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.

To the Least of These -- Randy Gill

 

He’d just found out that his friend was behind bars. That’s what it was, with no sugar-coating. Shock, disbelief, disappointment – those were all present on the day that Randy Gill discovered something about a friend, a guy with whom he’d felt a certain camaraderie existed. His friend now wore an emotional weight about his neck, perhaps not unlike a millstone that brings someone low, threatening to drown him. Such a person, one who has disgraced himself, might be in the same quandary as the homeless, destitute soul we too often see at the traffic light, a battered creature asking for a handout. (The image ‘Least of These’ shown here is the placard used by a group at this blogger’s church, a group that seeks to help homeless people in Washington, DC each week.) “To the Least of These”, Randy thought, as he studied scripture and cried out with his insides after mourning his friend’s circumstances all night. And so, with that prayer, Randy helped something productive emerge from a tough situation. Hear Randy’s own thoughts about this below, and consider the phrase ‘there but for the grace of God, go I…’, probably something that we all ought to contemplate the next time we see a fellow human in a deep struggle.

 

One afternoon I learned that a dear friend of mine had been arrested. A secret life none of us would have imagined had suddenly become very public. It was humiliating to my friend and devastating to all of us who loved him. In the days that followed he lost his job, his reputation and was fearful he’d lose his family. I couldn’t stop thinking about how a life could totally change in an instant and my heart broke as I tried to decide how to respond to someone I had loved and admired for years.

 One morning, after a sleepless night, I sat down at my piano and started playing a simple melody. I began thinking about Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 about responding to the least of these. The second verse was actually written first – a direct response to my friend:

 May we reach out to the broken - The beaten the battered

To all who have fallen - Disgraced and ashamed

May we be a comfort - Loving forgiving

and offering grace in Your Name

 That was my prayer. I wanted to respond to my friend with the same grace the Father had shown me. The first verse and chorus were meant to broaden the scope of the song. I’ve always loved the simplicity of the chorus.

 To the last, to the lost, to the least of these. Let us be Jesus today.

I’m happy to say that my friend is doing well in a new career and his family has remained supportive of him throughout his long rehabilitation.

Thanks Randy, for reminding us about the attitude of grace….there’s never too much about Jesus that we can share today.

 

See here some biographic information on the song’s author: Randy Gill | Directory | Lipscomb University

 

Many thanks to Randy Gill, the song’s author/composer, for sharing his memories of the song with this blogger on 9/4/2023.

 

The image of ‘Least of These’ was obtained from the Fairfax Church of Christ Website: https://fxcc.org/ministries/local-outreach/

Deep Calls to Deep -- Randy Gill

 

His family was enduring a deep hurt, so he figured there was no better place to go than to a psalmist who had likewise been suffering, and who called out to the Creator-Healer from a deep pit. Psalm 42 was where Randy Gill went in his abject despair, voicing “Deep Calls to Deep” in 2001, when he feared his family just might be disintegrating before his eyes (perhaps metaphorically ending up not unlike what would happen months later to the Twin Towers in New York…see the photo here). Could Randy have known that his own heart’s therapy would also be salve for a much bigger wound for thousands of people, even a nation? Read on to hear in Randy’s own words what ‘Deep Calls…’ meant when he wrote it, as we today remember a memorable, heart-rending day nearly 22 years ago.  

 

Deep Calls to Deep was written in the spring of 2001. Our adult son had been struggling with drug addiction for years and it was devastating for my wife and me. He would visit from time to time and we were never sure when he left whether we'd ever see him again. My wife and I had even had the very difficult conversation about whether our marriage would survive if he died. That spring was especially hard for all of us and I had taken to reading and re-reading Psalm 42. So many of the psalms are laments, but the language of deep calling out to deep really resonated with me. I wrote the song as a way of reminding myself that even in the worst of times, the psalmist was committed to praising God.

 

ZOE (an acapella singing group) recorded the song in the summer of 2001 and we decided to make lament the theme of our conference that fall. Several of us were dealing with challenges and we thought a conference focusing on the need for expressing our pain to God might be helpful for lots of people. We felt like the church needed to be reminded of the power and place of lament in worship. The conference and the release of the CD were scheduled for the first week of October, but I sent a pre-release copy of Deep Calls to Deep to my friend Larry Mudd who was the worship minister at the Manhattan Church of Christ. He received the song the first week of September. Neither one of us knew at the time how appropriate it was about to become. As far as I can tell, the first time Deep Calls to Deep was ever sung by a congregation was at the Manhattan Church of Christ the Sunday after 9/11.

 

I’m so humbled and moved that the song has meant so much to people in times of trouble and heartbreak. BTW - my son is now healthy and sober.    

 

What was it that fellow over 2,000 years ago said to a group of Corinthians?  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.(2 Corinthians 1:3-4). My misery and healing may be used to help someone else, so pass it along, Paul says. You might call it Grief Share…that’s the name of a ministry that a good Christian sister I know is using to reach others who need it, who need some soul medicine for deep hurts. You may also have heard of Celebrate Recovery; it’s for those who have finally admitted there is something amiss in their lives, and they too want Christian community healing. It all emanates from Him, the One who used His own deep hurt, and an incalculable price He paid, to draw us, His church. Yours might be a deep wound, but our God is a bottomless well of compassion. Thanks to Randy and all of you who serve and love others…you remind us how deep and amazing is our God.       

 

See here some biographic information on the song’s author: Randy Gill | Directory | Lipscomb University

 

Many thanks to Randy Gill, the song’s author/composer, for sharing his memories of the song with this blogger on 9/4/2023.

 

See link here for picture of the World Trade Center destruction in Manhattan in the wake of 9/11/2001: File:FEMA - 3969 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-19-2001 in New York.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (This image is a work of a Federal Emergency Management Agency employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As works of the U.S. federal government, all FEMA images are in the public domain in the United States. Additional media usage information may be found at https://www.fema.gov/photo-video-audio-use-guidelines)

Sweet By and By -- Sanford Fillmore Bennett

He was 31 years old and owned a drugstore in Elkhorn, Wisconsin (see map here), and one day he filled a prescription that was perhaps the fastest and most unusual remedy for someone that he’d ever written. Sanford Bennett wasn’t even the first one to utter the phrase ‘by and by’, but when he added ‘Sweet’ in front of it, he felt it was a winner. It was a flash of brilliance that he received, Bennett would probably say, if he were here to respond. Those on the scene that day in Sanford’s apothecary also thought the hymn, concocted on the spot, was one that would endure. One depressed friend, who knew to whom he could go for help, and a friend who replied – that’s all it took for “The Sweet By and By” to enter hymnody’s record in 1868.

These two friends, Sanford Fillmore Bennett and Joseph Philbrick Webster, were apparently so well in tune with one another, that no words between the two were necessary for each to interpret the other’s mood. Each had a talent that the other accessed and augmented with his own. Sanford had been a poet for many years prior to the 1868 encounter in the drugstore, so he was no doubt accustomed to sparks of creativity. The 40-year old Joseph was a local musician, likewise with a long record of musical accomplishment already on his resume, from the East Coast to the Midwest, including in Elkhorn where he’d been since 1859. The two had known each other for about eight years, with Sanford arriving in Elkhorn in 1860, shortly after Webster had arrived, and not long before the U.S. Civil War commenced. The two were separated during Bennett’s military service during the war, but apparently renewed their friendship after it concluded. There were reportedly other occasions on which Bennett lifted his oft-depressed musician-friend’s spirits, so when Webster entered the druggist’s establishment one day, he needed a remedy he knew he could count on his buddy to produce. Reportedly, Sanford guessed Joseph’s mood, just by observing him, but immediately formulated the words for “Sweet By and By” after hearing his unhappy friend’s response to his greeting. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ was followed by a dismissive retort that included the three little words, ‘by and by.’ The druggist-poet’s stanzas flowed effortlessly in the next few minutes, his product was shown to the musician, and notes were spontaneously fused with words, so that just 30 minutes had elapsed in which the fruit of “Sweet By and By” gestated and ripened. Even customers in the store were seemingly taken with this duo’s musical invention, such was its innate appeal. It flowed, to put it simply.

Sanford’s words lifted Joseph’s emotional state that day in 1868, so swiftly that one might wonder if some chemical ingredient was included in the prescription he gave out that day. What’s evident in his words is something any believer might think is intoxicating, yet true. I’m headed for a beautiful place, according to Bennett’s refrain, one where I’ll reunite with others. This promise must have been one that was important to both men who helped craft “The Sweet By and By”, otherwise why would they have attached themselves to it so readily during a 30-minute episode in a Wisconsin drugstore? Fortunately, for them and us, words don’t reside just in their birthplace. These travel, don’t they? Yeh!        

     

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and Then Sings My Soul, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003. 

See this site for all three of the original verses, and also the brief story of the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/n/t/intsbab.htm