For Thee

I’ve written another song that we’ll be using in our worship this coming Sunday.   It’s called “For Thee”.  There’s a really basic melody to it, and the lyrics are really simple.   It’s kind of like a mix between a folk song and a pop song.  Here are the lyrics:

Holy Spirit, Light from Heaven
Settle down on me
Liken me to trees near water
Bearing fruit for thee

All I am and all I’ll be
Is evermore for thee
All I am and all I’ll be
Is evermore for thee

Dearest Father, slow to anger
Love which knows no bounds
Man awakes each passing morning and
Your mercy’s all around

All I am and all I’ll be
Is evermore for thee
All I am and all I’ll be
Is evermore for thee

It’s just a sweet, simple tune.  Thanks for stopping by and giving it a read.

Grace and Peace.  -jc

Inspiration

I have something I just need to blurt out real quick.  Ready?

…

…

…  I’M FEELIN’ SOME INSPIRATION ! ! !

As an artist, this is something you can’t really plan.  You can’t arrange your schedule around inspiration – you just have to roll with it when it hits.  And for me, it hits hard.

This may be true of inspiration in other venues besides art, so maybe my simple little words will find you well today.  I tend to think of it as our Father in heaven leaning down and quietly sharing some new secrets and truths with us.  So, I’m gonna listen!

I’ll post the results…  if in fact there are any.  I’m thinking it’s going to be another song.

Grace and Peace, Friends.   -jc

Christmas in September

“The love we’ve found,

The love we’ve found,

We carry with us,

So we’re never quite alone.”

—

Beautiful lyrics, right?  Too bad they’re from the Muppet Christmas Carol.  That’s right…  pieces of felt worn on the hand, shaped by Jim Henson’s “creature shop” into the likenesses of animals and cartoonish characters – they somehow harmoniously “sang” this song to end a movie that holds such a dear place in my heart, it’s really hard to describe.

And luckily, friends, I have the esteemed privilege of experiencing Christmas for the last three or four months of my year.  With a Christmas album to produce, and a Christmas-theme dinner theater (“Dinner in December” at West Ridge Church) to plan, I’m up to my knees in Christmas cheer…  and it’s only September.

I must say, I’m catching a little glimpse of what we always hear major recording artists saying on their infomercials when they’re promoting their X-mas albums:  ”These songs are so near to my heart, and were such a joy to record.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Merry Christmas, and God Bless.”

*Cue deep-voiced-announcer-guy, and yellow-font song titles that appear in succession*

Whereas before I dismissed such hubbub as quickly as the Chia-Pet infomercial to follow, I’ve got to tell you…  even though it’s a cheesy little cliche that will sell a ton of albums, it’s also very true.  Maybe I judged ole’ Vince Gill a little too harshly.  I will say, however, that mullet did him no justice on the album cover of “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”  But I’ll cut him a break…  that was 15 years ago.

You have no idea how deeply these songs have impacted you until you begin to rearrange them, recording them with a little bit of your own personal spin.  They just fall right out of you, truly.  And the feelings they conjure are just incredible.  You feel like you’re 6 years old again, which in my case was almost 20 years ago.  More for some of you, less for others.  Regardless, I think all of us can clearly identify this specific feeling.

I’m celebrating it.  I thank God that all my yearly celebrations of Jesus’ birth have carved out such a deep, wonderful place in my heart and in my spirit.  How appropriate.

So I’ve gone ahead and whooped out the egg-nog.

 

-jc

We Are Surrounded

http://www.myspace.com/jakecolliermusic

The song “We Are Surrounded” is a new one we’ll be introducing to our lovely congregation August 3rd, 2008.  It’s a song I wrote from the confused state of reverent fear we often find ourselves in as the Bride of the Almighty.  The song starts with a kind of urgent feel, the chords revolve around a minor chord root, and the mood is a nervous kind of anticipation.  The verses speak a stanza of God’s power and somewhat “awful” holiness, then a stanza of how God is personal and loving.  Again, it’s a confused state we live in…  and why shouldn’t it be?  We’re talking about God here.

The pre-chorus serves as a kind of balm for the congregation – though there’s no hiding from this gigantic God, he is caring for our wounds, and we share in his Love.  All of our secrets are laid bare, but all of our wounds are in your care.

The choruses sum it up.  We are surrounded and astounded.

–

Pillar of Fire, burning with love

Melt all our hardness away

Transforming God, Oh Gracious One

Send us your mercy, we pray!

 

For all of our secrets are laid bare,

But all of our wounds are in your care,

And all of your love is what we’re sharing

 

Holy God, we are surrounded!

We are surrounded by your love.

Precious Lord, we are astounded!

We are surrounded by your love.

 

Lion of Judah, fierce and untamed

Banish our fears far away!

Rock of the Ages, standing unchanged,

Be our foundation, we pray!

 

For all of our secrets are laid bare,

But all of our wounds are in your care,

And all of your love is what we’re sharing

 

Holy God, we are surrounded!

We are surrounded by your love.

Precious Lord, we are astounded!

We are surrounded by your love.

 

-jc

Perfection

I got an email the other day from a friend of mine.  He sent me a little essay this guy wrote about worship music.  Here’s what the fella had to say:

This morning we sang a series of songs which all had the same kind of unifying theme – the bigness of God. Now I have nothing against this kind of theme, which is quite popular in worship music today, but it did leave me wondering a few things. As we sang God of Wonders, I kept thinking about the first line, “God of wonders beyond this galaxy.” What is the point being made here? Is it that God’s wonders extend beyond this galaxy, or is it that God is a God of wonders that somehow resides infinitely beyond our galaxy? 

Fair enough.  The guy’s not saying there’s anything wrong with writing about God’s otherness, but he wonders if it’s a point we’ve harped on a bit too much.  Maybe we’ve lost one truth in the midst of celebrating another.  Here’s more…  starts to get interesting:

Why is much of our worship focused on the image of God being above and beyond this creation? I’m wondering if this has something to do with our vision of the nature of this world. If our dominant vision of this world as something inherently and utterly sinful, lacking anything good, does this in fact necessitate that we posit God as wholly other, outside, and beyond this creation? It is almost as if we are afraid of attaching an immanent presence to God for fear of somehow tainting God in the process. 

Preach, brother.  One more excerpt, and I’ll share my thoughts:

While the early Church apparently wrestled with the divinity of Jesus, the current Church has subsequently wrestled with the humanity of Jesus, even approaching something close to docetism – the thought of Jesus as not being fully human, but as something wholly other. It just seems that we are somehow more comfortable with seeing God as “other” than wrestling with the holy in our midst.

So here’s the question I wrestled with this morning. What might it look like to worship God as immanently present, the holy in our midst? What if our worship was not contained merely as worshiping God as originator and controller of the world, but equally embraced God as incarnationally present in this world?

I think the answer to that question might change the way we worship, how we see this world and the kingdom, as well as how we might live in this world.

–

Is that not one of the most beautiful perspectives on worship you’ve heard in a while?  I’ve got to tell you, this little essay really lit me up.  It’s really encouraged me and got me thinking.  God, here in me.  Not somewhere else in secluded perfection, but perfectly here in me.  This changes everything.

There are a multitude of different, specific levels on which we could elaborate, but the specific word that stuck out in my mind was perfection.  ”Perfection” means being complete.  It means lacking nothing.  Perhaps that’s why this word describes God so well.

But this begs a question:  if we are indwelled by God, then is it okay to accept that maybe He has made (or is making) us perfect?

We have obviously done nothing to deserve God’s grace, and we are doomed without him.  But is there something beautiful we can accept about ourselves, living in the grace of this unfathomable, yet relational God?  Can we accept that perfection lives in us, making us more perfect day by day?  Heck, Jesus stepped into human skin and lived a perfect life.  Wow.  Jesus has healed humanity.  This is a cause for celebration…  for worship!

Even further still, in light of one of my latest posts, Quantum, is it a stretch to assume this Jesus – who holds all things together – is making all things perfect, perfecting all things?  When we fell in the garden of Eden, creation fell with us.  How wonderful then is the vision of Jesus redeeming all things!  He was involved in the creation of everything, and is continuing to hold all things together, and…  well – he’s perfect.

Have you ever had one of those heavenly moments when the stars aline, life is grand and beautiful, and all you can do is just stop and say, “Wow.  This is perfect.”  I don’t think we’re wrong when we feel this.  I think we’re feeling Jesus, redeeming our world and making it complete.  We are feeling wholeness.

Makes sense.

Also makes for a great song.  -jc

Meditation… I mean, Medication.

I have a friend who told me I should pick up a copy of “The Knowledge of the Holy” by Tozer.  It was funny he mentioned it, since I had just so happened to bring it along with me on vacation…  out of all the books on my shelf I thought I’d like to start, I chose that one.  Crazy.

He said he thought it would go a long way for me as an artist.  I knew I could trust him, since he’s also an artist – and a solid, solid guy.  I knew he was right when I read the first sentence of the first chapter:

“What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

I think I’ve committed a form of idolatry.  Let me explain.  My art will lack the proportion it can achieve when my view of God is not as lofty as it should be.  And I’ll be honest…  this smaller, more portable god I carry around with me – he’s not God.  He’s an idol.  When I’m tired of wrestling with the Living God, this god I carry around unfolds into a Lazy Boy on which I’m likely to recline.  After all, God’s a good wrestler (the best, some say), and I may dislocate a hip or something.

He confounds the intellect of humanity.  His essence is completely unutterable.  Unimaginable.  God in three persons?  How can that be?

God cannot reveal His purest essence to us (as we would surely die), but still graciously tells us what’s true about himself in his word, and shows us what that truth looks like when lived out through “The Word”, Jesus Christ.  These “attributes” he reveals are to be a beautiful mantra for you and me; perhaps meditating on them is the Almighty’s prescribed medication for our bout with Him, which He knows will always leave us disoriented and exhausted.  He gives us some ground to walk on when we’re afraid of drowning.  It is pure grace that we are able to intimately know the Source of Life in the ways he so graciously provides.  Let’s thank Him for grace, and let’s never shrink back from wrestling a blessing out of Him, even if we do walk with a limp for a while afterward.  After all, we have our meditation…  I mean, medication.

So here’s a thought for the day:  what do you think about God?

-j