Come Share the Lord -- Bryan Jeffery Leech

(The Clownfish and the Sea Anemone share the ocean floor)

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had (Acts 4:32). Do you remember hearing this one growing up -- ‘Now share that toy with your brother’? Or, maybe it was a lollipop or the TV control your momma had to pry loose from your fist. Would Halloween exist if neighbors refused to share with kids, maybe even kids they don’t know? And what about Christmas? It’s down the tubes without that holiday giving spirit. How about our roads or even our global economy…what if we refused to share the transportation routes, or commercial goods with others? I confess that sometimes I have really wished that someone would get outta the way on I-495, or that I wasn’t all that fired up about Halloween or Christmas. How about you? Bryan Jeffery Leech has written a song that calls us to share, but curiously to share someone, rather than something. How do we do that? His song’s words tell us how, but its genesis also shows us something else, a reality we often miss or under-appreciate about God and each other. Leech was born in England in 1931, and came to the U.S. in 1955 for part of his ministerial education at Barrington College and Chicago’s North Park Seminary. But, he did not take up the composer’s pen for several years, not until he was in his mid-30’s. One might say, with hindsight, that maybe the Lord was patiently preparing him. Leech has authored over 500 tunes, written several plays and books, and pastored several churches from coast-to-coast. Still, when he wrote “Come Share the Lord”, Leech remembers he had a creative block that was broken only by sharing. It was 1982, and that autumn Leech had fixed in his mind that he would write a communion hymn, but then forgot about his resolution. Or, had he? At Christmas in England with his family, Leech composed a melody, “but my mind was barren of any lyric ideas”, he admitted. It wasn’t until the next summer that he played this orphan tune for a friend, in order to get an objective opinion about its utility. His friend’s reaction -- ‘It’s obvious: Holy Communion.’ Spurred on by this, Leech says he wrote the song’s lyrics that same hour. Do you think he realized how important, even crucial, sharing with someone else can be after this? Indeed, the song’s words, which had been gestating for months, gave birth in rapid fashion to a message, the same message that Leech discovered was active in his own experience – sharing. Leech is living evidence that God is a patient, but not inactive, being. When we know this, and can live it, our world changes. He provides, most notably in the people He puts around me. I guess I have forgotten this at times, if I’m honest. But, a great principle is at work in Leech’s composition, one that should motivate and energize us, and make us appreciate and spur forward each other – like Leech’s friend did for him. It’s called symbiosis in the science world, like the sea anemone and the clownfish that mutually provide for each other in the ocean (see picture above). We have each other as a family, as the song says, and collectively have the Creator as our model. A great, amazing calling is ours. His church should be the world’s greatest creative engine, but perhaps only when we share with each other, and thereby draw on one another and upon Him too. He may seem absent at times, but realizing that the great creative force who made me is nevertheless present is more than just comforting – it unlocks something inside. I love to think that I am mimicking God when I’m creative, and that He’s put this family around me to help me be more like Him.

Information on Bryan Jeffery Leech and the song obtained from these three websites. http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=3900 (article written by C. Michael Hawn, Aug 8, 2008) http://songsandhymns.org/people/detail/bryan-leech (Center for Church Music) http://www.fredbock.com/Promo.asp?page=258 (Fred Bock Music Companies)