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 21st 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/
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