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Category Archives: Hymns and Songs

Emails to God – Exploring–and Understanding–Domestic Violence (“Love the Way You Lie”)

24 Jan

Okay, we’re going to go a little edgier with this one. I heard this song as I drove home from a meeting tonight. I’ve heard it several times before, but thought I would share it with you tonight. It’s pretty powerful.

Domestic violence is something that is scary and can happen in every socioeconomic background. It isn’t just something that happens to the poor. One time I was having lunch with a donor to our Center. She was elderly and widowed. Her husband had been a prominent member of the community. During lunch she told me about the years of physical and emotional abuse. She was not very sad when he died.

On the other side, we had a patient at our clinic who shot her husband this summer because she couldn’t take the violence anymore. Why didn’t she leave before she did this? That’s a complicated answer.

This duet between Rihanna and Eminem explains a little of what women and men experience when they find themselves in the cycle of domestic violence–especially if they grew up in it. Did you know that women have to leave their husband/boyfriend an average of seven times before they finally leave?

Since you can’t really appreciate this song without hearing the song, here is a link to a youtube version that gives you the lyrics along with the audio. Maybe it will help you understand the friend who won’t leave her husband. Maybe it will give you the courage to break this type of a cycle in your own life. Anyway, here’s “Love the Way You Lie Part 2“.

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – The Hope and Despair of Poverty (“Fast Car”)

21 Jan

I was out on a bike ride tonight and one of the songs that came on my play list was Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”. You may have heard it, but have you ever really listened to the words. I used to work for a nonprofit near a government housing project and I can see a lot of the pain and the cycle of multigenerational poverty in this song. So let’s take a look at what it says:

“Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman

You got a fast car And I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal Maybe together we can get somewhere
Anyplace is better Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won’t have to drive too far Just ‘cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man’s got a problem He live with the bottle that’s the way it is
He says his body’s too old for working I say his body’s too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody’s got to take care of him So I quit school and that’s what I did

You got a fast car But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision We leave tonight or live and die this way

I remember we were driving driving in your car The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain’t got a job And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted
We’ll move out of the shelter Buy a big house and live in the suburbs

You got a fast car And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I’d always hoped for better Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain’t going nowhere So take your fast car and keep on driving

You got a fast car But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision You leave tonight or live and die this way

See what I mean? Cool song. I see people like this every day in my job. Some of them dream. Some of them work hard and hope for better, but then something happens. I think my biggest fear as the father of a girl is that she will find a man who turns out to be like the man or the father in the song.

I’ll close with giving you Wikipedia’s description of the song and what it means.

The song is a narrative tale of genrational poverty. The song’s narrator tells the story of her hard life, which begins when her mother divorces her jobless, alcoholic father, forcing the narrator to quit school in order to care for him. Eventually, she leaves her hometown with her partner in hopes of making a better life. Despite her employment at a grocery store she falls victim to the cycle of poverty, as her life begins to mirror her mother’s: her partner remains largely unemployed and becomes an alcoholic. She is left alone with her children while her partner spends time drinking with friends. Finally, after getting a job that will support her family, she comes to accept her life as the way it is and to give up chasing empty dreams. She tells her partner to leave her; to take “your fast car and keep on driving.” The final refrain is sung in variation, changing from “We gotta make a decision, leave tonight or live and die this way” to “You gotta make a decision, leave tonight or live and die this way.”

 
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Posted by on January 21, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – “It is Well with My Soul”

08 Jan

We are going to work with “It is Well with My Soul” tonight. But before you read the lyrics you need to start with what the writer was experiencing in his life at the time he wrote it. Here is the tale as told by our friends at Wikipedia (so it must be true):

“It Is Well with My Soul” is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.

This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871 at the age of four, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone . . .”. Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.

The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Israel. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

Amazing story. It reminds me that I don’t know what it means to suffer. The heart of a man capable of writing the following lyrics in the midst of so much pain explains why he was later able to start a ministry in Jerusalem in the 1800’s.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, (remember what the story said about “say” and “know” here)

“It is well, It is well with my soul”

 

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

 

My sin–O, the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin–not in part but in whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,

“Even so”–it is well with my soul.

Wow. Here is my summary of the verses.

  1.  Straight up confessing his sorrow and telling God that he trusts Him through it.
  2. He knows that Satan attacks him, but recognizes Jesus’ provision for the attacks.
  3. He recognizes his sin and claims his freedom from it through Jesus.
  4. He looks to the day when the faith he is proclaiming, and sometimes doubts, becomes sight.

Knowing the background of this hymn, it has to be in anyone’s top-five.

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – “What Wondrous Love is This”

06 Jan

What wondrous love is this,

O my soul, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this,

O my soul!

What wondrous love is this

That caused the Lord of bliss

To bear the dreadful curse

For my soul, for my soul,

To bear the dreadful curse

For my soul.

When I was sinking down,

Sinking down, sinking down,

When I was sinking down,

Sinking down,

When I was sinking down

Beneath God’s righteous frown,

Christ laid aside His crown

For my soul, for my soul

Christ laid aside His crown

For my soul.

To God and to the Lamb

I will sing, I will sing,

To God and to the Lamb

I will sing,

To God and to the Lamb

Who is the great “I Am,”

While millions join the theme,

I will sing, I will sing,

While millions join the theme,

I will sing

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing on,

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing and joyful be,

And thro’ eternity

I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on

And thro’ eternity

I’ll sing on.

I thought I would pick another hymn to get into tonight. I rolled through about 170 of them in the hymnal and landed on this one. I’ve always liked the somber tone of the tune. The music really makes this song work.

It’s almost as if the writer (hymnal doesn’t list a writer, but just says, “American Folk Hymn”) is getting a revelation of what their sin cost Jesus and God, but the first question focuses on Jesus and not the write: “What wondrous love is this…?” The writer apparently already realizes the depths of their sin before the song is written and starts the song with the marveling at Jesus’ love.

The second verse then goes back and picks up the writer’s knowledge of their own sin: “While I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown…” and then picks up Jesus’ sacrifice again: “…Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.”

Now, the third verse shows us that the write knows it’s time to worship while they are still living: “To God and to the Lamb, I will sing…While millions join the theme, I will sing.”

And the fourth verse takes us to heaven. Jesus’ sacrifice from the first verse saved us from God’s righteous frown, and now we will sing for eternity. I used to get a little freaked out about the idea of heaven and being joyful forever. My imperfect human heart doesn’t quite grasp that concept and it scares me, but I take comfort from those who have seen heaven in near-death experiences and talk about the pure joy they felt while they were there.

Let me know if you see anything in this song that you think I missed.

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

06 Jan

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (Text by Robert Robinson; adapted by Margaret Clarkson)

Come Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

Praise his name—I’m fixed upon it—

Name of God’s redeeming love

 

Hither to Thy love has blest me;

Thou hast brought me to this place

And I know Thy hand will bring me

Safely home by Thy good grace

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Bought me with His precious blood.

 

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;

Seal it for Thy courts above

Amen

I am at a retreat tonight and the rest of the weekend out at Laity Lodge. We aren’t suppose to have Internet access, but I am staying in a place that accidentally provided it (of course, I helped it along by finding a modem and getting it plugged in so that the Internet could start working). So I feel like this is a great power I have, to access the Internet, and I should use it for good and not for evil. I will do my best to stay away from ESPN3 and try to stay focused on God. To that end, I thought I might use my Emails to God blog to share some of what I experience here.

At the retreat tonight we were singing this song. It is one of my two favorite hymns. My favorite is “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” The place where I am staying has the old Word Hymnal that I used to sell in my days of working for Word, and would you know that my two favorite hymns are hymns numbers 1 and 2 in the hymnal—and in the right order at that. What are the odds?

But I digress. Sometimes when I am singing a song and I feel like it isn’t hitting me like it should I stop and try to put myself in the mindset of the write while they wrote the lyric. They sat there with nothing and looked for words that expressed how they felt. What then can I tell about how they felt at the time by the words they chose?

I did this with this song tonight, and it really opened it up to me even more. The last verse is too easy to relate to, so I won’t even deal with that except to say that I heard once that the writer of this song, Robert Robinson, struggled with his faith throughout his life. Here is a quote from Wikipedia (so it must be true): “An unverifiable story is widely told of Robinson that one day while riding in a stagecoach a lady asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. He responded, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

But I digress again. I want to think about the first verse. There is a lot here:

  • “Come Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace” – Again, thinking about his mindset when he was writing this, I got the image of someone who so badly wanted for his worship of God to be adequate. Do I have that feeling as I worship before God?
  • “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise” – Because God has given me so much love and mercy He deserves for me to get this right.
  • “Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above” – I know that angels know how to sing to God. Teach me how to sing like the angels.
  • “Praise His name—I’m fixed upon it—Name of God’s redeeming love” – My worship is to focus on Him and His Name—really focus.

 

This is good stuff. If you are so inclined, do your own for the other two verses. Find something in here from God that you’ve never seen before.

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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