you love us well … revision

This past week, with help from Dale, I’ve done a major revision of a song I wrote in the second half of 2009 – You love us well. I wrote it last year amid that time in the lectionary when Sunday after Sunday, the gospel readings would pick up on the John 6 “bread of life” teaching of Jesus.  Powerful stuff!

I always thought something needed improvement in the song.   It dawned on me that the song fits well with the theme of the Uniting Church Synod meetings happening in May this year – the theme being something like “One Bread, One Body”.

So — I’ve changed the lyrics here and there to reflect this.  Other changes include:

• adding a short gap between verse and chorus – helps launch the chorus better
• lowering the key from E to C.
• putting a backing track together, to which Dale has added a demo vocal.

Have a listen (see links below) and see what you think.  Imagine the full praise band treatment (though single piano or guitar also works). “Doo wop” singers in the “you love us, love us well” lines also work well, says me who’s totally biased, but have felt for some time that this song is not only different in its upbeat feel, but worthy of a second innings.  It is cricket season, mind you.

music
lyrics
mp3 vocal

David

1. Heart of loving

heart of living
you love us, love us well
Source of life and
source of living
you love us, love us well

2. In you, no hunger
no more thirsting
you love us, love us well
You fill my cup
awash to bursting
you love us, love us well

Bread of life
grace on grace
heaven’s food for my soul
Christ we feast
on your grace
your life alone
can make us whole

Which songs?

the Uniting Church is running a national song competition: “Songs That Unite”. they are keen to promote contemporary worship songs written by our own writers, as an alternative to Hillsong AND overseas material from the likes of Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (as good as these guys are. with the exception of Reuben Morgan’s material, most Hillsong material leaves me cold)

each entrant is allowed 3 songs. Honestly I have several recent songs to submit, but need 3 from these ones:

let your light shine
holy spirit come down
the grace
dare to discover
deeper into you
you love us well

But which 3?
any thoughts ?

David

a day on fraser

Well – a wet day – a long day – a sometimes frustrating day – but a good day nonetheless, and on the world’s largest sand island.

Dale, Glenn, Jan and I took a whole-day tour … in mostly drizzling or intermittent rain … to Fraser Island, about 40 minutes barge trip from River Heads near Hervey Bay. We left around 7.30 am and got back to our unit just after 6 pm.  I was last on Fraser Island in the late 1970s when a few friends and I took an overnight 4WD trip to the Island.  Don’t remember much, apart from driving David Wilson’s old 4WD jeep (I think, or was it Land  Rover) on 75 Mile Beach.

regardlesss, we soon got used to travelling around in a  4WD bus, driven capably by Jon our driver.  The day wasn’t cheap … and the lunch at Eurong Beach Resort fairly ordinary, but I’m glad we went.  A shame there was not a single window of blue sky all day. Took a bit getting used to the endless amount of slippery, wet, corrugated, muddy tracks Jon and bus took us on – over 100 Ks!.  Of course on the bit of 75 Mile Beach we travelled, it was quite amazing seeing the number of 4WD vehicles.  And I thought Moggill Road was busy!

Some highlights for me were the swim at Lake Mackenzie and strolling down Eli Creek toward the ocean … being tall like I am gave me a decided advantage over Jan and Dale who did the same.  Both experiences were very refreshing.

We all got back quite tired and keen (Dale especially) to get back to our novels, or in Jan’s case, sleep.

Cheers for now.

Takin’ it easy @ Hervey Bay

How great it is to take some time off and spend it with Dale at the beach – in this case Hervey Bay: just over 3 hours drive north of Brisbane. sharing it with our good friends Glenn and Jan makes it special too.

Those weeks of finishing up 5 wonderful years of ministry at Indooropilly, packing way too many boxes of gear ready for our 22 December move to Oxley UC manse, unpacking, Christmas, some parenting demands – they sure took their toll.

so – to be able to kick back for a while here at a unit virtually right on the beach, have my morning coffee at Bayorama @ Torquay, do lots of reading , spend time with Dale, do some swimming & walking, play “May I ?” card games with the four of us, bask in that wonderful afternoon seabreeze -well, it’s great.

doesn’t take our mind completely off some real concerns friends and family have – but I see it as God’s gift of a little timeout .

reality will bite on our return on the 7th – new ministry at oxley – darra. For now … back to the coffee, paper and beachwalk