Let Us Be You -- Clarissa Cox and Michael Lusk

 

What was on the minds of Clarissa Cox and Michael Lusk when they wrote some lyrics and married them up with notes that were published in 2005? Perhaps it would be close to the mark to suggest that Clarissa and Michael were thinking about helping people who were depressed because of the overwhelming atmosphere of their lives. Were they street people, maybe those who were just hungry, as God the Son Himself once observed? (See an image of loaves and fish, a painting found in the Catacomb of Callixtus, that is a reminder of Jesus serving people by feeding 5,000 on one occasion [recorded in all four gospel accounts, Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; and John 6].) They musically asked God to “Let Us Be You” when they encountered these needy people, even as they must have realized that their own efforts would not be as miraculous as God’s. But, bring a bit of the kingdom here, as Jesus taught the men around Him once in a model prayer (Matthew 6:10), one that He taught them after teaching them about how to give to the needy, by the way. It’s a sobering thing, to be or represent God to others.

 

While we know not what the specific circumstances were that spurred Clarissa and Michael, nor very little about these two people, the words and music offer enough to motivate the ones who engage in the song’s message. ‘Let us be you’, the two of them thought about, in two ways: first, as a way to ‘revive the church’; and second, as his people ‘on this earth’, representing Him to others. Someone on the outside looking in might imagine, at least momentarily, that these two goals would be separate. What Clarissa and Michael propose, however, is an inextricable linkage of these two goals. The ‘hurting’, the ‘wounded’, the ‘lonely’, and even those who feel that ‘justice’ has abandoned them are all in this world that He created. What must these downtrodden be thinking – might it be even anger that occupies their thoughts, that God has ignored them? Even churches, inhabited by people who are seemingly doing fine, can begin to feel blasé about their routines; so, these two songwriters were doing perhaps a bit of self-examination here, and admitting that the church or churches in their fields of vision needed rejuvenation, even as hurting people who needed a fresh start surrounded them. ‘Stir our spirits’ (v.1)…how, exactly? ‘Help us serve’, they answer. ‘Speak your truth!’ (v.2), Clarissa and Michael say, which is accomplished by helping others – the living proof, the evidence of our Christian values and a God-centered love for all people. ‘Live in our hearts, fill this body’ is what Cox and Lusk ask God to do, rather directly with the first line of this song. A worthy goal, and one that us imperfect humans definitely need Him to actuate.       

 

‘Be You’…’? Those are two small, but intimidating words for anyone to think about, and yet Clarissa and Michael chose to vocalize them. How could I possibly be God to someone else? Maybe these two songwriters also had pause, when they considered this. How would one express this, musically? Allow some music-nerdiness for a moment, if you will. Clarissa and Michael employ an unusual technique at one point, perhaps to emphasize that being ‘on’ this earth can be a bit harsh at times. Notice the major 2^nd interval -- in the music’s E-flat to F in the treble clef -- for ‘on’ this earth, sung four times throughout the song. It sounds a little dissonant (technically known in music theory as an imperfect consonance), perhaps to emphasize that things here on earth are not quite as blessed as they will be in the kingdom (where everything is in perfect consonance). I’m only an imperfect creation, though I can behave wondrously when I allow Him to spur my actions. Being Him, that’s what I aim at, though my mimicry is incomplete, and probably something I should admit to others when I stretch out a hand, and my heart, to assist them. But, come join the rest of us imperfect creatures He made, and see if you find a few more hints of Him among His body.     

 

See musical information about the major second interval here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_second

Read more about the Major second interval here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonance_and_dissonance

 

See information on the image of the fish and loaves here: File:Eucharistic bread and fish.jpg - Wikimedia Commons . 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. {{PD-US-unpublished}} – for works that were never published anywhere before 2003 and whose author died before 1954 or, if the author's year of death is unknown or inapplicable, were created before 1904.

My Life Is In You -- Daniel Gardner

 It was a Sunday afternoon, but Dan Gardner certainly wouldn’t have called it a ‘lazy Sunday afternoon’. This guy had plenty on his plate in Troy, Michigan in the mid-1980s (See the seal of Troy, Michigan here.), but he realized he needed a few moments of peace and quiet so that he could recapture some gusto for the rest of the day, including an evening worship service that he would be conducting in just a few hours. Dan could have declared implicitly to his Creator “My Life Is In You” on many occasions, given how his life looked from week-to-week; this particular Sunday afternoon was probably not too different from many others, packed with duties and assignments he needed to address. There had been other times when he’d used a specific method in a similar setting to re-center himself. He says this habit was all about waiting on God, and so he allowed his fingers to travel across a piano keyboard, seemingly in an aimless way, as he listened for a voice inside himself. In the next few moments, he heard His response, one that Dan recorded so that those precious few moments could be preserved. His words say take a few moments, shut out everything else, and connect with Him only.

Spontaneity was probably not something foreign to Dan in his connection to God through music. He grew up in a home with parents who evidently encouraged all four of their children musically, while raising them to become Christians. So, some thirty years from when this nurturing environment began, Dan, along with his own family (a wife and two daughters), were in this same home while theirs was being completed. His college education was ongoing, as was his full-time worship ministry at the church (Zion Christian Church) that his parents had helped establish in Troy. Thus, there were lots of familiar surroundings in Dan Gardner’s world, even if they were in a crowded space. He must have known deep inside of himself that the lyrics and the music for ‘My Life…’ were already being sung, in a way. He just needed to access a few quiet moments to harvest the fruit of this, musically. Just a few minutes of playing and singing brought the song to the surface, very naturally, with hardly any struggle to find the right words and music to fit together, as he recalls. Dan says he recognized immediately what a blessing the song was for himself, as a guy trying to complete assignments in his college curriculum, in between ministering to a church body as their worship minister and raising a growing family. Dan had, as someone has said, plenty of ‘irons in the fire’. How did his life stay even-keeled? Dan’s poetry indicates he felt his ‘life’, ‘strength’, and ‘hope’ were ‘in You, Lord’ -- like three legs of a Divine platform, providing a very sturdy support for Dan, and a resulting reason for ‘praise’. He admits today that abandoning himself to God’s Spirit for even just a few moments is still a discipline he hasn’t completely mastered. So, ‘My Life…’ is a special reminder for Dan of what a few uncluttered moments in his otherwise hurly-burly life could produce.  

With just a handful of words – ‘My life’, ‘strength’, ‘hope’, ‘praise’, and ‘is in you, Lord’ – Dan Gardner found a way to express what was apparently lying just beneath the surface in the hustle and bustle where he lived in Troy, Michigan in the mid-1980s. Dan says his wife should get plenty of credit for the way he and his family endured this period! Indeed, Dan must have had plenty of people – from parents, siblings, church members, college class members, and his own family – reminding him how any of us survive and stay oriented in a turbulent set of circumstances. When isn’t there too much going on in the life of a 30-something, or in the lives of the rest of us from day to day, for that matter? It feels more like real life to me when it’s busy; indeed, who wants the alternative -- boredom? I can turn to Him in either circumstance, but it’s really energizing when lots is ongoing and I can sense He’s at work. Feel strong, have hope, He’s watching your life. That’s Dan Gardner talking from Troy.          


The song story was found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever: The Stories Behind 100 of the World’s Most Popular Worship Songs, by Lindsay Terry, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

See information on the seal of Troy Michigan image, including its public domain status here: File:Seal of Troy, Michigan.svg - Wikimedia Commons . This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1928 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.

This Is Amazing Grace -- Phil Wickham, Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro

 

The short answer is that these three love God and love making music with each other. It started with Phil Wickham and Josh Farro (probably in 2012/2013), two friends who just had some ideas they wanted to bat around for a song in which they somehow wanted to say “This Is Amazing Grace”. Honestly, they thought it was a finished work, until a series of events transpired to take the song across an ocean and back again to the U.S., finally arriving at a church in northern California (Redding, see its seal here), where Jeremy Riddle repackaged and enlarged the song’s form several months (or even years) later. What was it that Phil, Josh, and Jeremy thought would be so refreshing about the subject of amazing grace, which John Newton had already made so well-known in his classic hymn, centuries ago (see the Song Scoop from 1/12/2010)? Perhaps it was the questions they posed, which made what they wanted to say seem more potent.

 

Whether it was one or a combination of the three composers (Phil, or Josh, or ultimately Jeremy) who had been mulling over many questions, their probe into the depth of God’s amazing act is magnified by inviting worshippers to marvel at the only answer to each of the questions. Who? That’s the abbreviated version of the query they keep asking you and me to contemplate. This Who is God, the One who does so much to rescue mortals made in His image. Phil says that he and Josh both had ideas for the verses, after they had crafted the song’s chorus, so perhaps it was a two-way joint effort, which Phil says ended with them high-fiving each other after just 20 minutes. The questions have God being the holy ‘power (over) sin and darkness’; One with a ‘love…mighty and so much stronger’; a Creator who can ‘shake…earth with holy thunder’; and make us speechless in ‘awe and wonder’; One who’s capable of making ‘order…(out of) chaos’; making lost people His ‘son(s) and daughter(s)’; dispensing ‘truth and justice’; and One who ‘shines’ with a sun-like ‘brilliance’ that we’ll all behold someday. It was Jeremy, in California, who apparently contributed thoughts about God’s supremacy and life-giving act. This God ‘take(s) my place’, ‘bear(s) my cross’, so that I can be ‘set free’. That’s what these fellas felt in the moment, as they worshipped and created together. To say something poignant in a poetic way, perhaps that’s the incalculable method these three might say the Spirit inspired to enable them to say ‘amazing grace…unending love’, and especially that He’s ‘worthy’, even though a ‘slain…Lamb’, because He ‘conquered the grave’. That the song’s final version came together after crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom, and then to a conference (via someone’s phone) on America’s West Coast, really just underscores how far-reaching He is when He wants to say something musically. It’s just another amazing echo of what He already did over 2,000 years ago.      

 

Will this version of Amazing Grace be the last one? It depends…on when He plans on returning to culminate our history! Will it be tomorrow, or hundreds of years from now? In either case, He’s not less or more amazing, because He’s unchanging (Hebrews 13:8 and 6:17). All that will be different is that many more voices will be added to the multitudes already in the cosmic chorus, if time goes on past today, for however long God decides it shall go. So, there could be more John Newtons; and Chris Tomlins and Louie Giglios (see 9/2/2022 Song Scoop for their version of Newton’s original hymn); and Phil Wickhams, Jerermy Riddles, and Josh Farros somewhere out in the future, which God may decide He wants to hear before He is satisfied. Just imagine hearing these voices, with a new angle or angles on ‘amazing grace’. Do you plan on being in the chorus when those songs premiere?  

 

Here are some details about the genesis of the song: This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham - Songfacts

See here for more information on the song: This Is Amazing Grace - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the seal of Redding: File:Seal of Redding, California.png - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.

A Mighty Fortress – Nathan and Christy Nockels

 

They were 30-somethings and parents, three-times-over. Nathan and Christy Nockels might say that was a chief motivator for them as they thought about how best to maximize their example as God-believers before their children, and before the Atlanta area where they had recently arrived in 2008. And so, “A Mighty Fortress” and its original pedigree acquired some five centuries earlier seemed to fit the attitude that Nathan and Christy sought – that a believer, Martin Luther, whose very life was in mortal danger or who witnessed other episodes of danger or death for people close to himself, did not shrink when faced with these things. (See this blogger’s entry for Martin Luther’s great classic hymn in the August 29, 2009 post.) Courage is a trust in God that doesn’t give up, these two parents might have said to their three kids. And so, they must have reasoned that since they were musicians at heart, a song to underscore this confidence in God would be the best way to emphasize this.

 

This is not the Martin Luther song that we all know, though the Nockels did borrow one line from Luther’s hand – his original song title. The Nockels’ version of ‘A Mighty Fortress’ has lots of awesome metaphors for God…He’s not only the ‘mighty fortress’, aka ‘bulwark’ that Luther wrote about, but also a ‘consuming fire’ (Ex. 24:17, Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29), a ‘burning holy flame’, the ‘righteous judge’, a ‘sacred refuge’. These are all great ways to address Him, especially in music, and you can sense, when you turn the pages of scripture for yourself, that Nathan and Christy must have found a lot of these names for Him also in the Psalms. Christy spells out for worshippers that she feared for her children when she looked at her surrounding world. She needed reminders from Him, especially about His promises, all believers’ future reign with Him, and the certain strength of His kingdom’s foundations. Those are things she thought she and Nathan could lead their kids to hold close to themselves, in unshakeable trust. ‘…Keep (ing) our eyes on You’ must have been a personal declaration they wanted their offspring to adopt into their beings. Perhaps they thought of it as similar to other habits or skills parents might best teach their kids when they’re young, like learning to swim, playing an instrument, or reading and writing (perhaps even in a language other than one’s native tongue). Want to be really fluent and treat as implicit to one’s character some things? Then, begin practicing them as a child. Then, as adults, not only are eyes fixed on God, but ‘hearts are…’ too.

 

Nathan and Christy evidently wanted their children to know other things about this ‘Mighty Fortress’, other characteristics of Him that would in turn shape their own characters. ‘Glory and freedom’, along with ‘kindness and wisdom’ (v.1) are part of His multifaceted nature, as is His ‘jealous(y) for His own’ (v.2). Yes, He’s many things that are to be praised, especially ‘love and mercy’ (v.2), without which all of us mortals would be extinguished if they were not present in our Creator. He’s ‘exalted on His throne’ ‘above the heavens’ (v.2).  An everlasting worthiness (v.2) is therefore intrinsic to this unique Being. He alone has all of these powers and attributes. It’s a fearsome, even uneasy sensation of God that the Nockels’ song inspires, with some minor chords and an ending that does not bring the worshipper ‘home’ (to the root chord). Those might seem like kinda obscure, music-nerdy, inconsequential details, but Nathan and Christy seemed to know what they were doing, and how to introduce their kids to the real God. He’s breathtaking and beautiful all at once…and so much more.  

 

 

See here for information about one author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy_Nockels

 

See here for some comments on song by authoress: https://www.last.fm/music/Christy+Nockels/+wiki