SONG STORIES

The #1 goal of the "Songs from Life's Journey" recording project was to produce songs that would clearly communicate an understanding of God's love for each of us throughout our lives. To help each song "communicate", a song background was provided to musicians, engineers, and producers throughout this project. The vision was to record songs that were clear, simple, and easily understandable by everyone. These song backgrounds have been reproduced here as a resource to radio announcers and program managers as they include songs in their play lists. Our prayer continues to be that the message of these songs (pointing to our great and loving God) would shine forth. Ultimately we do not want the spotlight for this album to be on the vocals, the instrumentals, the arrangements, or anything other than the Almighty, All powerful, God of Love who made all these songs possible in the first place!

New Song - song written for Tidewater Music Festival 1996 ("Sing a new song"). © 1996
Footprints and More - based on the poem, "Footprints". © 1995
God's Brave Followers - song for a Summer Bible school program. © 1990
Peace, Perfect Peace - old hymn text with a modern tune. © 1995
In the Sonshine - for Cory, Leanna, and all active 2 year olds. © 1995
Sandbox Dreams - childhood dreams that develop into realities, dedicated to Dawn. © 1997
A Tiny Baby - Christmas song, lyrics by Barbara van der Most. © 1995
Clock Maker - dialogue about how God is or is NOT active in our lives. © 1995
Walking Along in the Angel's Land - in memory of Edwin Ward Hinson. © 1996
Misunderstandings - at times we all need to work through misunderstandings. © 1989
Psalm 33 - written for a Sunday morning Psalm reading. © 1994
Thank You, Lord, for Today - a morning and evening thank you song to God. © 1996
Priestly Blessing - based on Numbers 6:24-26. © 1995

1 New Song

This song was specifically written for the 1996 Tidewater Mennonite Music Festival. The theme for this festival was "Sing a New Song". In keeping with this theme, the planning committee invited Footprints and More to share two of their original songs with the festival. As I thought about the festival, I thought about how appropriate it would be to write a song specifically for this occasion. I prayed about it, and one Sunday afternoon the chorus suddenly came together along with the general direction for this song. The idea is that Jesus, in his love, is reaching out daily to everyone. This reaching out can be visualized as a song that begins every morning and touches everyone. In the final verse not only is Jesus singing a new song, but we too are invited to participate, to join in with this song. We are invited to join Jesus with "harmony" in reaching out to a lost world around us.

2 Footprints and More

This song became a long term project for me way back when I first began writing songs. I've appreciated the anonymous poem, "Footprints", and I wanted to capture the feeling of that poem in music. On several different occasions I worked at this song without getting what I was looking for. After several years I went back to my notes and the pieces finally fell together. This song, as it now stands, has become a central part of this whole music project. For me it captures the concept of Jesus being a part of our everyday life stories. Often it is not until after the fact that we can look back and see God's hand at work. When we do look back we see something "more" than just daily reality. We see God's love at work in and through us. "God's love is more, is more..."

3 God's Brave Followers

One summer while living in Harrisonburg, Va (USA), I taught 3^rd grade Summer Bible School. The Bible school lasted for one week and the curriculum was titled, "God's Brave Followers". Each day we studied a different Old Testament Bible character and how they were a brave follower. At the end of the week we had a program for the parents with each class sharing something from their study that week. As part of the sharing for my class, I wrote this song. Each of the 5 verses talks about a different Old Testament character and how they were a brave follower. Since we had such little time to practice, I sang the verses and the whole class sang the chorus. Because of this background, I often refer to this song as a children's song (even though it is equally appropriate for adults).

4 Peace, Perfect Peace

Sometimes old can be new! The words for this song are a slightly altered version of Edward Henry Bickersteth's poem written in 1875. Despite being written over a hundred years ago, the words to this poem are very relevant to our modern society. Each verse is basically made up of a question followed by an answer. The question part of each verse wonders how there can possibly be peace in a world like the one in which we live. Again and again the second part of the verse answers that peace is found in this world because of what Jesus Christ has done. I believe the strength of this song is in being simple and direct.

5 In the Sonshine

"In the Sonshine" is a song inspired by the joy and activity of two year old children. The song starts out addressed to children playing in the "sunshine". However in verse #2 the singer suddenly realizes that everyone is actually a little child when compared to God above. Each of us, as Christians, are children playing in his Son's "shine" (i.e. in the light of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ). Suddenly it's no longer children's energy that we are seeing, but God's energy flowing into each one of us. Not only God's energy, but God's promise to bring each of us into a glorious eternal relationship with him (verse 3).

6 Sandbox Dreams

While recording our first album, "Songs from Life's Journey", I had a sense that I wanted to include a song that was a little more autobiographical in talking about "life's journey". As I got tired of practicing and singing over and over the songs that we were recording, I decided to work on a new song. In a remarkably short time, "Sandbox Dreams" came into being. It talks about childhood dreams. It talks about losing touch with these dreams as we grow up and follow more "normal" paths of life. Finally it talks about God's love whispering to us again these childhood dreams with one new twist. He invites us to submit our dreams to him, and to focus on his plan for our lives. He knows how to mold our "sandbox dreams" into new realities that are a part of his kingdom plan. The dreams that had hardened into cold, dead stone, once again become workable sand in the hand of the Master. I really like how this song develops.

7 A Tiny Baby

This is a special song to me because of how it came about. In the fall of 1991 I was working with a church youth program in the Netherlands. A young teenage girl named Barbara began attending our youth activities. Her English was very good, and I invited her to help me translate a Christmas play from English to Dutch. She also enjoyed music, so I invited her to sing in our Praise Band. She continued to be involved in the youth program, and became a Christian a year after I left. In 1995 she was in the U.S.A. participating in a youth evangelism program. I visited her in training, and she showed me a poem she had written in English. It was exciting to hear about her Christian walk. I suggested we put her poem to music. Thus was born this simple song with a profound message connecting to both Easter and Christmas.

8 Clock Maker

If God really exists, does he care about each one of us individually? Doesn't he have more important things to worry about? And furthermore, if God really cares for me, how could he have let _____ (such and such a thing) happen? This song was written in the context of the questions listed above. It is written in the format of "you say that", but "I say this". The initial chorus is the view that the other person has expressed. Namely that God is simply a clock maker. He made the world like a clock and leaves it alone to run on it's own. Three times the person singing the song responds with a verse from the Old or New Testament that shows how God actually does interact with persons. He is the Vine, and we are the branches; he is the Shepherd, and we are the sheep. The other person is not dissuaded. The song ends with the singer taking the initial chorus and changing the words to express his/her view of God.

9 Walking Along in the Angel's Land

This song was written in memory of Edwin Ward Hinson. I was in a small Bible study group with Ed and his wife for several years. Ed was an engineer at NASA and was involved with various projects in the aerospace field throughout his career there. During the last years of his life, Ed suffered from acute emphysema. Gradually his lifestyle became more and more restricted, living on a respirator for perhaps the last 18 months of his life. Ed, like C. S. Lewis, became a Christian later in life after much questioning. As a Christian, the written word of God (the Bible) became extremely important to Ed. This song talks about Ed's pilgrimage and the chorus pictures what it was like for Ed to go to heaven and to be released from his physical aliments. It also reminds all of us, that we too can look forward to following in this journey, and spending time in eternity with God.

10 Misunderstandings

This song may be one of the most practical ones in the whole Footprints' repertoire. Whether in friendships, relationships, or in interaction with co-workers, sooner or later there is some kind of misunderstanding. This song compares this to the process of building the Berlin wall between East and West Germany. If these misunderstandings are not dealt with, slowly communication and trust break down between the two parties. However, the song does not stop there. It suggests that a remedy does exist for these Berlin walls in our world, and it describes how to go about tearing down the walls in our personal lives and in our society as a whole.

11 Psalm 33

One Sunday morning in 1994 I was asked to be responsible for the morning Psalm reading (Psalm 33:18-22). In place of doing a regular reading, or a choric reading, I opted to put this psalm to music. For that Sunday I invited three friends to join me in this psalm "reading". At the guitar players suggestion, I raised the song a perfect 4^th from where I had originally written it. About a year later I tried a 4 part arrangement for our "4-For-Christ" quartet. The complexity of the arrangement distracted from the simple message of the song. For Footprints and More I worked through yet another arrangement, and in my opinion it is the best one yet! I really appreciate the orchestral accompaniment for this song. We used this song as our warm up song throughout the "Songs from Life's Journey" recording project.

12 Thank You, Lord, for Today

At the beginning of the summer in 1996 I started working almost full time with Footprints and More music. I started each day with devotions and often I would spend some time playing the guitar before starting into the days activities. It was early summer. My windows were open, and the birds were busy flying around and getting materials for building their nests. Over a period of weeks this song began to "happen". One of the sources of inspiration for the music was the actual shape of my guitar. I have a cutout body (Jasmine) and one day I was looking at it and thinking that I had never really used the cutout area of the strings. I started playing around with that area and slowly settled on the chord progression used for this song. When I brought it over from guitar to piano I basically played exactly the same notes. The song itself progresses through a person's day. It begins with the morning and ends with the evening. The middle instrumental verse is this person's working hours. By the end of the work day the singing is ready to "scream" (and does!). However, things again quiet down and it is time to thank God for walking with us through another day.

13 Priestly Blessing

Blessings played an important role throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Isaac's blessing of Jacob, Jacob's blessing of Pharaoh, etc.). One of the blessings in the Old Testament that is especially well known is the Priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26. This is a blessing that the Lord gave to Moses for Aaron and his sons to use in blessing the Israelites. In other words, it is a blessing for the priests to use when blessing the people. In keeping with the New Testament idea of the "priesthood of all believers", it seems especially appropriate for Christians to use this blessing in blessing one another. This song provides a way for the singer to share a blessing with his/her listeners.