Last spring our contemporary worship band made a point of learning this song. We sang it this week as our offertory hymn, noting the death of Dolly Parton. The song was written by Zach Williams. In an interview he stated that he just kept hearing Dolly Parton singing it with him. He eventually contacted her. After hearing the song, reading the lyrics she said yes she would be glad to record it with him.
According to Williams, Parton was looking for more faith-based projects when his team reached out regarding the song.
“We all knew it was a big ask and we were shooting for the moon to try to get her on the song,” Williams explained. “We originally heard that 90% of the stuff that comes her way, she turns down just because she has so many people asking to do songs with her.”
Williams recounted Parton telling him, the day she received the song, that she didn’t even make it through the first chorus, before she knew it was a special song and a “God-send.”
I came across this poem set to music after reading Amy Carmichael’s chapter entitled Rose from Brier in her collected writings in the book by the same title. (Pages 51-53) I found it enchanting. The photography, also, especially the raindrops on the pavement! She heard this poem as “a little song that sang within me” as she longed to be at a welcoming service in the House of Prayer, but could not leave her bed.
Amy Carmichael Rose From Brier
She describes the sweetbrier of England in contrast to the roses of India. “I saw a little, low, very prickly bush in an old-fashioned English garden; it was covered with inconspicuous pink roses. But the wonder of the bush was its all-pervading fragrance, for it was a sweetbrier. And I saw one who has long been in the land where no thorns grow, cutting a spray from the bush, stripping the thorns off and giving it to me. May these for whom a rose from my brier may be caused to blow, those who do indeed walk the dear familiar ways of home, and road, and street, as unregarded as a breath of air, but there in love and longing, always there, find no pricking thorn on the stem of this rose from my brier.
“I think that when He whom our soul loveth comes so near to us, and so gently helps our human weakness, then what Madame Guyon wrote more than three hundred years ago becomes a present truth. We are borne over the oppression that would hold us down, we mount up on wings, we find a secret sweetness in our brier. But it is not of us. It’s Love that lifts us up. It is Love that is the sweetness.
“Is the one who reads this in a great weariness, or the exhaustion that follows a sore hurt, or in the terrible grasp of pain? He who loves as no one else can love understands to the uttermost, is not far away. He wants us to say, He can give it to us to say, “My Lord, my Love, I am content with Thee.”
Beautiful pink and yellow flower of dog-rose, sweet brier
In America we often call the same plant a Dog Rose. My neighbor has them in her backyard. I will have to experiment next spring to find out if the foliage is also fragrant as the internet reports!
I find the fragrance of Amy’s writings a gift to my soul.
Can you. Stop for a moment. View your situation through the lens of maybe? Maybe this is for the good. Perhaps this is going some place you had not imagined. Maybe you do not have all the facts. Could be you only understand in part?
Stop. Pause. Breathe.
Maybe is a powerful word. May – I am able. I am free to do.
Maybe shows uncertainty and also possibility.
Too often our minds decide a situation and close upon one conclusion like a steel trap.
There are many places we make major decisions in life and also the myriad decisions we make every day. Places where we can and ought to insert the word maybe.
It may be that I have misinterpreted something. This sort of thought dethrones the ego who wants to be God and by doing so invites the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart to new insights, possibilities we might not have thought about.
Maybe this will give you food for thought. May Be.
As I child I remember the song that went something like this:
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts Little oggy doggie tails mutilated monkey meat
That is what my week has been like, coughing up the entrails of this nasty virus.
Bob even asked if our tissues are one ply. No, they are not. These are just two tissue blows!
They say the song is important as they give kids a way to express the gory truth about life, usually to the parents’ disdain.”It is extremely popular because children often enjoy taboo subjects and references to things that are disgusting!”
Nope, not something I coughed up. Just as Osage Orange you might see along the road!
So do not catch this summer cold. It is disgusting and exhausting. Spray, throat lozenge, blow, neti pot, blow, pills, throat lozenge, blow and pray for a good night’s rest!
All the while thumping around in this boot that is beginning to feel massive. Yes, I do need another ice pack!
Awoke singing this. Memory from the past? Foretelling the future? Just a fact, Jack? Do not know, but it hangs in my brain this past week.
Very Last Day Peter, Paul and Mary Everybody gonna pray on the very last day Oh, when they hear that bell a-ring the world away Everybody gonna pray to the Heavens on the judgement day
Oh-well, you can sing about the great king David And you can preach about the wisdom of Saul But the judgement falls on all mankind when the trumpet sounds the call All equal and the same, when the Lord, He calls your name Get ready, brother, for that day
Everybody gonna pray on the very last day Oh, when they hear that bell a-ring the world away Everybody gonna pray to the Heavens on the judgement day
Well, one day soon all men will stand His word will be heeded in all the land Men shall know and men shall see We all are brothers and we all are free Mankind was made of clay Each of us in the very same way Get ready, brother, for that day
Everybody gonna pray on the very last day Oh, when they hear that bell a-ring the world away Everybody gonna pray to the Heavens on the judgement day
Oh-well, the law is given and the law is known The tale is told and the seed is sown From dust we came into dust we'll go You the know the Lord once told us so Each brother takes his hand Heed the meaning of the Lord's command Get ready, brother, for that day
Everybody gonna pray on the very last day Oh, when they hear that bell a-ring the world away Everybody gonna pray to the Heavens on the judgement day
Written by: Noel Paul Stookey, Peter Yarrow Album: In The Wind Released: 1963
There are t-shirts and bumper stickers about declaring, “You are enough.” An essential message for those struggling with mental health.
In her devotional Amy Carmichael quoted part of the following hymn this morning.
July 7 "Translated from the old German of Ter Steegen have been in my heart:
Am I not enough, Mine own? enough, Mine own, for thee? ******** All shalt thou find at last, Only in Me.
Am I not enough, Mine own, I, forever and alone, I, needing thee?
YouTube had this rendition
Yes, God is enough to get me through this. God can see you through your difficulties and challenges, too. I am determined to remember the message from the Lord through Ter Steegen that yes, God is enough!
I am weeks away from existing as a human Do-ing; I am more at peace if I rest for now in Be-ing. Christ is enough to help me get through this, but the neighbors and church family have certainly helped! Food Train threatened to become food flood. Flowers and flower bed helpers. Watermelon, soup, an entire meal just dropped at the house. People have come to help me with little chores and putting away my laundry, getting a load of wash started, getting things out of the dryer for me to fold.
Early this morning I saw a buck with two does walk through the neighbor’s yard. A baby bunny appeared out back. Then this afternoon I saw the buck again in a different area. He is a young buck, but a buck indeed. What a blessing! The Lord did not have to let me see that animal. It did cheer me up though! I cannot sit in my prayer chair. It is too low and right now too hard to get out of.
I am reminded there are people who will live the remainder of their lives in wheelchairs. Hopefully, this is just temporary for me. It certainly changes perspective on life. I was sitting in the kitchen one evening and Bob asked me what I was doing. I was thinking how easy it would be to just get up and walk to another room. And then remembered I may not. I want this surgery to be successful. I want the healing to go well. I am working hard to keep my glucose levels even and low. It is tempting though to give in to emotional eating. Not good thinking Molly Lin. As some used to call this, “Stinkin’ thinkin’!” That will get me no place good.
So please continue to lift us and others you know who are not up to their usual activities. We all need grace and all the help we can get. Prayer works. God can provide for us and through us. I will do this well, with God’s help.
One thing I really missed during this first week of recovery is sitting in my prayer chair. Have not figured out how to get the knee roller so I can sit there. Then there is the challenge of rising from that chair. A low swivel rocker…
I read from the Amazing Grace devotional. She wrote, “Though a dream may have risen a little out of reach for now, they are still on the scale…{One side of your scale may be a little weightier.} This is as it should be right now, but it won’t be this way forever. Unless the scale crashes to the ground, you are in balance – no matter how uneven the sides. As long as you remember to seek his wisdom and walk in his truth, it isn’t going to crash.”
This morning sitting at the dining room table I heard a not familiar bird song. Cornell’s Merlin Bird ID told me it was an eastern towhee. They are lovely birds sporting three colors. I could not see it but definitely was blessed to hear it.
I miss watching for the eastern cottontail rabbits. And wouldn’t you know it I looked up and in the distance there was one, right in Sherry’s yard. At about the same turn the song below came into my mind. I hummed along as I watched the rabbit greet ANOTHER rabbit with arial jumps. Must be mating time again! I often watch the rabbits with binoculars, but was blessed to see them this morning without the aid of those, (besides they are in the bedroom, on the floor).
Been trying to add a YouTube link for the song I was hearing. I cannot get it to work! So if you go to YouTube maybe copy and paste this link
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Right here with me at this table. My foot resting on the parked knee roller. Trust me, it does not like to hang down! As I start to finish this entry the rabbit has gone from the shadows to bright sunshine. It is as if the Lord is declaring He sees me as I seek to see him. “You shall seek me and find me when you seek for me with all of your heart.” (NIV paraphrase)
“When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13 NRSVUE
Everything in the stores is red, white and blue anticipating the celebration of the birth of our country. I even saw a Coke in a round bottle in red, white and blue for the FIFA games! Have not seen this much patriotic color since after 9-11. READ ON CAREFULLY OR YOU MIGHT MISS IT.
Looks like something a six year old would delight in!
So imagine my surprise when I recently unearthed this quote from our son. He had to be all of six years old!
Jeff, “You should have seen who played the Star Strangle Banner!”
I never wrote down who played the Star Strangle Banner that year, but it might be an appropriate name for the theme this year. God help us all.
I first heard about CeCe Winans many years ago when I worked at “Having The Courage To Change,” a housing center for women who were coming out of prison and/or drug and alcohol treatment. The women there loved her music and soon I did too!
Do you worship every day? If not, try this one.
All my life you have been so so good.
I’ve known you as a father. I’ve known you as a friend.
As the saying goes: “No god, no peace. Know God, know peace.”
I do not care how you worship. Do you know Jesus and have you spoken with him today?
This has become to me a perennial song. Perennial typically describes things that are permanent, constant, or repeated. At times I am compelled to sing it. Sometimes multiple times in a row.
Me, too, Lord! I want what these lyrics speak. Here is the video followed by the lyrics (in case you don’t like jumpy words.)
Abandoned
Benjamin William Hastings
Somethin’ isn’t adding up This wild exchange You offer us I gave my worst, You gave Your blood Seems hard to believe You’re tellin’ me You chose the Cross? You’re tellin’ me I’m worth that much? Well, if that’s the measure of Your love How else would I sing?
But completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored My one-life endeavor to match Your surrender To mirror not my will, but Yours Oh, I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all
I just can’t get over it What kind of self-control is this? When You had angels at Your fingertips But on the Cross You remained And I can’t repay that kind of love But I can praise with everything I’ve got Since death had all of it’s power robbed Then just like the grave
I’m completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored Oh, my one-life endeavor to match Your surrender To mirror not my will, but Yours Oh, I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all I surrender all I surrender all
The whole of my heart, the best of my soul Each phase of my life, each breath in my lungs Consider it Yours, Lord Consider it Yours, Lord The failures I hide, the victories I don’t The battles I fight, each crown that I hoard
Consider it Yours, Lord Consider it Yours, Lord All the glory forever, the grave that You won The praise of the Heavens, the kingdom to come Oh, consider it Yours, Lord Consider it Yours
I’m completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned (hey!) I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored Oh, my one-life endeavor to match Your surrender To mirror not my will, but Yours I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all
No, You’ll never leave me abandoned I surrender all
Written by: Cody Carnes, Benjamin William Hastings, Brandon Lake, Christopher Michael Davenport
I had to ask who is Christopher Michael Davenport?
“Grammy-nominated songwriter and worship leader Chris Davenport has been a quiet fixture within worship music for years.
“Through his contributions with UNITED like “Another In The Fire,” “Grace To Grace,” and “Seasons,” as well as collaborations with artists like Phil Wickham (Hymn Of Heaven), Brandon Lake (Too Good To Not Believe), and Cody Carnes (Be Glad), Chris has established himself as a unique, authentic, and influential voice within the worship community.” Now we all know more about him.
Make sure we never abandon God! “My one life endeavor to match your surrender…”
