It was therapy, he probably would say in his own unique way. Ralph Richard Carmichael was anything but conventional when it came to the expression of his Christian faith in the music he wrote, so when he urged people to “Reach Out to Jesus” as he had done, some people probably scoffed and said ‘that guy made his own trouble, so he should just lie in the bed he made’. Ralph had pushed the envelope of what many considered was acceptable in musical expression, particularly among Christians, ever since he was a college student (at Southern California Bible School [SCBC; now Vanguard University] in Costa Mesa). So, some 20 years later (1960s), when he had to admit to himself that he was just existing but not ‘having fun anymore’, that his personal and spiritual life was broken, Ralph wrote something that he himself needed to say and do. It was like a mid-life crisis, you might say, that drove Carmichael back to the roots of a pact he had made with his Lord, so many years before while in Costa Mesa.
Ralph became known as the ‘Father of Contemporary Christian Music’ for his innovative style in the 1960’s-1970’s scene, but his journey toward that nickname had some valleys as well as peaks. He grew up learning to play the violin, and soon yearned to adapt the instrumental chords routinely played over the radio waves to church music, a desire that made him a pariah among many church groups when he pursued this penchant beginning in college. Ralph’s musical prodigy and determination could not be ignored, however, and his career in the Christian music industry burgeoned in several ways, while he also became a hot commodity in the popular music industry. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Elvis Presley were but a few of the ‘stars’ with whom Ralph collaborated. Yet, his life, 15-20 years into this arena, had become too intense – leading him into workaholism, drug use, a divorce, and a breakdown in his finances. This was when he re-dug his foundation, so to speak, and began to write more intently to coax his faith in God. During Ralph’s re-birth, the Billy Graham Association films, for which he continued to write, was one venue he had to buoy his spirit. And, so Carmichael turned his attention increasingly and exclusively toward the Christian music industry. By 1968, perhaps a time that made many people in America wonder if their world was coming apart, Ralph told others how he had reconnected to Jesus. He asked himself a series of six questions, focusing on his life that had earlier become burdensome (v.1), depressing (v.2), and wearisome (v.1), leaving him famished (v.2). Moreover, he had been anxious about the future (v.2), about the ‘…danger yet unknown’ (v.1). Nineteen sixty-eight was a time that most remember as a cultural and political upheaval, and apparently reaching out to Jesus was not a concept confined to Ralph and other Christians like Billy Graham; the song was part of Elvis’ 1971 Grammy Award-winning album He Touched Me. It seems that Ralph’s troubles and his own therapy resonated with the wider world.
Got problems? Who doesn’t? What Ralph Carmichael’s song and its genesis indicate is too true to keep quiet. Where else can one turn, but to the Creator, when one’s life is turning inside out? One can find his own solution that might seem like it’s working for a while, like running away as so many did in the 1960’s-1970’s. How does it feel to keep running or hiding, though? Ralph probably thought that the work and stimulants were effective for a while, too. Eventually, the physical and emotional rhythms distressed Ralph’s insides, and he needed an embrace, not a faster life. He knew on whom he could call, the One who could be more than a temporary fix. Ralph and you and I need a permanent solution for our temporal issues. Give the Eternal One a chance at answering your questions.
Information on the author can be found here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/a/r/m/carmichael_rr.htm
And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Carmichael
See especially here: https://web.archive.org/web/20060905031305/https://www.vanguard.edu/uploadedFiles/Alumni/Magazine/music_in_his_soul_from_vumag_fall_05.pdf
Also here: https://web.archive.org/web/20060712204256/http://www.gmahalloffame.org/inductee_bio.cfm?ID=324
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