Song Of The Week - May 29

Hey... hehe, so you know that I've held off the SOTW for the past few days. This was for a couple reasons, which will probably become apparent in the next few lines :P. But aside from that, it's also time to welcome June! Finally, everything is so close to wrapping up, and we'll soon be doing things that we actually enjoy... yes, I'm really glad it's that time again. So this week, the SOTW was a personal one for me, not only I was able to perform it tonight, but because I've met the artist, and have been able to witness first hand how close his walk is with God.

You Are Mercy - Jason Gray, All The Lovely Losers

"Heaven help us/Please forgive us/Dear God/Have mercy on us"

I met Jason Gray back in a little growing church on the outskirts of Seattle back in late August of 2006. You could say that he was, and is, one of my inspirations. He is quite a tall man, almost giant haha! But the best thing about him was his down to earth personality and how humble he was about his talent. When Tsema and I first saw him, he was unsigned, but a few months after getting back home, we checked him on the net and were pleasantly surprised to find out he got a record deal. He is quite deserving of it. His music has been a pillar for me these past few years, so it was really an honour to be able to sing one of his songs tonight, especially this one. The thing that is most surprising about him is that he sings perfectly, but he is a stutterer by nature. At the concert, you were lucky if he didn't stutter more than three times during a sentence. I saw God in that. How can a stutterer be a singer? But God intervened and made a plan with him, and it was just another thing that showed me that God can use anyone in any situation for his purposes.

You Are Mercy is a song about the darkness and corruption inside of us, and the desperate cries that we give out to God in our realization of that presence. The lyrics are woven together so beautifully... even the first line, it blows me away: "I'm a liar, you know it's true". The world is so dark and lost without God, as are we. We become susceptible to our greed, our earthly desires, and our selfish ambitions. We speak with one tongue and lash out with another. Simply put, we are nothing without mercy and grace. God's mercy is one of the only things that keeps us going, that makes the hue a little lighter on this darkened landscape. It is through His mercy that joy and the good things of this world flourish. I'm so scared to think where we'd all be without the love of God... The song is almost split into two different parts, the first part explaining our shortfalls and desperation, and the second celebrating good God continues to be to us. If each part were a seperate world that I would have to live in, I know which one I'd choose. Thank God for His mercy... we hardly deserve it, but He gives it freely, and for this, I am thankful.

You Are Mercy - http://www.mediafire.com/?fziejg5d3n5