Above All -- Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche

 

This was definitely one collaboration that altered the course of a song’s history, in a way that totally staggered its authors-composers. Two guys, Lenny LeBlanc and Paul Baloche, decided that two heads were better than one in the 1990s, and yet they could not have predicted what would happen to a song named “Above All” that Paul had started and that Lenny finished. A studio in Lenny’s place in Muscle Shoals, Alabama (see map depicted here) provided apt surroundings for their musical project, but the collaborative effort took a turn that was truly exceptional. The song’s impact immediately overwhelmed them both, creating a memorable moment that they knew was no accident. It must have been a ‘goosebumps’ kind of episode; perhaps that much could have been expected, given the subject matter they were addressing.

 

The 40-something Lenny and 30-something Paul were both expecting to make some progress in their time together one day in the 1990s, but if asked today, they’d probably say that the way “Above All” emerged from that time was rather unusual. Paul’s initial effort at the verse captured Lenny’s attention, but it wasn’t until Paul was sound asleep later that Lenny’s contribution came to fruition. Perhaps this was a very incongruous recipe for success, but then maybe where this unconventional Savior was concerned, that was indeed the right method for successful songwriting. And, indeed this same contrasting theme was how Lenny’s chorus compared with Paul’s verse, something that Lenny recalls just knocked Paul for a loop when he heard it for the first time. How does one mention Him being ‘above all’ created things (v.1), and then wind up one’s thoughts by saying he’s despised, trampled upon, humiliated, and executed (chorus)? Two pictures of someone, especially the God of the universe, could not be more opposite. And yet, they’re true. Lenny says he and Paul had trouble singing the song’s chorus as they tried it out on themselves, because their emotions left them singing through their own tears. Perhaps you and I have felt it occasionally during an especially poignant movie, maybe in a war flick when the hero dies in an act of selflessness, saving a fellow soldier. Jesus is like that, isn’t He? Magnify that a bit – He did it for everyone on the planet across all of history. Try that on for size, and match it up with some music that penetrates to the spirit. That was what happened to Lenny and Paul in a studio in Alabama one day.

 

When one is trying to adequately describe the Messiah’s life, is there really an expectation that one will succeed? Maybe that’s what Lenny and Paul ultimately were hunting as they talked about and sang together their finished product the first time. Tell about His pedigree, and then about how He surrendered all of that. Tell about this contrast. What they sang stunned them, evidently overpowering the human inclination to sing the words and music, and to do what musicians do. They really needed to see if this blend worked, right? But, what they found by happenstance was that their own reactions provided the only answer they needed. Telling each other about Him is all any of us really need.         

 

The song story is found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_LeBlanc

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baloche

Firm Foundation -- Nancy Gordon and Jamie Harvill

Disappointment. One might even say it was bitter disappointment. But, ‘out of the ashes’…as one has said before. Nancy Gordon and Jamie Harvill might even say upon reflection that Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone (see an early advertisement here for one), played a remote role in “Firm Foundation” that the two of them first spoke to each other over a telephone line in 1994. Was this the first time a song was conceived over the phone? Perhaps not, but what they had expected to happen a few days earlier could not have been more different than what actually transpired, so having an unforeseen method for this song’s development was actually in tune with events. Do you and I know how our Creator is always working, and am I ready to be His tool? What do you think Nancy and Jamie might say after you hear their story?

Where were Nancy Gordon and Jamie Harvill exactly on that day in 1994 when they commiserated with each other on the telephone? Perhaps each had returned home (in Alabama for Nancy, and California for Jamie), to figuratively lick their wounds. It’s a bit of conjecture, but since they chose to talk on the phone, we can imagine that they weren’t in close geographic proximity. Nancy relates that they had been saddened to learn that a song they’d written together (‘Belle of the Ball’) would not be part of an album. They’d thought, because of the reaction of the recording artist when she heard the song for the first time, that their collaborative effort was about to bear fruit. This was their profession, and the song was their initial expedition on this musical partnership, after all, so dejection was not unreasonable, from a human standpoint. But Nancy relates that she’d been buoyed during her reading that morning of a bible verse about ‘living hope’, and then the mutual affirmation about their long-term prospects took off, as they deflected the gloom that had been present. Words like ‘I have a future’ were soon consoling them as they talked, and they both confessed that they had placed too much confidence in a song, rather than in God.  What Nancy says indicates she’d been reading what one or two apostles had written (1 Peter 1:3, and 2 Timothy 2:19). From what the two of them say, they were soon sharing bible verses back and forth, and the song was nearly completed during that phoneline discussion, a time that was like ‘a volleyball game of encouragement’. A couple of other moments later on helped put a wrapper on this song, but the phone conversation is what stands out to Nancy and Jamie. As is so often true of something really special, a unique coalescence of events, as well as the inspiration of a couple of apostles (Peter and Paul), must be credited with creating ‘Firm Foundation’. Who makes events happen this way?

How’s He work? If you ask Nancy and Jamie, they might say the first song they wrote really was meant to be a failure and a launching pad for something better. He can make a washout into a success, and even more. He’s got a handle on things, and perhaps He is most providential when he takes me by surprise. That’s worth a bible study isn’t it? See how often he does what people think makes no earthly sense. As someone has said, ’faith is believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse’ (Philip Yancey, in The Question That Never Goes Away, p. 48). And, He doesn’t sit back and ask us to do/believe without going there Himself. He went somewhere and did something that confused everyone at the time… Tap into His ‘failure’, and see if it stays that way for you.        

Song story source is at this link: http://newhopemusic.com/FCSongwriters/FCSJamieHarvillFF.htm

Also see the story here: https://books.google.com/books?id=0dVKKd5HOb0C&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=nancy+gordon+songwriter&source=bl&ots=GLIy9m9bSf&sig=ACfU3U37Pvl6BjicSeVC28aOdHjJKsWgAQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilzLTNke3pAhUEhHIEHWw2CIMQ6AEwCHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=nancy%20gordon%20songwriter&f=false

I Want To Be Where You Are -- Don Moen

Thirty-seven year old Don Moen was really attempting to craft one song, when something else--or someone else–cropped up. ‘Where’d  that come from?’, he thought. Maybe “I Want To Be Where You Are” came out of Don’s mouth because he was really thinking about a similarly focused theme for a musical show upon which he was working that day. Is that all it really takes, just thinking of being with our Creator, and ‘bam!’, there He is in the form of the Holy Spirit, like the dove of the bible? Don was alone when that simple little song emerged from his insides in 1987, a pattern that the Holy Son also employed when He wanted to be with His Father. So, what Don Moen would have you think, is maybe something you might try – call Him out when you are alone, and see what happens.

Don Moen says he was trying to write a song for “God with Us” as he sat alone in a church that day in 1987, but the other tune just kept emerging instead. Perhaps he wouldn’t have pursued “I Want To Be…” that day, except that the song’s tune had a certain persistence. So, he submitted, and eventually premiered the song’s four central chorus thoughts in an Oklahoma church. It wasn’t quite done, he thought, but the reaction of that first crowd of listeners told him it was closer to complete than he believed, so he left those portions of the chorus as he’d originally written them. Could it have been that Moen’s own thoughts had been dwelling subliminally on the phrases that he’d read probably many times? He relates that the words of “I Want To Be…” that came to him as he secluded himself to write some music that day made him reflect on Psalm 27:4. King David’s great desire, expressed in that ancient song, had taken hold of Don when he was a youth in 1962, and it reentered his own musical repertoire 25 years later. God was still with him, even though Don was steered toward a tune and some lyrics he discovered unexpectedly.             

Since “I Want To Be Where You Are” was first published, it has been put into Indonesian and Spanish words, taking it to other places and peoples that Don Moen probably would not have imagined in 1987. God is not limited by language, or anything physical. If I say I wish I were with Him, He responds, but maybe not the way I might expect. When I do get to be with Him forever, will it be what I have envisioned? Will He be? I can only say that others in history who’ve met Him haven’t been disappointed, if I can believe what I read. He doesn’t force Himself upon me, but lets me choose. You think that might be somebody you could give a chance?

The source for this song story is the book Our God Reigns: The Stories Behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2000.

For biography of composer, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Moen