One night, In late August of 2009, after the move from Nashville back to Atlanta for music school at GA State University, I was goofing around on my acoustic guitar, weaving in and out of my favorite tunes, when I stumbled into the chords of the song my roommate had helped me with. A thought occurred…
I could re-write the lyrics, and then the song would be uniquely my own creation.
What would I write about? I had a thought that had been pressing on my heart…
Sometimes it seems as if the world around me works in my favor. Not that I don’t have those moments where I feel as worthless as used toilet tissue; everyone goes through that. But I am constantly re-discovering that
if we seek God on a relational level, on a daily schedule, giving Him all glory, he would lift us up for his divine purpose, so that we may fall more deeply in love with Him and share that love with those who are in need.
I now realize this is commonplace for people of faith, but going into writing a song about it, I thought that maybe if it took me this long to grasp such a concept,
there must be many others in the dark on this.
This thought became my muse in that moment, and as I strummed the chords and hummed the melody, a lyric settled on my conscience like it fell from the sky.
Lift me High Above
Cause I’m Falling in Love
With the Way You Pick Me Up
I still swear by the confession that I have absolutely no recollection of any cognitive process leading to consummation of those lyrics. They married so perfectly with the rise and fall of the melody, which lined the chorus progression of the song, that it was almost scary.
The mental debate over ideas fitting in and words sitting right, typical to the average writing session, was absent. I was not the pioneer I usually am, searching my soul (and my mental rhyming dictionary) for hours trying to discover a “hook.” I to this day consider myself very inexperienced when it comes to song-writing, so there is no doubt this was a blessing.
The words had found me.
The lyrics sung a smile on my own face. I repeatedly rehearsed them along with the guitar, until I decided I needed to feed off the moment while I could. I began to write the first verse. Though it took some twiddling with, the verse came easy, and must have come from the same air space as the chorus beamed in from.
I wanted to tell of the struggles and dynamics to the journey one embarks on when trying to gain ground in God’s direction. It went down smooth.
Once I completed that,
I did the human thing and just kinda sat on it awhile,
kind of second guessing whether it was really that special or not. God took note that I was sitting.
He didn’t let me get too comfortable…
To be continued…
Do you ever sit on something, because you second guess the potential it has?
