This one was really something that matched the name of the singing group and its purpose, and so it was probably a ‘no-brainer’ for Leslie Jordan to pen the words for “Called Me Higher”. All of her spiritual brothers and sisters – All Sons & Daughters (the name of her singing duo, and the name of the album, too, on which the song appears) – in the Franklin, Tennessee (part of the Nashville metro area) church were on Leslie’s mind. Though she eventually saw the song as for this large group, it didn’t start out that way; it was, instead, pretty personal in its conception. ‘Pray this, just between you and Him’, she thought to herself. It was no more complicated than that. It’s just one more landmark, further evidence, of what can emerge from a musical person when she contacts the Spirit. So, don’t keep some of those prayers private and confidential, if it will motivate others around you – that’s a secondary message that comes out of this story.
Leslie Jordan was helping guide the worship at the church were she and David Leonard (her singing partner in All Sons and Daughters, and co-worship leader at the church) were active sometime in 2012. She was thinking about her own walk with God, and really wanted to be authentic and expansive in her faith. And so, she admitted to herself and to her Lord that she didn’t want to ‘just sit’ (v.1) or ‘hold on’ (v.2), remaining in a ‘safe’ zone. She asked Him in this prayer to move her off center, to come and ‘lead her ‘deeper’ and ‘higher’ (chorus). Later, when the song had fully arrived and was being produced for the album, Leslie says she was thinking also about everyone in the church, and how they might be coaxed to launch outside of themselves. It would be about all of them letting go of fears, about letting God take control of circumstances. This all came to her mind as she was driving along one day. She pictured different people being challenged to do things they’d not had the courage to do before…to be called into His strength. As verses one and two indicate, Leslie thought it would be easy to not do anything different, but just ‘wait’ for God to move, and yet there was the inclination toward ‘never’, which she repeats three times (v.2). It shows she recognized her internal drives, and the impetus versus inertia conflict that was ongoing. Perhaps she could likewise see it in the facial expressions of her church’s members, or hear it in their voices as they talked about various visions and circumstances to manage. These visions, perhaps in their collective immediate futures, were not the only ones to consider. Leslie thought about being His vessel and force ‘for all my life’. That’s a pretty big commitment, if we really mean it when we sing it, isn’t it?
Who can imagine all that one might do in all of his life? I don’t have that kind of crystal ball, and some of what I might see would scare me, probably. Leslie Jordan didn’t let thoughts like that stop her from challenging herself, and us, with those forward-leaning kind of words. She, and all of us, need one elemental thing in order to make a pledge like she sings in the words ‘for all my life’. Trust. He’s the only one who knows the future, and knows each of us better than we know ourselves. If He’s ‘called me higher’, then logically I should realize that anything is possible if I’m truly in tune with the place and the Creator that I am aimed at. Leslie just seems to be saying ‘let the Spirit loose on yourself’, to let that ‘higher’ and ‘deeper’ grow that space in which I live. Just see how big it can get!
See the author-composer description of the song’s origin and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCXOI3QIcA
Read here for description of the musical group in which the author-writer sings: All Sons & Daughters - Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment