Mega-Hits and Moon-Songs

By James Tealy • Jun 23rd, 2009 • Category: Artists in Residence

I was asked this week to make a list of the songs I wish I’d written. You know, like “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “Achy Breaky Heart.” The girls asking the question were thinking about those million-selling mega-hits that people are still singing decades after their release.

I sat at a stop light in Nashville recently behind a guy in a new convertible sports car. His license plate read “Nmbr1Sng.” I suppose everybody who writes songs dreams that those songs will buy them a new car or at least pay their bills. Even more, we all hope our songs will be remembered. Who wouldn’t love to write a song that people are still singing long after the expiration date of the writer?

But for those of us who write for the Church there’s something vastly different happening, something much weightier than royalty checks and radio spins. Songs DO NOT have the power to change lives. Lyrics, no matter how profound, will never accomplish anything of lasting value. However, GOD does change lives and His Word comes alive in a way that beautiful poetry never can, never will.

So the great songs that we’re working every day to craft aren’t the sun. They are the moon. They aren’t the light, they simply reflect the light. We huddle in a little room with a blank sheet of paper and an un-strummed guitar searching for another way to reflect the glory of a great God. Those songs may never sell a million copies or make it to the release of RockBand 14, but they will matter. Those songs will accomplish the purposes of a Living God. That’s why I love my job. That’s why I’m sitting in another little room with my hands on a piano and my Bible open to Exodus 15:2.

↓ One comment

#1 Cindy on June 28th, 2009 at 6:43 pm

Okay, but Psalms are song lyrics, and they are part of scripture because they remain inspirational many years after David’s sword turned to dust. And I’ve seen great worship songs crack open closed hearts like egg shells and make people weep in the Spirit. “Open the Eyes of My Heart.” “Breathe.” “Better is One Day.” “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” – I had a seeker (in an Alpha course) once ask me for those lyrics. And I kinda wish I’d written “Amazing Grace,” although I can never remember that guy’s name. So keep writing the moon for us!

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