Saturday, July 10, 2004 AD You Mayn't Drive on the Sidewalks, Even with a Valid Poetic License I was playing through some songs I wrote about ten years ago and there are a couple in which I paraphrased Jesus speaking. I don't think I took too much license, i.e., I think everything in those "quotes" is biblical, but I could be wrong about that. I can't necessarily point to specific passages in the Gospels that I'm attempting to paraphrase. So I wonder if I'm treading too close for comfort to claiming "thus saith the Lord" and putting words in His mouth.
I'll be brave and put one out there for your consideration. Most of what I was writing was to sing as solos in worship (a practice in which I am quite content to engage no longer, henceforth and forevermore, Amen). I would find out what texts were to be read and preached, and write something based on those passages. In this case, the texts were Psalm 23 and John 14:1-7.
Why do you worry and why do you fret?
Just trust in God, just trust in Me.
I've been with you so long, but you don't see yet
That all this time it's the Father you've seen.
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
I'm your Shepherd and you are My own.
I'm just going to find green pastures,
I'm just going to prepare your home.
If God didn't have a place for you,
Don't you think I'd have told you so?
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
I'm your Shepherd and you are My own.
Why do you puzzle and why do you fear?
You can find that place, you'll be there one day.
You've been given the answers, but you still don't hear:
You go through Me, for I am the Way
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
I'm the Way and the Truth and the Life.
I will lead you in the right paths,
Even through the dark of night.
If I hadn't planned to come back for you,
Don't you think I'd have told you so?
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
I'm your Shepherd and you are My own.
Why do you think that you can't find the way?
Why do you keep searching when you're holding the key?
I've said it before and again I will say:
It's the wise who are blind and the fools who can see.
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
There's no magic or mystery here.
Just open your eyes and follow
And the way will be made clear.
If there were anything else you'd need to have
Don't you think I'd have told you so?
So don't let your hearts be troubled!
I'm your Shepherd and you are My own.
Why do you think that you can't find a way?
Why do you keep searching when you're holding the key?
I've said it before and again I will say:
It's the wise who are blind and the fools who can see.
I don't think this is anywhere near my best lyrical attempts, so feel free to criticize my versifying as well as my theology. (I don't think it's anywhere near my worst lyrical attempts, either, but I ain't gonna post those out here in public for all to see and mock, now am I?) I also don't think the tune is one of my better ones, so I'll feel no great sense of loss if the whole thing needs to go on the scrap heap. Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 7/10/2004 02:13:00 PM
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