He and his
family really didn’t get what they thought they would when they moved to Kona,
Hawaii in the early 1980s. The sights and the history of the place were
certainly what they’d dreamed about, enough to plausibly make anyone say “Blessed
Be the Lord God Almighty” when taking it all in. (See here a historical photo of
King Kamehameha, who held court on the “Big Island” of Kona in 1816, nearly 150
years before it became the U.S. 50th state.) But, that was about it.
Poverty was not what Bob Fitts thought he and his wife (Kathy) and their two
young children would find, yet that was the reality of their lives, despite the
beauty of their surroundings. And so, Bob might have been excused for having
other things on his mind one day when a church asked him to sing a song. The premier of this song he crafted in just a few minutes wasn’t exactly
auspicious. In fact, it fell as flat as the lifestyle in which the
Fitts family found themselves. That was not the end, however. Read on.
What emerged
from the deprivation Bob Fitts experienced was ultimately in stark contrast to
the surroundings in which it was first conceived. The Fittses were living in
what is locally called a ‘coffee shack’, a dwelling normally used by farmers who
grow the famous coffee for which Kona is known. Fitts had accepted a challenge
to move to the island and help guide young people in the Youth With a Mission
(YWAM) outreach organization. Probably the high cost-of-living, scarcity of
housing, and the nature of Bob’s position led to the subpar housing they found
available. Consequently, Bob’s state of mind left him feeling pretty bereft, spiritually
as well as physically, when a church asked him to sing something special. Bob fashioned
a song for the occasion in just a few minutes, lauding the God he was willing
to serve in spite of the hardship he and his family were enduring. At first, he
didn’t even bother to write down the words or record the music, and when he
arose to sing it at the event for the first time, his memory failed. Bob must
have thought that this episode was rather indicative of his entire Hawaii
experience, in a way. A promise of something special had instead come up empty,
or nearly so. Nevertheless, Bob did not throw in the towel, but on the way home
from this deflating experience he recalled the tune and the words to “Blessed
Be the Lord God Almighty’, permitting him to record them this time in his shack-home.
YWAM was soon helping spread Bob’s song, locally and worldwide. He relates one
of his most poignant moments was hearing a stadium filled with thousands in
South Korea singing ‘Blessed Be the Lord…’ in a language he doesn’t even speak.
Maybe it was Bob’s poor-in-spirit moment in his shack that made room for the
rich creation that was born so readily and widely adopted.
You think
that Bob Fitts’ ‘Blessed Be the Lord God Almighty’ experience may have something
to do with him still living in Hawaii, 40 years later? The Fittses have travelled
widely to spread the message that was encapsulated in the song born in a shack.
In fact, they make their church ‘home’ in Singapore, while still maintaining a
home – but, not the original shack! – in the Kailua-Kona area. Hawaii’s isolation
perhaps spurs their outlook, the urge to extend themselves far and wide. This
must help them see and appreciate even more the blessed way God has worked, to fashion
and use them as tools, even while they were feeling pretty needy and suspecting
they were in the wrong place. ‘…lift your name in all the earth’, Bob wrote in
one phrase of the shack-song. Perhaps he was hoping for that when he accepted the
challenge in the early 1980s with YWAM. Now, the Fitts clan seems to be living
it.
A source
for the song story is the book “Our God Reigns: Stories behind Your Favorite
Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel
Publications, 2000. See more information on the song story in The Complete
Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by
William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006
See here
for information about one of the author: https://www.bobfitts.com/about
