Christ Above Me -- John Chisum and George Searcy

 

Do you think they might have looked at this depiction of Patrick (painted by an anonymous artist), when they were drawing inspiration for what they were putting into music in 1999? John Chisum and George Searcy were some 15 or 16 centuries beyond the time when the Christian missionary known as Saint Patrick was in Ireland, so why reach back so far for what he had to say? Could it be that either John or George, or maybe both of them, recognized something in the background of Patrick’s prayer-poem (known as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate) that sounded familiar to their 20^th Century experience? A prayer for protection, and a willingness to surrender to a higher power when in trouble, goes back even further than Patrick’s era. So, it’s fair to say that John and George were also thinking biblically, and that the root of their hope lay there, as did the Irish saint’s whose poetry they thought was compelling. Even moderns, advanced as we oftentimes think of ourselves, need Him to be present, as Patrick evidently did, when we pursue something daunting like mission work. Is anything more difficult than that?

 

It's said that the patron saint of Ireland, Patrick, was feeling that he was in danger in the 5^th Century as he strove to spread the news about Christ, and that prayer (or “lorica”) was his response to this trouble. (Other historians attribute this prayer alternatively to someone in the 8^th Century, three centuries after Patrick.) Patrick’s nemesis was Loegaire, a pagan king who would be unrelenting in his hostility to the saint’s objective. And yet, Patrick, not unlike the young David who dodged King Saul’s attempts on his life on many occasions (1 Samuel 18 through 26), outwitted Loegaire, eventually convincing him to submit and accept God. That’s really something, when the pursued can turn the tables and convert the pursuer! The 11 stanzas of Patrick’s prayer stood out to the 20^th Century songwriters Chisum and Searcy, especially the eighth stanza, in which the writer calls out for Christ to be all around him. It also could not have escaped the attention of John and George, that six of eleven stanzas of Patrick’s poem begin with the words (translated into English) ‘I bind to myself today’, and thus the idea that he sought the divine breastplate of the heavenly King as his shield. Implicit in this protective armor was the human part of him that would allow all that God is to assume control, a concept embodied in the one word ‘surrender’ that John and George incorporated into their own verses. Does it work today the same way that it did for Patrick?

 

What events were present for John and George, that would induce them to write their own prayer? Mission work is difficult today, even dangerous in some areas of this planet. So, it would not have been unusual for these two to seek out ancient words that spoke of a call to the Almighty, especially if the effect might be to radically change some missionary’s circumstances from danger to conversion, as it was for Patrick and his pagan adversary. Someone has said that every believer goes into the mission field daily, even if we’re all just going about a daily routine among others who speak our native tongue. There’re still those who don’t know Him -- in fact, are opposed to Him.  There’re other reasons to pray, too. So, are Patrick’s world and yours and mine all that different? Try out his formula, and see what you think of the results.

 

This site provides a clue about the song’s origin: https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/141176544155/christ-above-me-choral-song-john-chisum

 

This site describes the poem which inspired the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Breastplate

 

See this link for discussion of Saint Patrick’s enemy: Lóegaire mac Néill - Wikipedia

 

A biography of one of the authors is here: https://www.nashvillechristiansongwriters.com/john-chisum-and-the-ncs-story/

 

The site for the other author: https://www.georgesearcy.com/

Song for the Nations -- Chris Christensen

 

Chris Christensen had been to many places in the world, even before he turned 30, so he must have been considering that what he would write would emerge from his travelling background. And so, it must have come as little surprise that he was in the midst of a trip between Portland and Seattle on the American northwest coast one morning in the mid-1980s when “Song for the Nations” sprang from inside him. It would take him several hours to get where he was going to a conference, so Chris took advantage of the time, most likely while he was on stretches of Interstate 5 between northwest Oregon and the Puget Sound area of Washington, where Seattle is located. So, how many times did Chris pass a road sign, like this one, on that trip? Chris probably could not say, nor whether the signs might have been a subliminal reminder that he possessed something like a traveler’s gene, and a desire to spread a message wider and faster than he could travel.

 

Chris Christensen may have germinated the seed for ‘Song for the Nations’ while he spent much of his first quarter-century travelling between three continents. His missionary parents moved the family from the United States to South Africa when he was but a toddler. By his mid-teens, Chris’ family had come back to the U.S., where Chris would stay for college. But, then he and Laura (whom he would marry) began their land-hopping between Africa, Europe, and North America, as Chris’ music ministry carried them abroad. It was on one return trip to the U.S., when Chris attended a conference in Seattle, that he wrote the song so effortlessly between there and Portland. He must have felt that this episode to finally bring the song to fruition was leading him somewhere, particularly when he had the chance to sing the song for the first time at the conference. He’d been many places by that time, and seen many versions of Christianity in various languages, so what he wanted to say could not be limited by human communication barriers. What things did Chris say in the song, ideas that compelled one man at the conference to tell Chris that ‘Song…’ would certainly be used by God? Shining God’s light (v.1), spreading a message of hope and healing through salvation (v.2-3), and of ultimate joy (v.4) that would make His kingdom spread over the globe (v.5) were what Chris envisioned. God’s not complicated, Chris seemed to want to say; He’s just waiting for people with open arms, using us mortals to embrace seekers with His presence.

 

Chris’ vision wasn’t to touch just some people. His emphasis is on multitudes – notice the plural nature of his words. ‘Nations’, ‘peoples’, ‘whole world’ are repeated in every verse of his song. Chris had no doubt seen how some things in God’s delivery and people’s receipt of the message are universal – they can go anywhere and be recognized without much explanation. Similarly, it must have dawned on Chris in all his travels, that some road signs and rules have common features. Did the signs for Interstate 5 that day in the mid-1980s look much different to Chris than others on different freeways in the U.S., or indeed in other countries on different continents? You and I also know traffic lights when we see them – green is ‘go’, yellow is ‘caution’, and red is ‘stop’ just about anywhere we could go on planet Earth. Chris would probably agree. Are you on green, yellow, or red with God on your journey?

 

 

 

See author biography here, which also contains the brief episode of the song’s birth: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Chris_Christensen_The_American_songwriter_and_worship_leader/40276/p1/

God's Family -- Lanny Wolfe

 

He was just 35 years old, but had grown enough to appreciate deep down the people whose paths he’d crossed, folks he called ‘family’. Some things like a unique odor, or a visual reminder, or a certain sound in a song, perhaps anything that touches one of our five senses (taste and touch are the other two) can spur memories like Lanny Wolfe encountered one Wednesday night in Jackson, Mississippi. Did the speaker to whom Lanny and others were listening know his words had prompted a song to emerge from Lanny’s spirit about “God’s Family”? This fellow was a missionary, and his stories captivated his listeners, so that a songwriter like Lanny Wolfe goes where he senses the Spirit wants him to go – musically, poetically. Songwriters have the intuition to have scrap paper handy, and to capture a moment, and not just one moment, but countless others that present themselves in the mind. That kinda sums up Lanny’s ‘family’ episode one Wednesday night.

 

By the time in his life when he was in Mississippi in the mid-1970s, Lanny Wolfe had spent significant time also in Ohio (his native state), California, and Missouri, accumulating memories and family relationships that he recalled years later. And, was it an accident that Lanny was hearing from another traveler, Fred Hyde, who told stories from faraway places in Asia about people and places and episodes that had bonded him with ‘family’? Lanny says he was crying one moment, and laughing the next as Fred shared, and so the recollections that Lanny’s mind accessed were not far below the surface of his being. Not much was required to make him remember all the people who had educated him in one way or another – Catherine Ruh and Elsie Dillon, two elementary Sunday school teachers; musical mentors, role models, and instructors like Frank Meier, Ruth Morgan, Lois Ann Newstrand, and Aiko Onishi; other teachers who had nothing to do with music, like a certain statistics professor at Ohio State, and his high school English teacher, Dorothy Moore; and mentors like Janice Moore, James K. Stewart, and George Chambers, some of whom may not have been completely aware of their influence on Lanny. Lanny writes that all of these people touched his life, and so it was difficult to single out any one person to whom he could dedicate ‘God’s Family’, though George Chambers, a pastor when Lanny was growing up, came the closest (Lanny does dedicate another song, “God’s Wonderful Family”, to George). Lanny’s own family, his parents and brothers and sisters are among the pictures he includes in the cast of characters, of course.  Family reunions, including those Christian family get-togethers, are among Lanny’s treasures, with one picture among his collection, in which he singles out his father and mother (Pearl Leo and Precious Ida), Golva Chambers (George’s wife), Grace Stith, Mary Gianvito, Carolyn Cooper, Pam McClain, Paul and Bonnie Brown, and Alice McComb. Would it surprise us if Lanny said there were many, many others?

 

It’s also no surprise that Lanny’s family memories contain not only tears and laughter (chorus), but expectations of this family’s reunion time, forever. It’s no accident that this theme runs through all three verses and his chorus. Lanny must have concluded, even at the 30-something age when he wrote the song, that the gift of God’s family is so special, that God will not contemplate our eternity without such a group. He (God) knows you and I need others. Now and in what’s to come. Thank you Lanny, for sharing your family with us who’ve heard your story! You make me think about my own family. Do you think we have in common some of the same family members? Just think….I’ll meet yours, and you’ll meet mine someday for the first time. What an introduction-reunion that will be!

 

 

See this site to obtain the book “More than Wonderful”, where the story to the song is found: https://paradigmmusic.net/

 

Author’s biography is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanny_Wolfe