Have you ever had a day when it just seemed like nothing went right? Then that day’s hardships slipped over into the next, and then the next, until your bad day feels like a bad week? How do you maintain your sanity, & keep moving forward? It’s not like you can retire from waking, bathing, feeding your children, or working. Where do you find the resolve to get out of bed & take the next step.
Back in ’10 I had one such year. A year so fraught with hardships that some of my most spiritual friends even asked, “What did you do to make God angry?” Sever illnesses, job loss, injury, catastrophic vehicle break downs – I began to slip into depression because life was becoming overwhelming.
Then something happened. Earlier that year, while interviewing for that “dream job” (which tanked due to the economic downturn) I was afforded the honor of teaching at a burgeoning Atlanta-based Worship School, where I had connected with a number of young worship leaders. One young man emailed me a nugget for the start of a song & asked if I’d like to help him write it. “Lord, You are more faithful than the morning – Oh, Your Words are surer than the Sun…” – the lyrics were exactly what I needed to sing – it lit my heart aflame, so I threw myself into the Word, exploring the theme of God’s strength, goodness, faithfulness, & sovereignty during tragedy & hardship.
“Your Mighty Hand” was born. I thought to myself it was different than anything I’d written before – less about my creative expression, & more God-ward, & – I don’t know – for the church? I snuck it into a worship set for the 300+ youth at our church – they sang it like they’d known the song all of their lives. I taught it to the Saint Lewis band-members, & we began leading it at events, & every time the result was the same – sometimes I couldn’t even hear myself on-stage over the roar of the room, often the first time they’d ever sung it. Someone said, “Shannon, you need to record this professionally – do a kickstarter.”
So that’s what I did.
Over $5,000 came in!
Wanting to be a good steward of what God had entrusted to me, I found the best producer/engineer I could identify to help give shape to our song. Trey Roth had had a good run of late, working on award-winning records by Fee, John Waller, Shane & Shane, & Northpoint, among others, & we shared a few friends, so I knew I could get his number – I knew that Trey was our man.
Jump ahead, I remember the moment like it happened this morning. I was teaching & leading worship at a conference in New Jersey when a number I didn’t recognize buzzed my phone. It was Billboard! They asked, “Who are you?” – the person on the other end of the phone laughed & continued, “It’s just that usually when a song gets added to this many radio stations we already know of the artist – we’ve never heard of you!” Without any promotion whatsoever “Your Mighty Hand” was being added to radio stations all across the USA & Canada, & from there the song was being heard by Worship Pastors & getting added to Sunday setlists. My heart was full, & my jaw was on the floor.
It was then that I realized that there were many who were in or had been in the same position as I: the church needed to corporately remind themselves that when things are rough, God still has it all under control – & that we often miss what He’s doing behind the scenes, but He loves us & isn’t afraid to step into the mess of our lives, working “…all things for good” – not some things – all things.
So I set my heart to cowrite a God-ward, vertical worship album, for the building up of the church, full of songs that I needed to sing, because I knew that what God was doing in me, He was also working in others. That collection of songs is Morning will Come.
Stay tuned for more details tomorrow…
BELIEVER, Husband, Father, Son, Pastor, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Worshiper, Thinker, Creative
