Dear God, it’s interesting that Rich Mullins died young because he had a couple of really interesting songs about the end of life here on earth and transitioning to you. He probably had more, but these are the two that come to mind immediately.
The first one, which was on his first album, was called “Elijah”
“Elijah” by Rich Mullins
The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through
My heart is aging I can tell
So Lord, I’m begging for one last favor from You
Here’s my heart take it where You will
This life has shown me how we’re mended and how we’re torn
How it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free
Sometimes my ground was stony
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
And now that it’s done
Well if they dressed me like a pauper
Or if they dined me like a prince
If they lay me with my fathers
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind
I don’t care
But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye
There’s people been friendly, but they’d never be your friends
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground
Now that this is all ending
I want to hear some music once again
‘Cause it’s the finest thing that I have ever found
But the Jordan is waiting
Though I ain’t never seen the other side
Still they say you can’t take in the things you have here
So on the road to salvation
I stick out my thumb and He gives me a ride
And His music is already falling on my ears
There’s people been talking
They say they’re worried about my soul
Well, I’m here to tell you I’ll keep rocking
‘Til I’m sure it’s my time to roll
And when I do
When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye
‘Cause when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Richard Mullins
There are a few lines of this song at the beginning that really speak to me.
This life has shown me how we’re mended and how we’re torn
How it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free
Sometimes my ground was stony
And sometimes covered up with thorns
And only You could make it what it had to be
I just bolded some specific words out of the first two lines here: “This life has shown me…it’s okay to be lonely as long as you’re free.” What an interesting thing that our society has given us. Now, I’m not saying that I want to be subjugated to the government or anything like that, but certainly the two greatest commandments demand that we give up some of that freedom so that we can be your blessing both to you and to others around us. I give up my life for you. I give up my rights to serve others.
I think that is something that frustrates me about the American Evangelical Church right now. It is fighting for its rights and its freedom. I heard a pastor I respect say, “The Church is at its worst when it’s fighting for its own rights, but it is at its best when it is fighting for the rights of others.” I think the same is probably true for us as individuals as well, but we need to make sure that right is a legitimate right that they need.
I think the next lines in that of that stanza I pasted above are even more poetic and meaningful to me: “Sometimes my ground was story//And sometimes covered up with thorns.” Of course, this is an allusion to the parable of the sower (Matthew 13). The stony-soiled heart has no depth or root. No discipleship. The thorny-soiled heart is overrun by the cares of the world. Yeah, there are times when I let my soil get hard and the roots are shallow and fragile. More often, however, my heart is distracted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth. When I look back, how much of my life will have been spent providing the Holy Spirit good soil with which to work? No enough.
Then there’s my favorite of Rich’s death songs, “Be with You.”
“Be with You” by Rich Mullins
Everybody each and all
We’re gonna die eventually
It’s no more or less our faults
Than it is our destiny
So now Lord I come to you
Asking only for Your grace
You know what I’ve put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased
And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?
And when You start this world over
Again from scratch
Will You make me anew
Out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that’s purer than gold is
And clearer than glass could ever be
Can I be with You?
Can I be with You?
And everybody all and each
From the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath
Those mercies by which we’re drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark
With these angels that we can’t see
We will move on although with scars
Oh Lord, move inside of me
And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?
And when You blast this cosmos
To kingdom come
When those jagged-edged mountains
I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears
Of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Can I be with you?
Can I be with you?
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Benjamin Justin Peters / Richard Mullins
This song is just a simple request. Earth is good. Life here is good. It’s taught me a lot. But it’s just a staging ground. It’s a vapor. Each person has their own course through it. Destiny, if you will. Some were murdered this week in Ukraine, in Uvalde, and in different parts of our country and the entire world. Some died of disease, and some in simple accidents. Unbeknownst to me, my time could be just around the corner. But none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, I suppose. 100 years from now, with very few exceptions, just about every person who is alive now will be dead. We will all be in the same place. When that happens, this is the request all of us will have: “Can I be with you?” That’s what the TV show “The Good Place” missed. It saw heaven as just a good place that (spoiler alert) got boring. But they missed two things: 1.) the measurement of time as we know it now won’t exist there and 2.) we get to simply be in your presence and I assume that, if time were still measured in the same way, your presence would still make it disappear. No, I’m not worried about getting bored there. I just want to be with you.
Father, help me to prepare fertile soil in my heart for you today. Do it through time with you, through worshipping you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Do it through me learning to love my neighbors better. Do it through your Holy Spirit guiding, comforting, and counseling me in the right direction.
In Jesus’s name I pray,
Amen
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