“1974” by Amy Grant
We were young,
And none of us know quite what to say,
But the feeling moved
Among us in silence anyway.
Slowly we had made
Quite a change–
Somewhere we had crossed a big line.
Down upon our knees,
We had tasted holy wine,
And no one could sway us
In a life time.
Purer than the sky,
Behind the rain.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love.
Love had lit a fire;
We were the flame.
Burning into the darkness,
Shining out from inside us.
Not a word.
And no one had to say we were changed.
Nothing else we lived through
Would ever be same the same,
Knowing the truth
That we had gained.
Purer than the sky,
Behind the rain.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love.
Love had lit a fire;
We were the flame.
Burning into the darkness,
Shining out from inside us.
Stay with me.
Make it ever new,
So time will not undo,
As the years go by,
How I need to see
That’s still me.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love.
Yeah…
Burning into the darkness,
Shining out from inside us.
Purer than the sky,
Behind the rain.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love.
Love has lit a fire;
I am the flame.
Burning into the darkness,
Shining out from inside us.
Purer than the sky,
Behind the rain.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love. (Ohh…)
Love has lit a fire;
I am the flame.
Burning into the darkness,
Shining out from inside us.
Purer than the sky,
Behind the rain.
Falling down all around us,
Calling out from a boundless love.
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Amy Grant / Jerry Mcpherson / Gary Chapman
Dear God, my wife and I are going to see Amy Grant in concert tomorrow night. I saw a lot of Christian concerts in the 1990s, but I never saw Amy Grant in concert for some reason. And I worked for Word at the time so I sold a ton of her stuff through Christian bookstores. I met her once at a sales conference for the House of Love album, but I’ve never heard her sing.
Regardless, here I am, about to see her in concert for the first time so I have been listening to some of her old songs to just reminisce a little. It was this song that kind of struck me this week when it came on. I remember it being on the Lead Me On album. I think it was the first track. No, “Lead Me On” might have been the first track. Anyway, it really captured the emotions 18-year-old me felt at the time. I had grown up Baptist and had “accepted Jesus” possibly as many as 30 times up to that point. Effective church sermons. Revivals. Fellowship of Christian Athletes conferences. But somehow I never felt like I got it right the previous time. I wasn’t getting the formula correct. I needed to do it again.
So I remember the emotions Grant reflects in this song that she apparently wrote with her husband at the time, Gary Chapman, and Jerry McPherson. I wonder what their conversations were like as they wrote this song. Now, 38 years and a lot of life and heartache later, if they could rewrite any of it, would they? Would they change the lyrics? I think it’s prescient to have the part that says:
Stay with me.
Make it ever new,
So time will not undo,
As the years go by,
How I need to see
That’s still me.
I remember the feelings of just sinking into you and that moment of feeling a complete connection with you, but I never seemed to carry it beyond a few days. There was no discipleship. Or there was not self-discipline in my discipleship or even a real knowledge of what discipleship between you and me should look like.
So now, 38 years later since I had my experience of learning what discipleship looks like for me–or beginning to learn what discipleship looks like for me–how do I think of myself in relation to this song? Where are the friends I had then? How are they doing? I can tell you that the ones I’ve kept up with have had sorrows and struggles, but they seem to still have an active faith in you. For that, I’m grateful. My faith and discipleship are certainly imperfect, but I guess I’m at least faithfully imperfect. Maybe getting a little closer to you on more days than I’m getting farther from you on others?
Father, I do love you. I do worship you. Even now, even in this mode of worship, I know that my worship is so inadequate for who you are compared with who I am, but this is what I can offer you in my limited mind and body. Help me to learn a little more today how to love you and how to love others. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul, rejoice! Take joy my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears. (“I Love You Lord” by Laurie Klein)
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 