Called Me Higher -- Leslie Jordan

 

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

Prince of Peace! Control My Will -- Mary A.S. Barber or Mary S.B.D. Shindler

She evidently spoke the English language, but there is little more than that which is known about this poetess/hymnist from the 19^th Century. Her first name was Mary, and she felt like praying, so she chose to let others know what was going on inside her when she wrote “Prince of Peace! Control My Will”. This woman felt a conviction that she needed to surrender herself to God, but admitted she struggled with some inner turmoil. Could she overcome the misgivings she sensed within herself? Her questions were probably no different than ones we might ask ourselves nearly two centuries later. Is it OK to believe God’s purposes are perfect, yet shrink from submitting to His way? This Mary wanted to say this was her dilemma, while drawing just a little closer to Him.

The Mary who called out to the Prince of Peace, and for His will and control in her life, was either Mary Ann Serrett Barber or Mary Stanley Bunce Dana Shindler. Mary Barber was a poetess from England, where many of her works were published in the Church of England Magazine, so when “Prince of Peace! Control My Will” appeared in that journal in 1838, she may well have been the source. We can assume this woman, in her mid-to-late 30s, was a member of the Church of England, though what other specific circumstances may have prompted her poem are unknown. Mary Shindler was likewise a poetess and the author of a handful of hymns, but in America, where she was in her mid-to-late 20s in 1838. She’d married Charles Dana in 1835and had a son by the time the words appeared in print, and shortly thereafter they all moved to Iowa, where she lost both her husband and son. (She later returned to her native South Carolina, where she was remarried, to a college professor named Robert Shindler.)Whether Mary was a 30-something Englishwoman or a 20-something American, this woman voiced a prayer. She longed for peace, amid a life that evidently left her feeling that some inner disorder was still present. She hints at or notes clearly this extant condition in the first three verses, so she plainly did not yet feel she’d conquered what troubled her. Sound familiar? Everybody needs order, but where does one find it?

Does anyone in their 20s or 30s ever think they’ve got it all figured out? If everyone is honest, they’d admit lots of hurdles bang their shins as they attempt to jump over the issues that block their paths. Mary Shindler and Mary Barber may have been an ocean apart, but there’s no reason to doubt that either could have authored the words of “Prince of Peace…”. The words this poetess used are so universal, that no one could feel they are foreign to his experience. Wherever I am on my timeline, I cannot divorce myself from certain reservations. I want my own agenda, but recognize that I can be indulgent and harmful to myself. Yet, can I be sure my own needs will be met if I turn to Him more completely?  Is it possible to have everything align on my timeline, with some nexus making it all work perfectly? This Mary, whether she was 25 or 35, had decided that she’d been too focused on herself, and was turning in another direction. She’d decided where, or who, nexus was. Exit doubt, enter God, was her message.    

Some information on the possible author of the hymn’s poetry is here: http://www.hymnary.org/text/prince_of_peace_control_my_will

See this site also: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/p/p/c/ppcontmw.htm

When My Love to Christ Grows Weak -- John R. Wreford

Something was happening to John Reynell Wreford in the first three decades of his life that made him feel pain or sadness, and so it seems he recorded some personal thoughts about how he managed this episode. The prose he created and which was published by 1837 as “When My Love to Christ Grows Weak” reads like a confession and a journey that Wreford travelled, admitting that he fought his own demons and sought comfort and resolution. What details of his life could have troubled this Englishman, compelling him to write poignantly and openly about himself like this?  

John Wreford was born into a family of, and studied himself to become a minister for Unitarians in England, an endeavor that evolved due to his physical circumstances. After completing his study at York’s Manchester College he became a co-minister at a church in Birmingham, a stint that unfortunately was a brief five years because his voice apparently suffered considerably from the strain of preaching. And so in 1831, at the age of 31, he left formal ministry and turned predominately to teaching at a school he and a partner established nearby, and also to composition. He produced several volumes, including some which he wrote while still in ministry, but also some 55 hymns that were part of a hymnal published in 1837. Some of them must have reflected his experience as a minister, though we know not which ones for certain. Whatever the circumstances of the time, it appears from the verses he wrote that Wreford was feeling down on himself, his acquaintances, and his faith toward God. If his ministry was part of this episode, is it too much of a stretch to suggest this could this have been manifested in his failing voice? He wouldn’t be alone in this experience among ministers, who have borne many sorrows over those inside and outside the church. And, this was the time before microphones to project and preserve one’s voice were available (they wouldn’t be invented by Thomas Edison for another two generations, in 1877). Wreford did what many of the faithful do when hurting – seek fellowship in the sting of Christ’s pain.  

What was it Wreford gleaned from Christ’s suffering? He seems to say that being unafraid to examine the misery of God is the start. All five verses invite us to observe Him at His worst moments. It’s like I’m being advised, ‘manage your valleys by watching how Christ dealt with His’. Verse five is the climax, where I must re-enter my own life and apply something that I’ve learned. What ‘might that lies’, we might ask Wreford; what strength is there in affliction?   Just look at what Christ found at the end of His agony, he says. It’s something none of us should ignore, despite how horrible its prelude might look. Keep looking if you still don’t see it…   

    

Some biographic information on the composer was obtained from the book “A Treasury of Hymn Stories”, by Amos R. Wells, 1945, Baker Book House Company.   

See these sites for further biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/r/e/wreford_jr.htm

http://homeschoolblogger.com/hymnstudies/626420/

http://www.hymnary.org/person/Wreford_JR?sort=desc&order=Texts+by+John+Reynell+Wreford+%287%29

He Lives -- Alfred H. Ackley

Life changes everything – a rather obvious fact, isn’t it? But, that’s what Alfred Henry Ackley was thinking around Easter in 1932, a thought that so energized him that he wrote a hymn to say how important this reality is. “He Lives” was his assertion of hope, despite the dire circumstances of the Great Depression that was ongoing in this his 45^th year. He wasn’t despondent, but did feel a desperate need to answer a question posed to him, a question that lit a fire and was further stoked by nonchalance and even doubt that he heard regarding Christ’s resurrection (shown in this 15^th Century masterpiece). His method provides a recipe for how to manage a confrontation with suspicion. Life is proof, he says.

Alfred Ackley had been a minister and music-lover for many years when he wrote “He Lives” in the early 1930s. His father had musically tutored him in New York before sending young Alfred to London’s Royal Academy of Music, but his training didn’t end with music and learning to play the cello. He also obtained theological training at Maryland’s Westminster Seminary, and subsequently ministered in the eastern United States before moving to California. There, a Jewish student bluntly challenged Ackley – ‘why worship a dead Jew?’  Ackley’s prompt response presaged the title of the hymn he later wrote. He also was aroused by some casual skepticism he later heard over the radio, eliciting such passion that his wife reportedly pushed him to record his feelings in this hymn. Verses 1 and 2 of “He Lives” give us hints of his debate with his young Jewish friend, as well as with the culture at large. ‘…(no matter) what men say’ and the weariness and ‘stormy blasts’ he mentions are conceivably reflections of his conversations about faith and a recognition of the era’s economic upheaval. It’s apparent his hymn wasn’t just a song, but a sincere, fervent answer in his world at the time.    

Perhaps he had had other similar encounters and subsequent discussions with his wife or others, for Alfred is credited with some 1,500 songs, both secular and religious, over his lifetime. Composers often tell us how their musical inventions have sprung from real events, even challenges, which crystallize ideas and spur something uniquely apt for the moment. Music that does that is like an aroma that stirs a memory of how we felt, what we were doing at the time. “He Lives” came about apparently as Ackley also studied the bible’s resurrection accounts, the fast-paced, exciting story of Jesus’ rising. The story he read was as real for him, undoubtedly, as the Jewish student’s question and the radio address that fired his spirit that Easter in 1932. Ackley’s method sounds effective, kinda like so many others who’ve composed. Live life, address challenges, read your bible, greet the world with an answer. Give it a try.    

    

 Information on the song was obtained from the books  “Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; and “Then Sings My Soul”, by Robert J. Morgan, 2003, Thomas Nelson, Inc.   

See this site for further biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/c/k/ackley_ah.htm