes it as "the echo of a grand design." Scripture says creation proclaims God's invisible attributes, so when in the song the young girl's mother and therapist fret over her and try to straighten her out, the pathos of the song is that they may be persuading her away from truth in the name of reason.
It's the imagination and wonder of the speaker, of which Sara and Nate must be capable, that caught my attention. The girl "spends all night in the backyard / staring up at the stars and the sky," and thinks to herself,
Maybe this was made for me
For lying on my back in the middle of a field
Maybe that's a selfish thought
Or maybe there's a loving God.
Of course the speaker would be right, if she could just be convinced of it. The adults in charge of her mental health
... have a chart and graph
of [her] despondency
They want to chart a path
For self-recovery
As a listener, it strikes me that if she came to a rational conclusion about the existence of God she would be more sane than all the self-recovery plans could make her. In fact, the professionals' help may interfere with her heart's journey back to its Maker. The feeling of the moment Groves and Sabin capture, of a young woman whose inductive reasoning about the universe has brought her to the verge of belief, is beautiful, sacred and fragile.
All of Sara Groves' songs are remarkable, but I found this one particularly original and thought-provoking. I'll conclude with a few last lines from the song.
Maybe I was made this way
To think and to reason and to question and to pray
And I have never prayed a lot
But maybe there's a loving God
And that may be a foolish thought
Or maybe there is a God
"Maybe There's a Loving God" is on Sara Groves' CD All Right Here, released by Sponge records in 2002
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