I can’t promise to keep up this pace, but this week’s SFTO episode is another original. Hopefully someday in the near future a full studio version will be released because the acoustic version doesn’t quite capture the energy of the song.

This song makes its stage debut on the same day this post is published. In our services today, it will kick off a 4 week sermon series that will unveil the new vision for our local church that the leaders feel God has revealed to us. The song came about both from my personal faith journey and the many prayer times, discussions and meditations on this vision.

The scriptural anchor for the song comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, specifically from Matthew 5:41. For me, this turned out to be an interesting point of discovery – this whole 2nd mile business. I started wondering if perhaps this was the new frontier. A realm in which American Christianity had yet to explore. What if we went the first mile, which is usually all that is expected, then went another to demonstrate that we carry a love that is far greater and very much different than any other love any person has experienced, and then remained in that second mile? Isn’t it in the 2nd mile where we really start to give and sacrifice? Where we begin to “lose our life” and really start to discover that abundant life Jesus talked about? I think we have yet to discover answers to these questions. In my experience, there aren’t many people living in the 2nd mile.

That’s what this song touches on – it’s an anthem for those of us who know there must be something more. Something beyond ourselves. It’s for those of us who want more of Jesus and less of ourselves. It’s a song that asks “What if we…”

Life Begins
by Ben Chilcote

We’re headed for the Kingdom
We’ve only just begun
Our bags packed for the journey
We carry only love
We found the path that’s narrow
Open up the door
Our feet prepared for walking
Our hands prepared for war
Don’t look back

Life begins in the second mile
Will we dare to step across the line
If it is where He leads us
Love begins in the second mile
Will we dare to leave it all behind
So we can walk like Jesus

We claim to be in Him
Put your best foot forward and begin!

We will look for Jesus
When we serve the least of these
We’ll kill the world with kindness
And fight our battles on our knees
To love those in our circle
Closer to the cross
We need Your heart for mercy
And Your burden for the lost
Don’t look back

Life begins in the second mile
Will we dare to step across the line
If it is where He leads us
Love begins in the second mile
Will we dare to leave it all behind
So we can walk like Jesus

We claim to be in Him
Put your best foot forward and begin!

We’re bringing down the kingdom
We’ve only just begun
Armed with hearts for justice
We carry only love
We found the path that’s narrow
We know there’s something more
Our feet prepared for walking
Our hands prepared for war
Don’t look back

Life begins in the second mile
Will we dare to step across the line
If it is where He leads us
Love kicks in the second mile
Will we dare to leave it all behind
So we can walk like Jesus

Leave it all behind
Dare to cross the line
Trust that we will find
A life in the second mile

Leave it all behind
Dare to cross the line
Trust that we will find
A life in the second mile

I’m pleased to give you my first original song since my niche original, “In Good Hands”. This week’s SFTO episode describes what some of us go through when we are faced with an opportunity to give of ourselves to help someone else.

This song made its debut at our church’s Leadership Community Gathering as part of a new church vision launch. Due to God’s working things together, the song both reflects things I’ve been thinking about in the past half year (which is also reflected on this blog) and what God has been revealing to the leadership of our church. Thanks to the LCG, I had a deadline to finish the song.

Inspiration for the lyrics came from many different places. I think most of us have been in the situation where we are helping someone out but reach the threshold where we decide the sacrifice is too much and we walk away.  Giving is easy when it’s convenient for the giver.  Perhaps we have been on the other side where we are really carrying something heavy and all we want is for someone to notice and ask if we need any help. That’s what the song is about. Except the song has a different ending than what we tend to experience.

We Will Walk Another Mile
by Ben Chilcote

I know that you carry more than you show
Maybe you need a friend that you can trust to share the load
I look around
Here I am
Feet to walk
Empty hands

There is a love that finds the lonely
Takes her hand and guides her through
My feet they want to walk away
Should I walk another mile with you?
Should I walk another mile with you?

From this point on, I may invest with no return
Loss or not I’m afraid if I go it will confirm
What you resolved long ago
That in this life – you’re on your own

There is a love that finds the broken
Binds him up and makes him new
This love won’t let me walk away
So I’ll walk another mile with you

I’ll walk another mile with you
But just how long is the road?
Only God knows
It’s much to long to walk alone

This just may be a moment God Himself prepared
I just may be an answer to a mother’s prayer

There is a love that finds helpless
And does for them what they can’t do
There is a love that dies to live
And dies to give no matter what there is to lose

There is a love that finds the needy
You need me and I need you
Please don’t let me walk away
So I can walk another mile with you
We will walk another mile

Today our daughter is turning 6 years old.  She’s our oldest and the circumstances of how we adopted her is a wonderful story.  I thought I’d use this special day to share with you my first original Song from the Office episode.  The song already has it’s own page on this blog so I won’t tell you about the song – you can read about it for yourself.  I will say, however, when I wrote it, I did have all our children in mind – not just our youngest (who, by the way, is on the album cover).  Looking at the song through the lens of an adoption certainly gives a different spin to the lyrics.  After seeing Mom’s birthday video gift, our daughter really wanted me to make her one.  That is in the works, but for now, I am very happy to share with you a song that has brought me much joy to create and sing.

Since it’s release on the world wide web back in November, In Good Hands has made it’s way to the ears of people all over.  I’ve had requests for the chords so people could sing it in their churches – usually for a relative who is being dedicated or baptized.  I am truly humbled that this song has blessed so many already.