Change My Heart, Oh God -- Eddie Espinosa

He was deep in thought inside his truck in the middle of a street; the scene was Anaheim, California.  It was perhaps one of the most private moments for 28-year-old Eddie Espinosa, and one that he didn’t really intend that others should hear, when he breathed the words “Change My Heart, Oh God”. After all, it was a personal prayer, just between God and himself. And yet, he did something in that moment that implied that he wanted to remember; that, while it was an intimate episode, Eddie wasn’t embarrassed to tell others in appropriate settings about this experience. Others would indeed hear what he’d said on the way to work that day. If you or I had the nerve, would we share what we might say while driving our vehicles on a street in southern California? And, could such an incident always be described as a prayer, or instead as a complaint, or worse? Maybe that’s the kind of stuff that Eddie felt was inside himself that needed changing.

 

Eddie admits that things in his life that day in 1982 were going really well, and in fact were sources of great joy, and yet there were deeper issues that he knew were inhibiting his journey. He was a teacher at a local school, had a good marriage and two small children as a result, and was a worship leader at a growing church. So, these were three foundational things in any person’s life that one would not expect to leave a person wanting – a good job, a great family, and a role in a burgeoning faith group. Eddie apparently wasn’t one to just sit and bask in the glow of his life, however. Something gnawed at his insides, and though he doesn’t share specifically what that was, he did confess it to his Maker. (Eddie only says he felt just a bit apathetic.) ‘Change me at the heart level’ Eddie prayed fervently, as he sat in his truck. It was something that was making him feel that his life expression wasn’t genuine, for he sang and wrote the words ‘Make it ever true’ when he admitted to God what was going on deep down. He was apparently one guy who never felt he was alone, removed from the gaze and examination of the one who knew him best. And so, Eddie wasn’t afraid to get real with Him; and, unlike many people who find such scrutiny uncomfortable, and try to avoid its unsettling effect, Eddie grabbed a piece of paper to record the moment. Thank God for a stop sign and forgiving traffic that allowed Eddie to chronicle those emotion-filled few minutes! He was able to identify with the ancient King David, who in the wake of some infamous misdeeds authored his own confession (Psalm 51). So, Eddie knew there could be forgiveness when one is open and repentant. You cannot pull the wool over your Creator’s eyes, and you bond with other like beings -- the rest of the human race – when you admit your shortcomings. Let Him keep ‘molding’ you, like clay in a potter’s hand (v.2), Eddie said.

 

This proposition to let God be the potter and us the clay is good for all of us, Eddie must have concluded. Otherwise, he might have kept his song’s story to himself. Instead, when bit by bit, how and what Eddie wrote came to light, he coaxed others to join in and admit they needed what he’d already received. When I cannot find the enthusiasm I should have, I need to be honest about that. Maybe Eddie’s far vision longed for more than he already had, the trap many of us fall into. Some might call that feeling ‘reaching for the American dream’, to always be striving for more because one is unsatisfied. Instead, what Eddie concluded was that he’d already been incredibly blessed, and he needed to appreciate that reality more. Get red-hot about what He’s accomplished, not how I might feel about my humdrum, routine, terrestrial days. I’m heading for a mind-blowing place, into the presence of Him who made me. Ready?

 

 

 

The song story is found in the following books: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008; Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003; and The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.

 

There Shall Be Showers of Blessing -- Daniel W. Whittle

 

This Civil War veteran did not start out being a believer, but something must have intervened to change his outlook. Could it have been the war, which permanently maimed Daniel Webster Whittle with the amputation of his right arm? What in the world would change someone who suffered so grievously, that he was able to tell others that “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” years later? Despite his wartime service, or perhaps because of it, Daniel had found something that would stay with him, even though his battlefield experiences had cost him a limb. Major Whittle, as he would be known for the remainder of his life, was a vivid example of someone who trusted, an amputee who knew his God and His promises were worth more than his right arm.

 

Daniel Webster Whittle was 43 years old in 1883, when the song ‘There Shall Be Showers…’ first appeared in print, some 20 years and a number of life-altering events after the 1860s, perhaps the hinge-point of his life. At war’s end, Daniel probably could not have imagined himself doing what came to be his life’s purpose, but perhaps it all started with a New Testament that his mother placed in bag as he went off to war. Was it the loss of his arm that finally pushed him to read this during his time in a field hospital? Following the war, his time with Dwight Moody in Chicago also played a significant role in his Christian development, though he’d begun his postwar life initially in a clock company. It was apparently Moody who coaxed the major to focus his life on evangelism instead, perhaps seeing that his life was a walking message to others about God’s work. Daniel apparently collaborated with James McGranahan, who wrote the tune for this hymn and many other songs that that the two men worked together to produce; these two reportedly travelled together on many evangelism tours, suggesting that it was on one of their trips when ‘Showers…’ was created by them. And, the song title suggests Whittle was reading or preaching about Ezekiel 34:26 on that occasion. Did Whittle find especially resonant the message from that prophet about sheep being cared for directly by the Lord, that this God would send showers of blessing? Every verse of his song begins with this promise about showers of blessing, about the provision of this God that Whittle had grown to trust unconditionally. What would it have been like to hear a message from a one-armed veteran about the blessings of life?

 

Whittle associated many facets of knowing God with the showers he trusted God would deliver.  Trust and obedience (v.5); certainty of His love (v.1); confession and submission (v.4); prayer (refrain, v.3); and His abundant nature (v.2) all resound in Daniel’s poetry, things he had evidently gleaned from the prophet’s writings. Did he also pen his words as a response to how his own life had progressed to that point? He’d seen the misery of war, and had survived. ‘Was it luck?’, you could imagine the major might have asked himself one or multiple times. Perhaps Daniel had surmised that God is the provider he needed, no matter what is going on. Think about it, and see if you agree with Daniel.

 

   

See more information on the author of the song’s verses in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990.   

 

Also see this link, showing all five original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/h/e/r/s/thershow.htm

 

Also see this link for author’s biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/h/i/t/t/whittle_dw.htm  

 

And here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster_Whittle

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