Glorious Day -- Kristian Stanfill, Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Sean Curran

It is passion…pure, unabashed, and fully grown, at least as much as can be acquired here in our mortal forms. That’s what you hear coming from Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran as they share the exhilaration they’ve experienced in the “Glorious Day” that they and their two friends, Jason Ingram and Jonathan Smith, wrote and sang a few years ago for the first time. Perhaps their energy is not too unlike what David the King and poet did himself in unashamed joy before God and all people to see (2 Samuel 6:5, 14-15). In fact, ‘Passion’ is the name and the intent of the worship experience these fellows and many others have promoted in Atlanta and around the world. It’s an annual event geared for young adults (college age), but when you really let the words of their song fill you, it won’t matter what age you are. See if you don’t feel like jumping out of your seat and flying, just like the winged creature in this seal of Atlanta!

 

A video (see its link below) shows Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran telling viewers about the unforgettable moment when they first heard the unfinished work – the initial words of one verse and a chorus – that their friends Jason and Jonathan had sent them. It must have had the impact that Jason and Jonathan expected, for another two verses and a bridge section eventually emerged from that introductory copy of ‘Glorious Day’ that they heard. It’s a good thing that Jason was driving the car in which Kristian was riding, because it might have veered erratically or caused an accident, because Kristian said he thought he was going to go through the car’s roof when he heard it. They are dynamic words that describe something in all believers’ future that will be revolutionary and electric – when you and I will ‘(run) out of that grave.’ (It should be an exclamation mark, not just a period that concludes that phrase!) Kristian says he could envision what those words would do, how they would electrify a crowd of worshipers at the annual Passion worship experience-conference when they heard it. Sean says he crafted the song’s bridge, by appreciating that God ‘didn’t stop at saving us’ and that we sing the bridge’s words to celebrate all the things He’s allowed us to overcome. Just imagine that future, Sean says, one that is almost unimaginably bright. Sean could see that we’ll all be able to look behind ourselves, and see that each of us ‘needed rescue…shelter’, because we were weighed down with our own burdens; we’re ‘orphan(s)’ who needed ‘healing’, and yet God did not just watch and weep, but broke ‘chains’, made us ‘citizen(s) of heaven’, and lets us breathe His ‘love’ as our ‘air’. These songwriters’ words tell me ‘my tomb’ is something I can already be sure I will escape, even now. They invite each of us to rejoice that He has already ‘called my name’. It’s as if the ‘Glorious Day’ has already dawned, obliterating ‘the darkness’ for the crowd who sings it in the video with Kristian and the others.

 

Kristian sums up the song’s message by saying that it communicates something universally true for everyone who trusts in God. We’re ‘chosen’, he says. Kristian must have implicitly understood the bible writers’ words – that all men die (Job 30:23; Acts 17:31; Ecclesiastes 3:2 and 9:5), a truism that’s described as an unyielding appointment at the end of life. But, Kristian and his three 21^st Century songwriters want there to be no misunderstanding: Death is not the end, and darkness won’t envelope you and me forever, not if we connect to the One of eternal ‘marvelous light’. Imagine coming back to life, to live forever! All will die, but the sequel is greater, with a never-ending joy. The song at the end of this movie just doesn’t end. That’s worth a hallelujah, at least a skip in my step, and many fist-pumps!

 

 

See comments by authors here re: song’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTAvmRZplvc or here: https://freeccm.com/2017/02/28/behind-the-song-passion-shares-the-heart-behind-their-song-glorious-day/ 

Give Thanks to the Lord -- Brad Smith

 

Thanks, Brad Smith. That much is all that this songwriter might want you and me to say to him, because he would most likely want us to reserve the lion’s share of our gratitude for three others that he considered so much more worthy than himself. Following his lead in this exercise of appreciation, by “Give (ing) Thanks to the Lord”, is perhaps about as much as Brad wanted anyone to know about himself.  This conclusion is what one might deduce after a fruitless electronic investigation into just who this Brad Smith is; Brad is therefore classified as ‘anonymous’, and yet hardly unknown to the One he extolled in 1996. Most of us think of thanks secularly in November, when an image of Cornucopia might be used to connect gratitude with a plentitude of food (as the image here might do). Brad had plenty of reasons for feeling the way he did, but had he really exhausted all the reasons or was he really just beginning to spark others’ thoughts for unending applause? Is your horn of plenty overflowing? See what you think.

 

What circumstances spurred Brad Smith in 1996 are a mystery, but the brief verses in his poetry provide us all we need to see what he was thinking. Perhaps not knowing where he was, or anything at all about Brad makes his thanksgiving that much more adaptable to the various situations in which we might find ourselves, as a new year called 2023 begins. Brad could count at least eight reasons to ‘Give Thanks to the Lord’ in 1996, and none of them are limited by location or anything in our physical world. Does that tell us that Brad ignored what was going on around him? That he did not address any of the earthly events ongoing in 1996 really just suggests his eyes and his heart’s vision became clearer when he gazed vertically, not horizontally. The world is a confusing, muddy mess most days, compared to what drew Brad’s attention. And yet, he must have noted at least some physical things, for he mentions ‘the works of His hand’ immediately; so, God’s creation in this earth was something with which he began his praise. The remainder of Brad’s poem indicates he looked up and recognized that the Creator of all things that he could see was also the source of so much that he could not physically touch. These were an ‘unshakeable kingdom’, and a realization that He has not left us ‘forsaken’ (v.1).  His ‘righteousness’ and ‘love’ (chorus) are immutable qualities of our God that Brad thought were so praiseworthy, worth repeating over and over in his poem. Brad’s spirit was also tuned to the significance of the ’Father…sending His Son’, for the ‘Son’, and the ‘Spirit’ (v.2) who came in Jesus’ stead once the crucifixion-resurrection mission was accomplished here on earth. This life-altering, revolutionary action by our God surely made Brad’s heart race, as he writes that we ‘lift…voices to God…and shout’ to the rest of humanity about what He’s done (v.2). To sum up, Brad saw God’s creative, sacrificing, and redeeming fingerprints everyplace he looked – all evidence of the righteousness, holiness, and love nature of Him. Nothing else Brad could have said was on the same plane as those things.

 

Brad Smith – if you know him and what was going on in 1996, respond! (See where you can ‘comment’ below at the end of the blog entry.) It always helps to know that a poet-songwriter was managing his life the same way that all of us readers-singers do daily. Is it trite to say that life itself is a gift? Maybe Brad asked himself that question, too. If I’m healthy most of the time, if all of my activities seem to line up easily, and if my devices work without a hitch, then the challenge for me seems to be not to get complacent and take these things for granted. All that stuff could go haywire – and sometimes it does! – making me appreciate when it is put back into order. Brad thought about the other stuff that God has taken care of for you and me. What if He had not done so? What would become of my outlook if God were not love, righteousness, holiness, etc., had not sent Jesus, had not asked Him die and rise again, and had not sent the Spirit. Think about it.  

Lord For Your Glory -- David B. Hampton, Matt Huesmann, Grant Cunningham

 

They were three friends who lived in the Nashville area, and each brought a passion for worship to inject into something they would write in 1998. “Lord for Your Glory” was how they felt and expressed themselves when they talked to God, though each was trying to use different gifts to relate to Him. There must have been particular circumstances that brought David Hampton, Matt Huesmann, and Grant Cunningham to that occasion, but one overriding motivation was perhaps the operative factor: they all loved God and the music medium He created to say what was inside of them, to offer Him the best they had to give. That part came through clearly in their poetry. (Update: On 1/31/2023, David Hampton gave this blogger some meaningful words that I share below, in italics. Thanks David Hampton!) 

 

Here's what David Hampton has to say, in his own words about the song: I was serving as Dir. of Worship Arts Ministries at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN at the time. We were working on putting out another of our Re:Awakening CDs for Christ Community worship songs and my friends and producers of the project, Matt Huesmann and Grant Cunningham invited me to come in for a writing session with them one evening…. We got together at Matt’s studio in his home in Franklin and Grant shared with us an idea he had for a lyric… Eventually, we landed on the verse and eventually the chorus that Grant always said he wanted to “soar” melodically and musically….. The thing that makes this song so deeply special is that not long after this was written, and before our CD was completed and released we lost Grant in a soccer playing accident….. I began to think of all the ways Grant had encouraged me and impacted me and this song came to my mind.  I realized that the words were eerily the way Grant lived his life as I went over them in my mind. He truly believed that the work he did in the Christian Music industry was to see God glorified, made accessible, and made real to the listener. This song is Grant’s heart. I well up inside every time I hear it sung because I remember Grant and all he meant to so many of us. And I feel so privileged to have been able to have a peek into that place he went when he was creating.

 

Do you imagine that David and Matt, and those of us who appreciate music-writing and the power of the Spirit in those special musical creation moments, will ever think the same about ‘Lord for Your Glory’ now? Could any of these three friends have suspected what would transpire shortly after they finished crafting the song’s words? It is a little eerie, and frankly a little scary, isn’t it? All three of them brought lots to the table, and you can see some of these details in the links at the end of this blog entry. They’re all three pretty special guys; especially for Matt and David, they remember Grant fondly, and look forward to the heavenly reunion.

 

When they were in that creative moment, and perhaps not even fully appreciative that they were touching something of heaven in their music, David, Matt, and Grant did not need to embellish what they wanted to say in “Lord for Your Glory”; they just felt a need to act upon their feelings for God, apparently. Their expressions were in many verb-forms throughout the song’s lyrics -- ‘praise’, ‘honor’, ‘magnify’, ‘lift (hands)’, ‘give (hearts)’, ‘bring (blessing)’, ‘worship’, ‘offer’, ‘lay down’. Perhaps they just felt it was easier to say how they wanted to respond to God, versus trying to enumerate all the various ways He’d blessed each of them. Is it really much different for any of us? He certainly wants me to be aware of the blessings – a biblical concept, after all --  and to say ‘thanks’ (Ephesians 1:3). It’s just hard to pin down each one, and to find an end to such a list. They are worth appreciating anew each day (Lamentations 3:23), because as Grant could probably tell all of us today, you just never know how and when that transition to the eternal new day will begin. On that day, we’ll have so much more time to do all that Grant’s, David’s, and Matt’s words have us do here in this brief moment on earth.  

 

The words David B. Hampton shared with this blogger were via an email received on 1/31/2023. Thanks David!

 

See here for some brief information about one of the songwriters: https://www.24symbols.com/author/david-b-hampton?id=1062183#

 

See one songwriter’s official website here: https://www.davidhamptoncprc.com/

 

See here for songs by primary songwriter: https://songselect.ccli.com/Search/Results?List=contributor_P403662_David%20Hampton&PageSize=100&CurrentPage=1

 

See here for information on one of the co-authors: Matt Huesmann | Directory | Lipscomb University

 

See here for obituary of one of the co-authors: Grant Cunningham Obituary (2002) - Oklahoma City, OK - Oklahoman (legacy.com)