Came home tonight (the last 3 ks in serious rain) from the weekly session at ALC. Bob Kempe's doing 6 weeks on the impossibly wide 4 above subjects. Of course, you never cover any of these subjects in any complete way.
Time & again I get thinking about a song or two. Especially one.
I wrote it in St Louis in May-June 1994. Dorothy & I were there to do some singing, but the touring had a slow start. This kind of time allows for the writing of songs. This time in Janis & Gerry Frick's home.
1. If I touch your clothes, will you take my pain,
give me back my health and strength again?
If I touch your clothes, will I feel alright?
Can you change despair into delight?It was based on the gospel reading for a coming student service (Mark 5). Always done as a performance piece, not as a community song, though we did get people to sing along in the chorus sometimes.
Jesus, you can heal me, touch me now.
I don't understand but you know how.
Even when you have no word to say,
just a single touch and I'm OK, I'm OK.I think I should I should try it again sometime. It's got both stories from that reading in it & they're really good for thinking/meditating ourselves into.
2. If you touch my hand, will I start to breathe?
Break these chains of death and set me free.
If you touch my hand, will my heart respond?
Will I start to sing your brand new song?Fairly simple melody, though syncopated. The rhyming pattern for both verse & chorus is AABB. (Do I use that much? — don't think so)
3. If I die with you, Jesus, in your shame,
can I come with you and rise again?
Keep me close to you, branch upon your vine,
let my life be yours, and yours be mine.Feels like a more direct, almost testimony, kind of song than I usually write. Especially lines like
'Jesus, you can heal me, touch me now' and
'let my life be yours & yours be mine'. And the last line of the chorus —
'just a single touch & I'm OK'. I'm better at singing prayers than speaking them. A lot of us are!
(the song's on
God. Version 1.0)
