This song was written as the first assignment in the WCS Songwriting Club. I only had a week to write it. The song is about the tension we live with as Christians trying to figure out our lives while we still have remnants of our old life still trailing behind us.
I’m Beginning To See
My former life is
A life of darkness
Though shadows still cast in the light
Once you awaken
Everything changes
Bright colors bleed through black and white
I’m beginning to see
That maybe
This whole thing is not about me
There’s a bigger picture here to be seen
But I’m much to close now
I’m beginning to fear
That maybe
This whole thing will never be clear
There’s a whole new way to tell if I’m where
I’m supposed to be
I’m beginning to see
Now I am leaning
On those beside me
No longer needing to pretend
We’ll find the arrows
To the path that narrows
We’ll walk it till we find the end
This song came about in a simple way. A phrase come to me one day on the way home from the office – as I was driving through my neighborhood. This is a common occurrence and I’m usually prepared to get it down so I don’t forget. The phrase was about New Orleans and the storms going on inside the homes on my street. That phrase and the coming of the 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks were the motivation to write this song.
On September 11, 2001, the world changed. For many, life changed dramatically. Ultimately, we were all reminded that life is fragile and tomorrow is never promised. It’s easy to forget those who suffer tragedy in their lives and continue to live with the memory of loss still today. We’ve seen a lot of tragedy in the past 10 years – September 11, Hurricane Katrina, and the many other world disasters. We tend to unite around these things – which is an awesome thing to see – it’s a reflection of the image of God in us to have such compassion.
I can’t help but think, though, that a people can be strongly united, linked arm-in-arm, yet fully unaware they are all standing together on sinking sand. May we find our hope in the One who will one day return to restore all of creation. And may we trust in Him for all things until that day.
**ATTN SONGWRITERS: To go “behind the scenes” on the creation of this song, click here.
LYRICS
The World is in His Hands
by Ben Chilcote
Most of us remember well
The moments when the towers fell
A day where many never made it home
The message was “We will prevail”
Bolstered by the hero’s tales
The leveled ground united everyone
When the ground that we are standing on
Falls away and hope is gone.
In the ashes, will we all fall down?
Planes Crash and buildings fall
And only You stand through it all
On the solid rock we stand
The world is in Your hands
Waves rolled over New Orleans
And storms are blowing through homes on my street
Kids are wakin’ up and there’s no home
In a single day your world can fall
In a single day you can lose it all
And you never know until tomorrow comes
When the ground that we are standing on
Falls away and hope is gone.
In the ashes, will we all fall down?
Waves crash and buildings fall
And only You stand through it all
On the solid rock we stand
The world is in Your hands
Oh, say can you see – We need You
We need You, We need You!
You’re the dawn’s only light
We need You, We need You, We need You!
When the ground that we are standing on
Falls away and hope seems gone.
With Jesus we have hope to rise again
Planes Crash and buildings fall
And only You
Stand through it all
On the solid rock we stand
The world is in Your hands
The world is in Your hands
The world is in Your hands
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Our Baby Dedication Service was coming up (we do 2 a year at BCC) and the few songs that worked well for the service were getting well worn. I thought I’d try to write my own song for it. With a good 5 years of fatherhood behind me, I felt qualified to write about children and dedicating them to the Lord so I went to it. This is the song that resulted.
While writing the song I relied on God’s inspiration and drew from my experience as a father. Early in marriage, my wife and I faced infertility. God guided us through 2 wonderful adoption experiences. Then in February of 2009 God gave us wonderful gift of a natural conception. Our third child was born on my 30th birthday. Needless to say, it was an answer to prayer. We see our children as gifts that God has entrusted to us to care for and raise to be obedient servants of Jesus.
I have found much joy and purpose in singing this song to our newborn. I hold him and sing this to him. What a wonderful prayer God has given me to speak into my children’s lives. I pray this song will bless many more parents out there who realize the wonderful and scary task they have as a parent.
I’ve recieved emails from people who have used In Good Hands in their dedication or baptism services. Have you used the song to bless someone’s life? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment and share how In Good Hands has blessed you and your family.
I attempted to create this song in real time while capturing it on video. It didn’t work out as I hoped as the song was VERY hard to write. But you can watch the song and then the “Making of” video below for insight to my creative process.
The song is a little darker than I usually do but the thematic elements of the song influenced that. I am really happy with the chorus but the verses were really thrown together at the last minute in order to get the song completed. Enjoy! Comment! Share!
“I Never Left“ was song assignment #3 in KC Turner’s Songwriting Club. We had to use it as the title and in the lyrics and had one week to write, perform, and share the song.
The chorus came to me on the first day of the challenge but the music for the verses didn’t come very easily. Finally on my way to work on Wednesday I hummed out a tune I thought would work so immediately when I got to the office I recorded it – cause if you don’t you forget it pretty quickly.
On my Thursday morning commute to work, I had worked out a first draft for 2 verses. (Songwriters always need to have pen and paper ready!) I was pretty happy with what I came up with and decided to do one more draft recording to help capture the song as it was so far. I also wanted to give it some time to simmer in case I could improve some of the wording. By the end of the day, though, I knew I wouldn’t have much time this weekend to work on it so I called it “done” and recorded it.
It’s interesting when you have such a tight deadline for a song. I always wonder what the final product would be if I had another week. I definitely think some of the lyrics could be improved. But it is what it is and there’s nothing that says that I can’t someday rework it.
I’ve been silent, I know
Invisible – But no
I never left you.
And I never will
I’ve been hiding
‘Cause I’m not invincible
But know
I never left you
And I never will
Yet again
Words are not exchanging
I dodge your eyes
I sense my fear engaging
My mistake is I try to fake my innocence
Instinct says
Silence is my only defense
Against unknown consequence
CHORUS
There are things inside of me
That I want to shout!
You can’t see
It’s killing me that I can’t figure it out
There’s a wall you can’t cross and I can’t see around
Is this the day courage says “I’m breaking it down!”
Gotta find a way to get back to you
CHORUS
You took a chance
Don’t give up on me!
I could take a chance…
