Three composers. They’re each unique. And yet, a common
thread runs through all of them. If you read just a little about each of them,
you can guess that they met and collaborated on the song “One Thing Remains” in
California a few years ago, in 2010. Brian Johnson, Christa Black Gifford, and
Jeremy Riddle all have stories of where they’ve been and how they arrived at
the moment when their feelings coalesced into the words and music that have
become such a hit. He doesn’t quit on any of us, they want us to know, because
He didn’t quit on them. Let’s see how their lives meshed to construct this
message. Could there be a better one, in the wake of Valentine’s Day!
These three 30-somethings -- Brian, Christa, and Jeremy --
came from various circumstances by 2010, weaving the upbeat and positive, the
offbeat, and also the difficult – even revolting -- experiences of life into a
single message in “One Thing Remains”. Brian Johnson’s family is deeply
invested in the Bethel church where he and his father and mother, Bill and Beni—the
senior pastors—co-minister in Redding, California. It’s not an unexpected
development that Brian has become a worship leader and founder of Bethel Music as
a result of the nurturing he received in a vibrant Christian home. God
certainly ‘never gave up’ on him, did He? On the other hand, one of his
co-worship leaders at Bethel, Jeremy Riddle, comes from the other side of the
continent in New Jersey, and that’s also an appropriate metaphor for his path
to ministry. Though he’s been a minister for several years now, including previously
at another church in California, his earlier years might have been described as
distant, offbeat from his current calling. He was a budding political scientist
upon his graduation from college and then part of a band in the mainstream
music scene. Even so, God must have been planting something in him, huh? While
the Johnson-Riddle combo’s background may resonate with the ordinary believer,
would it be too much to say that Los Angeles resident Christa Black Gifford’s
story is perhaps the turbo-charge for the engine in “One Thing Remains”? The
song’s theme—that God’s love and grace can overpower any challenge—must have
spoken to her. She’s the author of God
Loves Ugly, her personal reflection on a struggle to overcome addiction
and a childhood trauma. Her story must be heard too, for in truth, you and I
are addicts too – to our human sin that can attack us physically and
emotionally, as it did Christa, or spiritually debilitate us, even though we
may not realize it.
“One Thing Remains” is repetitive, someone might say, even ‘unimaginative’. You think the theme is monotonous,
too simple? ‘I got it already’, you may say after one line of the song. Maybe
the three composers even raised this complaint while they engaged in its
creation, who knows. But, don’t miss what it is telling you. My salvation
doesn’t happen for me at the same instant it does for you, in our life’s
experience. Do we sometimes forget this, including during corporate worship? This
repeating exercise underscores the saving act – His divine grace – that He
extends to each of us, individually. Johnson, Gifford, and Riddle remind me His
great love’s saving power is happening over and over and over. In fact, it’s continuing
even as I write this and you read it. It’s incalculable, countless. Thank Him
that you’re among the counted!
See following sites for brief biographies of the composers:
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