Performer: Susan Ashton on Wakened By the Wind
Composer: Billy Smiley, Paula Carpenter, Susan Ashton
The first posting on WillSongs Unplugged is not an original song--and it doesn't have any loops either. But I think it is where this whole thing started and represents well what WillSongs Unplugged is all about.
In November of 2004 I was invited to play three songs at an event. A mere six days before the event, I suddenly had a deep impression that I needed to perform this song---SIX DAYS! It was already a tall order knowing that Phil (yeah, that Phil) played the accompaniment; add to that the fact that Phil didn't have to sing! AND I would have to transpose it into a key that fit my almost-tenor (more like nine-and-a-halfor) voice. It was absolutely impossible, but I felt so convicted that I had to do it, I put my head down and sprinted (and cried and bled...). And the miracle happened...I survived on stage six days later, and I experienced a quantum leap as a musician. The biggest threat to the performance came from my emotions that nearly overwhelmed me as they were still fresh with the song (it takes a while to process something like this).
Why did I put myself through so much stress? Or, perhaps I should ask, why did God not tell me to do the song sooner and save me the turmoil? I think the answer is that Reconciliation is a message worth hearing, worth telling, and worth laboring for. And it is a message easy to miss in our mobile society where we can just quietly escape one another with our cars and denominations and disconnected churches. Here is what I told the audience before performing:
The Message: Love as I have loved.
After John the Baptist came Jesus Christ. Paul wrote (2 Cor 5:19) that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's sins against them." That is the milk of the Good News. He continues, "and he has given to us the message of reconciliation." That is the meat.
Listen to some things Jesus said about relationships and reconciliation: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault. If he listens, you have won your brother." "Leave your gift at the altar; go 1st and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." Speaking of spiritual prison, "This is how my father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." "A new command I give you: love one another even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command...This is my command: love one another." "All men will know you are my disciples if you love one another."
Reconciliation is frightening and risky. It was for God also. He had no guarantees. Men and women may and often do turn their backs on his offer of love and reject him.
Ultimately we all have to answer a question: what are we willing to risk for restored relationship? We can't measure it in terms of our feelings for the other person, or in terms of the other's person's virtue or value to us, or even the ministry we hope to accomplish with their cooperation. We have to measure it in terms of the price God was willing to pay to restore us to himself while we were still in unbelief and not caring who he was or how he felt. And reconciliation is, for us also, an opportunity for more wounds. We cannot do it because someone says so or even because it is right. We can only do it willingly out of love and reverence for and by the power of Jesus Christ.
I know we don't see eye to eye
We've let angry hearts flare, and the bitter words fly
The common ground we used to share
Is harder to find but I believe that it's still there
I don't know if now is the time
To surrender the silence between your heart and mine,
But the love that I've chosen, cries out to be spoken
Leaving the heartache behind
We must reach out beyond justice to mercy
Going more than halfway to forgive
And though the distance seems so far
The love that used to hold our hearts
Longs to take us
Beyond Justice to Mercy
It doesn't matter who's to blame
The love that I have for you is still the same
A tender voice is calling me
To a place of compassion, where hearts are pure and free
Where the hunger for vengeance, gives way to repentance
Where love can teach us to see...
We can reach out beyond justice to mercy...(chorus continues)
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updated 8-mar-2006