In the End

Well, it hasn't been quite an entire year since I've blogged here!  Life has been rich with things other than musical endeavors, but I've had a few of those, too: writing the theme song for our new year of women's Bible study, giving a concert at Minnesota Teen Challenge chapel, and other random things.  

Last week I had the pleasure of performing a special song for my sweet friend, Emma, who has terminal cancer.  We covered the Natalie Grant song, In the End, which is a foot-stomping blue grass tune.  Making it extra special was the fact that my husband and 3 kids were on the stage with me, along with a few more awesome musician friends.  It was a bucket list moment for me.

That song was followed by a concert by Jason Gray, one of my favorite Christian singer/songwriters.  There were moments of that night that were pure celebration, where everyone was laughing, clapping, and singing.  Then there were moments where the sting of Emma's impending death and the reality of life without her for me, her husband and kids, our church...clutched my heart and leaked out my eyes.  I completely melted down during Jason's song, If You Want to Love Someone, because Emma dedicated it to everyone in the room.  

I've tried to love her through this journey and have fallen short.  Thankfully she has an army of people who love and help her.  God has cobbled together our little offerings to cover many of her needs.  He's filled in the parts we can't.   

Thought you might enjoy the video.  It's not professionally done, but you get the idea.  My son is on the banjo, and my two daughters are on violin, tamborine, and vocals.  Dave is playing the box drum.

  

Would You Do This For Me?

I am continually mystified by the power of a song to lodge itself like a splinter in the heart.  A few chords in, and you can call up a hundred little memories of where you were when you heard it, and how you felt and who you were with and why it dropped anchor and stayed for years, decades, like the permanent houseboats in Seattle.  I have a whole interior coastline of eighties pop songs moored to my memory!

Would You Do This For Me, from Songs with Wings, seems to be one of those songs for people.  It's been some 7 years since I wrote it on the back of my grocery list during a trip to WalMart.  My soul-appointed sister, Emma, had just been diagnosed with cancer.  I wrote it for her.  She sang it many times with me at concerts.  For a long time, we thought it was her "former" song.  Then her cancer came back and she's living the reality of it again.  And her voice has been robbed by a tumor and constant illness, so she can't sing it anymore. 

But I always let her know when someone asks for it.  Like yesterday, when a lovely lady named Heather called my home asking for it so she could give it to the family of a little baby with cancer. Their 11th child. She heard me sing it at a funeral of a toddler, and the song harbored in her memory.  I told her about Emma.  She told me about her mother passing away.  My throat got tight for the weight of suffering.

We are all asked, at some point, the question of this song, asked by God Himself...

Would you do this for Me

Would you walk down this hard road

     It means laying down your dreams

And trusting in Me

Would you do this for Me

It means drinking a bitter cup

You might feel used up

When you do this for Me

Chorus:

But I promise you, you will not be alone

I’ll be carrying you as you carry this load

And I’ll draw you closer

Than you’ve ever been

And you’ll bring me glory

As you do this for Me

Would you do this for Me

It may cut like a knife

You will be tested by fire

And purified

But if you open your eyes

You’ll see the beauty

You’ll touch people’s lives

When you do this for Me

REPEAT CHORUS

Do you know what this means

It means you’re My witness

A witness to faith in the midst

Of your suffering and sacrifice

You’re giving My Word

A place to unfold

By telling the story that’s

Got to be told

Keep telling the story that’s

Got to be told

Soli deo gloria  

To God only be the glory…

                    

I will not be alone

He’ll be carrying me as I carry this load

And He’ll draw me closer

Than I’ve ever been

May I bring Him glory

As I do this for Him

May I bring Him glory

As I do this for Him