The Long and Winding Prayer

I love to write bright and joyful songs that celebrate God's goodness, and funny songs that make us chuckle and relate, and breezy winsome songs that you can turn on while you're cleaning the house.

But I can't neglect the lament.  The song of confession.  These songs usually come to me after dark nights of the soul, where I spend  time in the desert until God leads me back to green pastures.  These times have been regular parts of my spiritual journey, and I'm no longer afraid of them.  I look at them now from the perspective of a tree whose roots are encountering obstacles in their search for water.  In the end, the roots find water and grow deeper.

Songs like Westward Home from my Herald album, Turn My Heart from Songs with Wings, and Pilgrimage are examples of laments.  In every lament and confession is a call to hope and restoration.  Read Psalms and Lamentations for proof!

Last summer was a desert time for me.  I wound down some weird paths trying to find relief for my angst.  I read some weird books that didn't help.  I think I only wrote one song.  But in August, I wrote:

This is a long and winding prayer
That wraps around the deepest part of me
I'm gonna take a cold, hard stare
At the demons I've been wrestling.

And a lament was born.  It is a necessary song to include on Deeper Wider.  I love how Richard Foster puts it in his chapter on Confession from Celebration of Discipline:

The person who has known forgiveness and release from persistent, nagging habits of sin through confession should rejoice greatly in this evidence of God's mercy.