Thursday, June 15, 2006

Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus!

My music minister introduced me to a hymn a few weeks ago by singing it as a special. I'm so glad he did - it's a good one, and I really like it because it talks about songs. Here comes the first verse:

There is never a day so dreary,
There is never a night so long
But the soul that is trusting in Jesus
Will somewhere find a song.


The other verses have the same effect - there is never a situation in which the godsong can't be heard in a Christian's heart. This is a tremendous reality for christians that I'm just beginning to embrace myself. The chorus brings the praise back to Jesus -

Wonderful, wonderful Jesus,
In the heart He implanteth a song:
A song of deliverance, of courage, of strength;
In the heart He implanteth a song.


I like to think of the song as joy, which is part of the fruit of the Spirit. That joy is a token - an intimation of things not seen, but believed. I would not know to sing a song of joy unless someone else were provoking me to do so, and I'm so glad the song is there, reminding me that God is good.

Words: Anna B. Russell. Music: Ernest O. Sellers

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Beautiful Letdown (Switchfoot pt. 2)

I can't get "Beautiful Letdown" off my mind... I'm trying to figure out what's beautiful about what the guys are talking about, especially as I consider doing something that feels more like a letdown... they say,

What a beautiful letdown
Painfully uncool
The church of the drop outs, the losers, the sinners, the failures, and the fools.
What a beautiful letdown
Are we salt in the wound?
Let us sing one true tune.


KMM

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

A New Song

I was looking toward my backyard this morning and a song of the Spring welled up in my heart like a breath of fresh air in my lungs. It was perfect. This morning I read a story about a man who began to write new songs about God once he became a Christian, and others in his community began to listen and understand the message. Hooray for new songs! Well, I decided that in keeping with the theme of newness, that I would post something I wrote a few weeks ago in combination with something I wrote today. It's not exactly a song - it's just a poem at this point - but if someone wants to add a melody to it, go ahead, and let me hear it!

Nothing is wasted
The grief is for aught
It's moments of mercy,
but not like you thought,
It's compulsory surrender
In pain, on your knees
You'll always remember
What you've come to believe.
Through sorrow and healing
Your light will break through
Each morning revealing
His mercies anew
All you've known brings
Mercy home to you.

Outside where the gardens grow
Is where my heartsong flies
Something in that beauty
Something Spring does to me
My heart says, "renewal!"
My sleeping joy wakes -
I'm gonna find that song today
No matter what it takes.

Hmm... when it's my own stuff I'm biased... I'd like to think these two verses go together thematically - suffering and joy - but maybe they don't. Maybe there are too many syllables in the second verse. This time I'd really like to hear from friends who read my blog!

Peace out...

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Held

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Natalie Grant sing this song on television, and then hearing friend sing it in church. It's a strongly sentimental song, and I think it contains some good advice. If not, it's a song that opens peoples' hearts, and allows them to receive comfort from the Lord.

It goes like this.

Two months is too little;
They let him go
They had no
Sudden healing.

To think that Providence
Would take a child
From his mother while she prayed
Is appalling.

Who told us we'd be rescued?
What has changed and
Why should we be saved
From nightmares?

--- I'm not sure what she means by "what has changed." The tone of the song has changed abruptly and it's a little confusing. Does she mean that thinking that Providence would take an infant from his praying mother is appalling is a change? But anyway, it's a good question that she asks: why should we be saved from nightmares?

We're asking why this happened
To those of us who have died to live
It's unfair.


--- Of course we ask why this happened. We want things to make sense. There's a question of enjambment here - is it, "we're asking why this happened to those of us," or, "to those of us who have died live it's unfair"? After this ambibuity comes the chorus:

This is what it means
To be held
How it feels
When the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is
To be loved
And to know
That the promise was when everything fell we'd be held.


--- I know that I am held all the time by the Father, not just when everything else falls - in fact, to some extent, it's all already fallen - I mean, who do I really have but God? So I wonder what the song means when it says "this is what it means." What does it mean to be held? The best sense I can make of it is that it's about resting in God's protection and sovereignty when everything else falls apart. But that's not an answer to the mistaken notion that we'd be rescued and spared from nightmares, which belief can cause a person to become bitter against the Lord.

Speaking of bitterness, the song talks about it. This is my faavorite part:

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it
Let the hatred numb
Our sorrow.

The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and
Tomorrow.


--- This part makes sense to me impressionistically; it's pretty deep and analytical, too. That I would want to focus on the hatred so I wouldn't hurt so much is interesting; I think hatred functions as another form of self-hurt. My hurting can not give any grief or in any way affect the original cause of my hurt, so hurting for hurting's sake only causes more personal hurt. That's why I like the next line - the wise hand opens - slowly - to possible blessings in the future.

I hope this song and these notes bless someone. Good things can happen when you really think about the words of songs.

KMM

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

Easter Sunday! I love worshipping with my church, but I especially love it on the day when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. My music minister tells me that it was customary at some point in church history for the leader to call out, "He is risen!" and the congregation to respond, "He is risen indeed!" We like this tradition, so we do it at our church every Easter. Such an exclamation expresses the joy of one simple but life-changing truth. It is life-changing because death is the great equalizer, and the great inevitable for all of us, and yet, it is not unconquerable, because God has power over it. I gotta say it - Hallelujah!

Apparently Charles Wesley felt the same impulse, because he punctuated each line of his hymn, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," with an "Alleluia," which is the holy equivalent to "woohoo" and actually means "Praise God." So when you hear someone say alleluia instead of "woohoo," or "great!" they're not just trying to be stuffy, they're being specific in directing their praise.

I'd like to interpret a few of the alleuias in "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," because I think I can. Someone else might choose different lines or interpret them differently, and that would actually be great. Being different or seeing things from a different angle doesn't make us contradictory or prevent us from getting along. This is my blog, though, so I'm going to tell you which of the alleluias really swelled in my heart.

Lives again our glorious King!
Alleuia! He did not stay dead!
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Alleluia! That was a line from scripture. Nicely rhymed.
Love's redeeming work is done
Alleuia! God loved us enough to bring us back to Him, and the project of forgiveness is complete!
Fought the fight, the battle won!
Alleluia! I could not have won that battle on my own.
Made like Him, like Him we rise,
Alleluia! But wait a minute, there's some serious theology packed in this tidy little line. I think it means that when we become Christians, that is, when we accept God's gift and God's authority, we become like his son, Jesus, somehow. And the Bible says that one day the dead in Christ - Christians who died - will be brought back to life and given new bodies, like Christ was. It's even too complicated for me, but it sets up this next line:
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies
Alleuia! When a writer deliberately omits conjunctions from a series it's called "asyndeton," and it is often done at the end of speech or other discourse. This is the last line of the song, and it's a big finish. Forgiveness comes through the cross. The grave proves that the work of sacrifice was complete. As Christ was resurrected, so will we be one day. No need for extra padding of conjunctions to make it seem significant - the cross, the grave, the skies. What can we get that is worth more that that? Alleluia!

Happy Easter.

KMM

Music: Lyra Davidica

Monday, April 10, 2006

How Firm a Foundation

Again I owe inspiration and affirmation to a hymn. The first verse sets up that God's word is full of things I need to hear, and the last three are Him speaking to me through His word. That first verse reminds me to read His word and believe it.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Words: John Rippon, Music: Joseph Funk

Friday, February 24, 2006

Smells Like ... Lifehouse?

So on my morning walk I was listening to the Stanley Climbfall album by Lifehouse and mused again at how much "Out of Breath" sounds like something by Nirvana. It's a really athletic song about pursuing a goal, and if you listen to it while you exercise, you will get out of breath, but in a good way.

The lyrics reminded me of a recent conversation I had with someone about Hebrews 12:1. That verse says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance, and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (emphasis mine, and I'm quoting from memory, so there might also be mistakes, but I know it's close). I was having a conversation with a person who has made mistakes but now wants to really run after Christ. This person knew where they came from, and knew that to get closer to the Lord they needed to run, and to run, they needed to let go of some things. I praise the Lord that this person wants to run again! You know who you are, and this song reminded me of you.

I still feel the same
Though everything has changed
The pain it cost now I feel lost inside of my own name

The past has left its stain
Now I feel the shame
I'll seize the day if you take away the chains of yesterday

But I keep running
I am running
I keep living for the day that I'm with you
And I am waiting
I keep waiting for the day that I'm with you

A new day the sun is shining
Seems I'm closer to finding
That life is more than what we hide
No way that I am turning
As long as this sun is burning
It seems now that all I want is you...

When your past faces you, keep turning to Him, and when your present has extra baggage, let it go! Keep running the race!

And, you-know-who, I want you to know the Lord used you in my life, too, to remind me to throw off everything that hinders and sins that entangle, and run.

"Out of Breath," by Jason Wade and Ron Aniello, from the Lifehouse album Stanley Climbfall, published 2002 by G-Chills/ Songs of DreamWorks/ Aneillo Music (BMI).

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

How Great

Two songs from The David Crowder* Band's album Illuminate were on my mind this morning, and I thought they were the same song. I enjoy this album a lot, as it contains one of my favorite contemporary praise songs, "O Praise Him (All This for a King)" and also lots of lyrics and licks that make you realize that the Crowder boys are free-spirited but know exactly what they're doing. They're worshipping the Lord with new songs. Praise Him!

The two on my mind were, "How Great," and "Intoxicating." Squeamish listeners will have to get over that the Crowder Band, like Derek Webb, often uses metaphors of intoxication to describe the joy and rapture they find in the Lord. The lyricists creatively assist listeners in understand the spirit of the song. For instance, lyrics like:

If I'm out of my mind it's You, you
'Cause I'm crazy in love with You, You
Inebriated by You, You
'Cause I'm head over heels for You, You

(from "Intoxicating") make more sense when the song bursts into a chorus of -

La, la dee da
La dee da, dee da
Dee da da da

- with full vocals and a roaring band behind it. This song and this band is about being completely in love, captured, consumed, impassioned.

"Intoxicating" is a hard act to follow, but actually what I thought of first this morning were a few lines from "How Great." Sometimes a situation reminds you of a song, and in this case, the song helped me form an attitude of praise for the day. Like other Crowder songs, this one has some moments that are lyrically simple, but the parts of the song taken together add up to beautiful praise. In case you're wondering, here are the words I thought of this morning, that I hope run through my mind all day.

What a glorious day
What a wonderful day, today
Glorious day.

How great your love for us
How great our love for You
That grace could cover us
How great your love.

It could be a glorious, wonderful day! Peace out!

"How Great" and "Intoxicating" words and music by David Crowder from the album Illuminate, 2003, Sparrow Records /Six Steps Music.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Church's One Foundation

I took communion at the church I visited while I was away from home last week, and it struck me as never before that we are all saved by one body and one blood. This morning I saw an Assyrian Christian man speaking on a U.S. Christian television program about the long-tradition of Assyrian (or Syrian?) Christianity. As He spoke I thought about the difference between his traditions and mine, and yet again, how we were connected through Christ. I read the words to this hymn this morning after listening to the tune, and I think it says it all.

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord
She is His new creation, by Spirit and the Word:
From heav'n He came and sought her to be His holy bride,
With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.

Elect from ev'ry nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with ev'ry grace endued.

'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Hooray! Peace to my brothers and sisters around the world in tumult and tribulation.

"The Churc's One Foundation," Words: Samuel J. Stone; Music: Samuel S. Wesley

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Beautiful Letdown, part one?

Meant to Live

I don't know whether I'll write several posts over this album or not, but it sure deserves it. I've just begun to really listen to the Switchfoot Beautiful Letdown album, and it really speaks to me. Every other song lifts me, hauntingly, beyond my mundane thoughts. Let me start with the first one - "Meant to Live."

Fumbling his confidence and wondering
Why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more
Than arguments and failed attempts to fly

We were made to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside.

Yowza! These California surfers have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the world and its effects on the human heart. How about this, from "This is Your Life"?

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything that you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger,
And you had everything to lose?

Whoa! I find myself trying to answer those questions. They answers would generally be, "I don't know," but that's the point; they're getting me thinking about stuff.

For another example of having their finger on the pulse of counterculture, here's a sample from "Dare You to Move":

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be.

These guys have thought about it and lived to tell about it, and I'm so glad to know there's someone else who feels like really living is resistance. Even though this album is two years old, it seems new to me and it really renews me. Thanks, dudes.

I must say a word about their musicianship; I think the main guy responsible is Jon Foreman, but there are four guys who are, like I said, surfer dudes (Switchfoot being a surfing term, I think). Anyway, Jon has a great voice and the music has a great kick to it; it's so good you'd almost ignore what they're saying, but ah, if you don't, you find that there's inspiration in the words as well as the music.

I must also say I have an automatic softspot for this band for two reasons: one, my husband has always really liked them (I'm just slow to get it) and two, they remind me of my California friends, who are really cool and love Jesus in a fresh way.

"Meant to Live," W&M by Jonathan Foreman and Tim Foreman; "This is Your Life" and "Dare You to Move" W&M by Jonathan Foreman. Beautiful Letdown, 2003, Sony/Columbia.