The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours) -- Jesus, Matt Maher, Bryan Fowler, Jacob Sooter

Another way of saying what they thought about in this song was the oft-used acronym KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid (but make sure you say this especially to yourself if you use that ‘Stupid’ word, and not to others). Don’t make something too complicated, and particularly when you look at “The Lord’s Prayer”, as Matt Maher, Bryan Fowler, and Jacob Sooter did when they repeated and updated it with a few reminders for themselves (See here the late 19^th Century artwork The Lord’s Prayer, by James Tissot.)  The words Jesus used to teach His hearers in His great sermon (Matthew 6/Luke 11) were also those by which He lived and taught every day, so when Matt, Bryan, and Jacob put in a few extra words, they must have been looking at Him and His life’s consistency, and how they thought they should respond to Him daily, too. With any familiar words used repeatedly, day after day, there is a risk that the words become a rote exercise, but one of these three 21^st Century composers says his regular use of the prayer has had the opposite effect. Should we expect that the prayer basics that Jesus taught would remain any less stimulating for us as the day He first spoke them?

 

Jesus readily responded to the people who asked Him how to pray, something that really indicated how the people already trusted Him. And yet, He didn’t offer them promises about Roman comeuppance, about redemption of the Jewish nation to its former autonomous status, or about prosperity for themselves. It was instead all about each individual’s one-to-one connection with God and with each other. In short, each of us needs to find ourselves in His corner and trust that He provides, prompting us to treat each other as He has treated us. Matt said in 2022 (perhaps a year after the 21^st Century version of the prayer-song was written) that he thought it was all about reminding himself about spiritual basics, when he and his family would echo Jesus’ words each day. Making things too complicated had been one of the spiritual traps into which he’d often fallen, Matt admits, so making this prayer a daily habit was intentional from a foundation-building perspective. Moreover, he found that he would discover something anew each time he mimicked Jesus in this way. Do you suppose Jesus intended this phenomenon when he taught the people? Certainly, Jesus wanted you and me to personalize the prayer, and because each day is new, how I live out that prayer just might change ever so slightly, or perhaps more radically on occasion, as my life unfolds from day to day. One might gather that that is what Matt and his two friends were also thinking when they added some words to the prayer, particularly the phrase ‘right here in my heart’, which is sung seven times to emphasize how today’s disciple responds to what Jesus said. Matt, Bryan, and Jacob added some other words to underscore that the world He created, and the kingdom Jesus came to initiate, are His…’it’s yours, all yours’. That is so very crucial to accept, not just as a believer, but as a human being created by Him. If I don’t acknowledge His ownership, I can spend my life as an empty exercise in accumulating stuff for myself, none of which I can take with me to the other side of mortality’s conclusion. On the other hand…   

 

…when I discover and accept that He’s the LORD, as in landlord and people-Lord too, then I can aim at the only target that makes sense: His kingdom. That’s the one that is enduring, because He brought it with Him when He was here on earth, and its expansion to millions and even billions of people since then just cannot be rolled back. Read Revelation, and remind yourself who wins in the end. Why would you not want to be connected to what He – the Resurrected One – has begun and which will overpower death, because He has already done so as the First-Born? I have no better option and no other plan that offers what He’s begun in His kingdom. Do you? See if Jesus’ simple, but still-potent words work for you.  

 

Read the story from the principal author-composer of this 21^st Century version of the prayer here: Matt Maher Goes Personal with "The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)" : News : JubileeCast

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Lord%27s_Prayer_(Le_Pater_Noster)_-_James_Tissot.jpg (found at this link -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer ) …The author died in 1902, so 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. 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, 1930.

 

Let Us Be You -- Clarissa Cox and Michael Lusk

 

What was on the minds of Clarissa Cox and Michael Lusk when they wrote some lyrics and married them up with notes that were published in 2005? Perhaps it would be close to the mark to suggest that Clarissa and Michael were thinking about helping people who were depressed because of the overwhelming atmosphere of their lives. Were they street people, maybe those who were just hungry, as God the Son Himself once observed? (See an image of loaves and fish, a painting found in the Catacomb of Callixtus, that is a reminder of Jesus serving people by feeding 5,000 on one occasion [recorded in all four gospel accounts, Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; and John 6].) They musically asked God to “Let Us Be You” when they encountered these needy people, even as they must have realized that their own efforts would not be as miraculous as God’s. But, bring a bit of the kingdom here, as Jesus taught the men around Him once in a model prayer (Matthew 6:10), one that He taught them after teaching them about how to give to the needy, by the way. It’s a sobering thing, to be or represent God to others.

 

While we know not what the specific circumstances were that spurred Clarissa and Michael, nor very little about these two people, the words and music offer enough to motivate the ones who engage in the song’s message. ‘Let us be you’, the two of them thought about, in two ways: first, as a way to ‘revive the church’; and second, as his people ‘on this earth’, representing Him to others. Someone on the outside looking in might imagine, at least momentarily, that these two goals would be separate. What Clarissa and Michael propose, however, is an inextricable linkage of these two goals. The ‘hurting’, the ‘wounded’, the ‘lonely’, and even those who feel that ‘justice’ has abandoned them are all in this world that He created. What must these downtrodden be thinking – might it be even anger that occupies their thoughts, that God has ignored them? Even churches, inhabited by people who are seemingly doing fine, can begin to feel blasé about their routines; so, these two songwriters were doing perhaps a bit of self-examination here, and admitting that the church or churches in their fields of vision needed rejuvenation, even as hurting people who needed a fresh start surrounded them. ‘Stir our spirits’ (v.1)…how, exactly? ‘Help us serve’, they answer. ‘Speak your truth!’ (v.2), Clarissa and Michael say, which is accomplished by helping others – the living proof, the evidence of our Christian values and a God-centered love for all people. ‘Live in our hearts, fill this body’ is what Cox and Lusk ask God to do, rather directly with the first line of this song. A worthy goal, and one that us imperfect humans definitely need Him to actuate.       

 

‘Be You’…’? Those are two small, but intimidating words for anyone to think about, and yet Clarissa and Michael chose to vocalize them. How could I possibly be God to someone else? Maybe these two songwriters also had pause, when they considered this. How would one express this, musically? Allow some music-nerdiness for a moment, if you will. Clarissa and Michael employ an unusual technique at one point, perhaps to emphasize that being ‘on’ this earth can be a bit harsh at times. Notice the major 2^nd interval -- in the music’s E-flat to F in the treble clef -- for ‘on’ this earth, sung four times throughout the song. It sounds a little dissonant (technically known in music theory as an imperfect consonance), perhaps to emphasize that things here on earth are not quite as blessed as they will be in the kingdom (where everything is in perfect consonance). I’m only an imperfect creation, though I can behave wondrously when I allow Him to spur my actions. Being Him, that’s what I aim at, though my mimicry is incomplete, and probably something I should admit to others when I stretch out a hand, and my heart, to assist them. But, come join the rest of us imperfect creatures He made, and see if you find a few more hints of Him among His body.     

 

See musical information about the major second interval here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_second

Read more about the Major second interval here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonance_and_dissonance

 

See information on the image of the fish and loaves here: File:Eucharistic bread and fish.jpg - 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 70 years or fewer. {{PD-US-unpublished}} – for works that were never published anywhere before 2003 and whose author died before 1954 or, if the author's year of death is unknown or inapplicable, were created before 1904.

I Need You More -- Lindell Cooley and Bruce Haynes

 

‘It’s a very personal prayer moment with my Creator’ – that is probably something like what two songwriters would say if they were asked to explain why they said “I Need You More” in 1995. Lindell Cooley and Bruce Haynes were part of a burgeoning church in Pensacola, Florida (see its seal here) that they felt could draw closer to Him if each person would humble him- or herself at His feet. It’s not a lot more complicated than that, though they felt that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would consequently be manifested in various and even unexpected ways. It’s an admission that anyone – even if you aren’t faithful to a Creator – would probably acknowledge: that life so often is out of my control, that I cannot handle everything on my own. So, the rational thing is to seek community and security. That’s one way. What Lindell and Bruce wanted to express is something more encompassing – someone even more able to take on all that I need. After all, He made me and the place in which I live. How’s that early 20^th Century and 1950s pop-song go?…’He’s got the whole world in His hands’.

 

There have been other versions of what Lindell and Bruce said in the mid-1990s, expressing our need for Him to be there, to intervene and bring calm to the anxious spirit. They include (but aren’t limited to) two other stories told here in this blog – see Lord, I Need You (by a quartet of songwriters in 2011, see entry for 6/23/2023), and I Need Thee Every Hour (by Annie Hawks, some 139 years earlier, see entry for 11/12/2017). That one word that all three songs have in common is need. Is anything more humbling, than to make this confession? Lindell and Bruce had one particular habit in mind when they wrote their needy song, and that was to facilitate prayer in the Brownsville Assembly of God church where they were witnessing people begging for their God to make Himself known. It was one of many songs on an album called Quiet Songs for Time Alone with God: Volume One – Prayer that they dedicated toward this activity…what would one appropriately call it? It’s more than a rite, or a sacrament, as one can tell in the lyrics that these two songwriters wrote to describe the attitude of the person prostrated before Him. Need is posed in several ways, according to Lindell and Bruce, and always as more. ‘More than yesterday’ and ‘more than ever before’, telling us that the praying person can see mortal existence only grows more challenging, but not more so than His care for me. ‘More than words can say’, but that’s why He gives of Himself, so that even my groans touch His heart (Romans 8:26). ‘More than the air I breathe’, ‘…than the song I sing’, ‘…than my next heartbeat’, ‘…than anything’ – what other things are more essential than breathing, and having a heartbeat? Lindell and Bruce are music-lovers, obviously, so being able to express themselves with a song is right up there with all of the other needs they mention.

 

He gives so much. Examine that list of needs that Lindell and Bruce tick off for us, and see if He’s not the answer to needs you have. There’s a whole lot of tangible things that they don’t mention – food, clothing, shelter, employment, relationships, and reasonably good health are all on the short list, and who among us hasn’t prayed to our Maker-Sustainer for all of these at various points? But, what Lindell and Bruce offer, is to realize that being able to pray to Him is the most basic need, even if some of what He apparently does happens in my involuntary responses, like my breathing and heart-beating. What if those weren’t present? That would be a four-alarm emergency, ‘call 911, get that E-squad here ASAP!’ Though He’s physically invisible, would it matter to my world if something equivalent happened to Him, that His breath (Genesis 2:7) and His great heartbeat present at creation’s dawn might expire? For now, He is still taking care of us and our planet. Could it be that He’s still there because He wants to hear from you and me? What more do you need today, than Him?      

 

 

Read about one of the two songwriters here: Lindell Cooley - Wikipedia

 

See here also: Lindell Cooley – Official Site of Music Missions International (archive.org)

 

Lindell Cooley | www.morningstarministries.org

 

Read here about the church where Cooley ministers: Grace Church Nashville

 

See here information about the seal of Pensacola and its public domain status: File:Seal of Pensacola, Florida.png - Wikimedia Commons   -- This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, and municipal government agencies) of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.