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This Mystery

This song was written during a time in my life, not to long ago, when I felt like the pressure and stress of my chaotic schedule at the time rendered me empty. I had sort of shifted to the "automatic pilot" approach to life…just going through the motions and routinely living out my day to day activities, as if my life was a series of obligatory events that must be crossed off some master list. Then I realized…this must really grieve God to live this way. It must sadden Him to think that I don’t recognize each day as a brand new gift…a clean slate…a chance to know Him better and an opportunity to extend the hands and feet of Christ to each other.


Tremble

It seems to me that the contemporary worship experience for the average evangelical Christian has been marked by a very casual approach lately. So many churches in the past ten years have transformed their once rather formal church settings into something much more accessible. Pulpits and altars have been replaced by praise bands, coats and ties have been replaced by pastors in jeans…all wonderful signs that we can relax and worship a God who meets us as we are, without the pomp and circumstance. But I wonder if this casual approach to worship hasn’t left us a little too comfortable in the way we approach God. I know that there are moments when I take great comfort in my relationship with "buddy Jesus." What about the God of holiness, I wonder. What about the God who is righteous and merciful and deserves our respect and utmost reverence in His presence? While I may be grateful for how approachable Jesus is, I must remind myself often to tremble before a God that demands my respect and fear.


Fool For You

I’ve lost track of how many conversations I’ve had with people who are not Christians where I have embarrassingly tried to argue them into the arms of Christ. I’ve always had personal issues with how "the world" sees us…. And a quick flip through my cable channels doesn’t usually ease my fears. So, I’ve tried often to make Christianity sound intelligent and sophisticated…and whenever possible, rational. I don’t want to look stupid or foolish. I want to look savvy. And while I believe firmly that there is an important place for intelligent faith and solid theology, I had to take a hard look at what was motivating my need to present my faith as if it were some sort of theological dissertation, wrapped generously in disclaimers and apologies for all the people in the world who make Christianity look foolish. But here’s the thing…at some point it is foolish. The whole idea of God becoming man and walking among us to teach us how to love and then eventually dying for us (and as if that’s not hard enough to swallow, he came back to life!) has to look crazy to someone who has not encountered that love personally. We must be willing to look foolish for the sake of Christ…and this remains for me, a great personal challenge.


Help Me Believe

This song is very simply about learning how to reclaim a faith that is innocent and full of possibility…the faith of a child. There is something so wonderfully pure and naïve about a faith that has not been complicated yet by analysis. Kids just believe because Jesus said to. That’s it. They don’t need additional explanation. What a lesson for those of us who get bogged down by the heaviness of complicated religion. There are many moments when I long to return to that innocence I possessed as a child.


Small Enough

I wrote this song one night when I need to feel God’s presence in a very real way. God seemed, at that moment, elusive. Too big. How, I wondered does the same God who led a bunch of Israelites through the middle of an ocean by speaking the waves into submission so that they could safely pass through, meet me on my knees in such a small and intimate way? This is one of the great mysteries of our God. He is all things to all people. Merciful but jealous, compassionate but angry, giver and taker of life. That night, I didn’t need to experience the grandeur of His miracles, but rather the closeness of His presence. He is so capable of both.


Lookin' At You (Lookin' At Me)

This song is about the realization that the love and security we seek after is rarely found in the places we’re looking. It seems like every time I turn around, someone has written a new book, conducting a new seminar series, or selling a new gimmick that promises to fill the void we feel. When will I stop buying into this stuff? The love that frees us and gives us identity and esteem is found only in our realization that we were created with purpose and intent by God. We’ve all heard it before, I know…this is not a new concept, but one that was worthy of being reminded of, I think.


As

What a fun song to record. This is an old Stevie Wonder tune that like so much of his work, is still a timeless piece of work. I won’t pretend to know what Stevie was thinking when he wrote this song, but I think there are many ways to interpret it. This song could easily be sung from one person to another…. or from me to God…or from God to me, for that matter. "I’ll be loving you always," the songs recurring theme, is a wonderful promise and reminder of the power of unconditional love.


Home

This song is really important to me. In many ways it’s the story of my personal journey and quest for truth. My faith was an integral part of my upbringing and I am roots are firmly planted in church life and history. I knew Jesus when I was a little girl. And still, even then, as I got older I insisted on taking path after path that led directly away from that truth, in search of my own version. Time after time I would wind up where I had begun, wondering why I could not be content to rest in knowledge that had been instilled in me as a youth. Many tears and growing pains later, I have to understand what it means to be "home" in the Lord. I’m not referring to heaven, here. "Home" is where we find ourselves; it is a sense of belonging and a place of familiarity and sanctuary. The consistency of God’s truth and His ever-extending grace and forgiveness has truly brought me back home…and this song is for every prodigal son or daughter who shares that story.


Please Come

This might be the most important song to me on this record. Its message is so simple.