Joy -- Anthony Brown and Pat Barrett

 

The song title says pretty much what Anthony Brown and Pat Barrett wanted to say in 2013. Do you have “Joy”?, they must have asked themselves, and if you said yes, how would that look? Though they haven’t said so explicitly, the name of their band and the premier album for their music that included this Joy song may help describe that emotion, to visualize joy in action. And not only that, for Joy shines through gloom because of the source of that light that exudes something that puts those it inhabits on another plane. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Atlanta (see its seal here) where Anthony and Pat probably were when they created this song, or any other place on the planet. Joy puts all of us in the same place, as long as the womb of that emotion is a certain one – a miraculous one.  

 

They called it Housefires, perhaps because Anthony and Pat wanted to express metaphorically what an exuberant people would look like to the rest of the people around them if they were on fire for the God who saved them. This name they chose for their group must have really resonated with what they wanted to communicate, for the first album and nearly every one after that (9 of the total 10 albums by late 2023) likewise contain this name. Perhaps they envisioned a fire a bit like what happened for the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to inhabit them (Acts 2:3). Or, perhaps when they thought about the joy part of their lives, they remembered what that Hebrews writer said (12:18-24); that the place was no longer Mount Sinai where the presence of God and the appearance of Moses’ lit-up face reminded them of the fire of God’s wrath, but instead ‘Mount Zion’ where ‘the joyful assembly’ of many thousands of angels are gathered in that place. And so, these two songwriters could sing confidently the first lines in their song – that ‘beauty’, ‘true love’, and ‘freedom’ lead to unbounded ‘joy’, overcoming ‘brokenness’, ‘pain’, captivity, and ‘mourning’. It’s not a surface-level happiness, but one that is ‘down deep in my soul’. Freedom, security in His love and salvation, and being connected to His great heart – those cannot be expressed in any way suitable if not in ecstasy.

 

Ecstasy might be a more impressive word, but what Anthony and Pat sought for the Atlanta church where they ministered in 2013 was something more easily sung and grasped. Something that would coax a crowd really feeling it to put their hands together in complete joy…that is what they seemed to be after. Can you imagine it? You might be limited to your imagination (for now) when you read what that Hebrews writer said – the thousands upon thousands of angels, after all! – but give yourself a preview and be present where a group sings this. (There is a link below for that purpose, at least online.) Be on the mountain for a few moments, and don’t think it ends when the song is over. Churches and believers in joyful assembly happen all over this planet every week. Go find one.       

 

Read about the band here: Househttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housefiresfires - Wikipedia

 

Watch/listen to the band perform Joy here: Housefires - Joy (feat. Tony Brown and Pat Barrett)

 

See here for image of Atlanta seal and its public domain status -- File:Seal of Atlanta.svg - Wikimedia Commons This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 50 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

Jesus, Draw Me Close -- Rick Founds

 

Rick Founds was sick and burdened with lots of noise from various directions. And so, he needed something, or someone as it turned out, to allow him to overcome that feeling of desolation, and to rest in reassurance. Rick was in his office (?probably in Fallbrook, southern California; see the seal of San Diego County here, where Fallbrook is located), where he eventually uttered a prayer “Jesus, Draw Me Close”. Rick must have also noticed that plenty of his ancestors, as he read ancient texts, had also previously shared his mood at that moment, perhaps due to all kinds of circumstances, but with one common solution. What better way is there to rise above the fallen earth and its incidents that dog the human spirit, and in Rick’s case some physical maladies, than to look to the Creator?

 

Colossians 1:15-16 tells us that Jesus was an integral part of the creation, and in fact He holds all things together. So, why shouldn’t Rick Founds have consulted Him in his moment of trial in 1990? Though that bit of truth from Paul is one of the bible’s most profound revelations, Rick actually drew upon other writers as he sat in an old chair and tried to forget his physical, mental, and emotional discomforts. He’d had more than enough of an influenza attack, car trouble, and overwork at his job – all of which sapped his energy and drew down his spirit. So, Rick collapsed into two things that gave him comfort at that moment – an old chair and his dependable God in scripture. Was the old chair, which seemed to match his body and mind’s attitude at the moment, the bigger part of the recipe for cure that Rick employed that day? No, it was what he read that was the real tonic, particularly what David said in Psalm 42 about needing God so desperately, like a deer thirsty for water. Rick also read what his ancient songwriting and prophetic brethren had composed elsewhere – Psalm 145:18, Psalm 73:28, and Isaiah 55:6 – to gird his spirit with reminders of what it was like for them to draw near to the Creator and Sustainer. Reinvigorated with these thoughts, Rick spontaneously strummed out the melody and the few lyrics of ‘Jesus, Draw Me Close’, an epiphany that seemed to connect him with God and with those whose words he’d just read. Rick rediscovered just how simple it is to find Him when we seek Him, when we need Him. Rick said that whatever the situation – from the really difficult year when a friend or relative dies to the pretty trivial episode like misplacing one’s car keys – a person’s reaction is always misery and a feeling of loss. But, He is always near, if I seek Him.         

 

Rick’s lyrics did not need to cover more territory in order to be effective. He says that a group he met with that same evening heard his simple prayer-song and quickly adopted it, an apparent testimony to its therapeutic value and a reaffirmation of the old adage ‘less is more’. One simple melody and a few words to express his desire to move toward Jesus and away from the world – those were all that Rick Founds employed at that moment. He didn’t detail his car’s issues, the flu and how it made his body ache, nor the work that was piling up on his plate of things to do. He implicitly knew that his Maker understood all of that, so complicated words were unnecessary. Just voice a simple prayer, and then do it again. That is the obedience from deep inside one’s heart that Rick had allowed himself to adopt for his own intimate moment with God that day in 1990. Do yourself a favor, and try out the method that Rick Founds experienced himself in 1990.

 

See the composer-author sing the song here, and see comment about song’s origin: Rick Founds - Jesus Draw Me Close, or read the extended version here: Draw Me Close song story (found at the songwriter’s official website -- rickfounds.com/storiessuch.html)


Read about the songwriter here: Rick Founds - Wikipedia

 See here for date (1990) on the song’s publication:Jesus, Draw Me Close | Hymnary.org

 

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