“Pass it On” by Kurt Kaiser
It only takes a spark
To get a fire going
And soon all those around
Will warm up to its glowing
That’s how it is with God’s love
Once you’ve experienced it
You spread His love to everyone
You want to pass it on
How I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I’ve found
You can depend on Him
It matters not where you’re bound
I’ll shout it from the mountain tops
I want the world to know
The God of love has come to me
I want to pass it on
Dear God, this is one of those songs from childhood that is a classic. We sang it at church, church camps, Bible studies, etc. The two summers that I was a camp counselor, we would use this song on the last night with our bonfire to say goodbye to the kids. Great, great song.
I had never thought about who wrote the song until I was about 21 or so. I was at Baylor and working part-time for a Christian music publisher called Word in Waco. One day, I met this really nice older gentleman named Kurt Kaiser. He didn’t work in the office, but he had come in to use our photocopier. After he left, someone told me who he was. We was not only the writer of this song, but also of “Oh How He Loves You And Me” (maybe I’ll do that song tomorrow). I was amazed. It’s like putting a face with a voice over the phone. I had just put a face with the song that had been part of stirring so much emotion. And the good news was that it was a good face. He seemed genuine and kind.
The thing that always struck me about Kurt is that he seemed to always remember me by name. I was practically nobody at the company. I was a part-time worker on the last rung of the ladder, but somehow he remembered me whenever he saw me. I would run into him at a restaurant in town and he would remember my name. Oh, how I hate the part of me that cannot seem to remember names. What an honoring thing it is to be able to show someone they mattered to you during your encounter by remembering their name.
Well, Kurt died this week. He wasn’t yet very old–in his early 80s. Of course, that made me go back and pull out these songs that I hadn’t heard in a long time. The poetry of the opening lines is brilliant. I would love to have asked him where he was and what he was doing when the inspiration of that metaphor came to him. “It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up to its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love once you’ve experienced it. You spread His love to everyone. You want to pass it on.” Even those who have no love for poetry and think they can’t understand it, can get this one. It uses 44 words to explain something that a pastor could use an entire sermon to describe.
Father, help me to pass it on today. Help me to first, be part of the fire. Help me to move my embers close to you and then pass you on to everyone around me.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen
Emails to God 