Trinity Song -- Sandra McCracken

 

She was listening for Him. While walking on a beach in Portugal (see its flag here), Sandra McCracken says she wrote “Trinity Song”, even as the rhythm of crashing waves and her own steps metered and focused her mind on His three-person character. She found a simplicity and a power in what she heard that day; could it have been like the moments when other God-seekers have bent their ears to hearken to His whispers? It’s a rare commodity in our tech-consumed world, to seek silence. What is the normal human reaction when somebody whispers something that you cannot quite comprehend? Speak up! And yet, the God-seekers we meet in scripture did not dare say that to Him – note what Elijah (1 Kings 19:12) and others (Job 4:12-16; 26:14) said when they heard His voice faintly. That’s a picture of Sandra, as she directed people to listen for Him in 2016.

 

Silence was not a fad with Sandra, as she explained in several forums. It’s a lifestyle, a search with a goal to enter His space and receive His thoughts more intimately. She evidently had lit upon several biblical passages to spur her quest for a Godly silence; these included what ancient wisdom-writers (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, Psalm 46:10, and Psalm 65:1) had concluded was true, but only if one heeds the advice. Be still, say little or nothing, for even in that silence, He can be praised. And so, Sandra thought that approach was how one might more deeply appreciate the parts of Him that even believers find murky – namely, the concept of the Trinity, the three persons of the Godhead. Whether Sandra’s Portuguese beach venue was just a coincidence, or instead a definite plan to find the Holy Troika in solitude, she doesn’t say. But something happened, and Sandra didn’t waste the moments trying to sort out how or why it had transpired – she just absorbed the time. She says she could imagine the three persons ‘danc(ing)’, and perhaps He was feeding her willing spirit with the sound of the waves and the pace of her own steps, which were the ones He made for her, we could say. Her own words were immaterial; only His mattered. Thus, she took a page from her own experience there to imitate for the song that was already in her head about Him in the three persons she’d just heard. Only a few words, repeated to draw the worshipper closer and closer to Him, were necessary. Say His names – Father, Son, and Spirit – and what He provides – Holy Communion. Alternately use a synonym for this Trinity – Three in One – to approach Him reverently. And then solicit what He is only too willing to provide – peace, an invitation, and holy love. That was the uncomplicated formula that Sandra apprehended on a beach in Portugal.

 

Sandra knew she had found something, and upon returning from the beach, she immediately recorded it. Perhaps because she felt it was the three persons of the Trinity, she wondered if harmony in three complementary voices would work in this embryonic composition. Some people might find what she’s accomplished too simplistic, but Sandra felt that space is where He can be encountered. He is the Omnipotent, but amazingly He doesn’t force Himself on you and me. I have to be a surrenderer. I must believe that what He brings me is so much greater, purer, and healthier for me in this world, that I am willing to cast aside my other stuff to get what He wants me to have. Less is more. Heard that one before? Gotta embrace that concept, because that’s what’s awaiting you and me – I’ll take nothing with me and instead inherit everything that He’s been prepping for me. It’s a good idea to start working on that less and more thing now.       

 

Read some of the author-composer’s thoughts on the song here: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Sandra_McCracken__A_songbysong_rundown_of_her_Gods_Highway_album/58907/p1/ …and here…https://markedministry.com/2016/11/04/song-stories-sandra-mccracken/  … and here also: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sandra-mccracken-on-how-to-wait-well/

 

See information on the image of the Portuguese flag here:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Portugal_(official).svg …This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer. 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, 1930. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States. The image may be found inside this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal