Clap Your Hands -- Charley LeBlanc

 

Pure joy. Exuberant community. Those two phrases may help one understand what Charley LeBlanc was looking for when he said “Clap Your Hands” in 1988. Finding an image that really does justice to such an occasion – think of a sports pep rally, or when someone returns from a great victory (see the triumphant David in the work of art by Mateo Rosselli) – might actually be difficult. And, it’s gotta be more than just a snapshot, but a full-length video that just doesn’t end. A person might need to experience something like this up close, in person. It’s a group experience, meant to be a foretaste of what’s to come, so perhaps Charley was trying to imagine this like never before, even angelically. Can anyone really picture the future scene that John painted while in a trance-like state on Patmos in the first century – Revelation 19: 1-8? There will certainly be a lot more than hand-clapping going on then, but you really cannot fault Charley for trying to spur on a crowd with this idea of celebration, because the victory is already won. Yes. That’s worth at least a WOW!

 

Charley LeBlanc and his wife, Jill, must have their own favorite, exquisite memories to draw upon – something that fires their engines. That is the sense of what comes across when reading from their official website. It’s impossible to miss, including when you note that they’ve designated their overall ministry name with something that begins with these two words – Joyful Word. They haven’t shared specifically on that site why a song like ‘Clap Your Hands’ materialized in 1988, but maybe that’s because their entire enterprise is infused with the attitude they hope to generate with that music. It really doesn’t require much insight to see what they are after, and you can actually hear it in Charley’s voice when he’s coaxing a crowd to join in as they sing the song (hear the rendition of the song at the link below). Join in everyone! No one is left out – that’s his intention. And, the album’s name on which the song appears also indicates that this is for everyone – it’s called Lord of All. That they emphasize this group joy, even in the midst of their own grief when their son Beau died in 2009, says so much about them and the fortitude of this life attitude they have. They say on their site that Beau ‘blasted off into Heaven’, rather than muttering that it was so unfair and premature. They lean on what Paul tells believers about the heaven journey -- If I live, it will be for Christ, and if I die, I will gain even more (Philippians 1:21). So, summing up what Charley says with his lyrics sounds like this: Everybody celebrate the big win! God’s behind all of this, and Jesus is Lord for all of us! Not enough exclamation marks for this! It’s something that overcomes even death.

 

Think of your most exciting in-person or video-viewed experience – see if that may give you a taste of what Charley and the apostles John and Paul have been trying to coax from your insides. I like to click on a link to one of my favorite celebratory scenes (even if it is a little blurry, because of the quality of the video), because I sense that it really captures something rare. You can see the fans already waving towels and cheering before the play even happens, as they try to spur the team on to victory. Then, when the big, clinching play happens, the stadium erupts – 60,000 to 70,000 fans (root word for fanatics) yelling and jumping up and down as one, until there’s a final crescendo when the player crosses the goal line and jams his index finger in the air. Awesome…no other word suffices. Got it? Now be the fanatic for Him who’s got your victory party waiting for you. Yeah!  

 

 

See information about the LeBlanc couple here: www.charlieandjill.com  and  About – www.charlieandjill.com   and Personal Bio – www.charlieandjill.com

 

Hear a rendition of the song, as performed/lead by Leblanc here: Charlie LeBlanc- Clap Your Hands (Medley) (Hosanna! Music) - YouTube

 

Public Domain status of the picture: 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 100 years or fewer.  (author  - Matteo Rosselli  (1578–1650)) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rosselli_Triunfo_David.jpeg

Above All -- Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche

 

This was definitely one collaboration that altered the course of a song’s history, in a way that totally staggered its authors-composers. Two guys, Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche, decided that two heads were better than one in the 1990s, and yet they could not have predicted what would happen to a song named “Above All” that Paul had started and that Lenny finished. A studio in Lenny’s place in Muscle Shoals, Alabama (see map depicted here) provided apt surroundings for their musical project, but the collaborative effort took a turn that was truly exceptional. The song’s impact immediately overwhelmed them both, creating a memorable moment that they knew was no accident. It must have been a ‘goosebumps’ kind of episode; perhaps that much could have been expected, given the subject matter they were addressing.

 

The 40-something Lenny and 30-something Paul were both expecting to make some progress in their time together one day in the 1990s, but if asked today, they’d probably say that the way “Above All” emerged from that time was rather unusual. Paul’s initial effort at the verse captured Lenny’s attention, but it wasn’t until Paul was sound asleep later that Lenny’s contribution came to fruition. Perhaps this was a very incongruous recipe for success, but then maybe where this unconventional Savior was concerned, that was indeed the right method for successful songwriting. And, indeed this same contrasting theme was how Lenny’s chorus compared with Paul’s verse, something that Lenny recalls just knocked Paul for a loop when he heard it for the first time. How does one mention Him being ‘above all’ created things (v.1), and then wind up one’s thoughts by saying he’s despised, trampled upon, humiliated, and executed (chorus)? Two pictures of someone, especially the God of the universe, could not be more opposite. And yet, they’re true. Lenny says he and Paul had trouble singing the song’s chorus as they tried it out on themselves, because their emotions left them singing through their own tears. Perhaps you and I have felt it occasionally during an especially poignant movie, maybe in a war flick when the hero dies in an act of selflessness, saving a fellow soldier. Jesus is like that, isn’t He? Magnify that a bit – He did it for everyone on the planet across all of history. Try that on for size, and match it up with some music that penetrates to the spirit. That was what happened to Lenny and Paul in a studio in Alabama one day.

 

When one is trying to adequately describe the Messiah’s life, is there really an expectation that one will succeed? Maybe that’s what Lenny and Paul ultimately were hunting as they talked about and sang together their finished product the first time. Tell about His pedigree, and then about how He surrendered all of that. Tell about this contrast. What they sang stunned them, evidently overpowering the human inclination to sing the words and music, and to do what musicians do. They really needed to see if this blend worked, right? But, what they found by happenstance was that their own reactions provided the only answer they needed. Telling each other about Him is all any of us really need.         

 

The song story is found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_LeBlanc

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baloche