The writer or writers of this song evidently believed something was missing. It’s almost as if James Wright, Yolanda Adams, Terry Lewis, and James Harris, and possibly someone else were suggesting that the spiritual umbilical cord (see the drawing here, depicting it in red and blue in a mother’s womb) to the Maker had become constricted, thereby choking off the sustenance that embryonic faith needed to survive and prosper. “Open My Heart”, they said, a plea that they felt would allow them to see and hear some things that they sensed were absent, even as their hearts tried to absorb and grow with the nutrients they expected to receive from above. Were their thoughts undergirded with those of ancient songwriters, as they searched for ways to articulate what they wanted to say? Does the umbilical cord ever become unnecessary? See what you think, as you consider the words that the two James’, Yolanda, and Terry wrote. (June 2023 Update: a reader indicates that the song was in fact written by someone [perhaps a female prisoner?, otherwise anonymous] in the Dwight Penitentiary [also known as the Oakdale Reformatory for Women, and Illinois Penitentiary for Women at Dwight in Livingston County, Illinois, see the map here] ‘as a testimony and someone asked for a copy.’ See comment section below blog entry. See link to information on this prison below. Also, beware that there is another song with the same title written by Yolanda Adams and three others [Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and James ‘Big Jim’ Wright]; easy to be confused!)
We don’t know what led these writers – James, Yolanda, Terry, and James – to write three verses of poetry (or, alternately, what led a female prison inmate in the above-mentioned Illinois penitentiary), apparently in the late 20th Century (around 1990?), and to make them into a kind of prayer, perhaps not unlike many of the Psalms we can read in our bibles. Their circumstances, and even more general details about these writers, leave this blogger with little to offer about why ‘Open My Heart’ emerged over 30 years ago. So, their words are the only available clues to their states of mind, unless someone reading this can offer some other credible information (I’d love to hear it, including any other details about the name and circumstances of the female prison inmate in Illinois who may have written this!). We can say the poet/s wanted ‘to grow’ (v.1), even while they confronted issues that warred against this desire to mature spiritually. They had ‘feelings’ (v.1-3) that were misdirecting them or making their vision of God too foggy. Sound familiar? One or more of the writers felt their infant faith wasn’t being allowed to ‘stretch’ (v.1), so that they could ‘understand’ (v.2) their purpose in life, and to do that best by keeping God ‘very near’ (v.3). Is it too much of a stretch to think the writer/s of ‘Open My Heart’ were inspired by one or more psalms, particularly those which speak of ‘my heart’ as someone called out to God? The goals of this/these 20th Century psalmist/s sound much like those of the one who authored Psalm 84:2 – ‘My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.’ Though He's an awesome being, it apparently wasn’t enough for writers in the B.C. period (Psalm 84) nor in 1990 A.D. (‘Open My Heart’) to stand at a distance and merely gaze upon the ‘living God’. The writer/s of ‘Open My Heart’ boldly prayed to ‘know’ (v.1), see (v.2), and hear (v.3) the same things that He does. It’s complete dependence, not unlike the suckling of a child at a mother’s breast, that these writers most wanted. That’s how the infant life becomes progressively viable, once we all exit the womb.
What would happen to a baby in utero if it did not receive rich nutrients and other things, like oxygen, from the mother’s body, via the placenta? We all know the answer – it dies. In some tragic cases, the mother’s body might actually convey something harmful to the baby, as when drug addiction takes over the mother’s system. God knows all about birth and death, and has Himself experienced both, and everything good and bad in between those two points. Did it cross the Omniscient One’s mind, when He was in the womb, that His physical body that needed the umbilical cord to prevent asphyxiation would succumb to death 33 years later from the same cause on a cross (according to the theories of contemporary medical scholars)? Suffocation, asphyxiation, smothering, choking – whatever you want to call it – has one cure. Hook up that umbilical between yourself and the One above.
This link shows the lyrics and the four writers of the lyrics: https://www.shazam.com/track/118169867/open-my-heart
See here for a video describing the life of Yolanda Adams: https://genius.com/Yolanda-adams-open-my-heart-lyrics
See information here on the location where the song was potentially written: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Correctional_Center
Public domain status of two images above: The
copyright holder of the map-picture released it into the public domain.
This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if
so:
(‘I grant anyone the right
to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such
conditions are required by law.’ [copyright holder]). For the umbilical cord
image: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it
was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1,
1928.
