Some thoughts on song selection…  So, how does one create an album to benefit victims of domestic violence?  What songs are appropriate for such a heavy topic?

As a Lutheran pastor, I come to the task of making music steeped in a tradition of hymns, and with an appreciation for songs from other places.  Growing up, my parents always took us to church; but they also played in a band at nightclubs and wedding dances on the weekends.

So, when I set out to gather songs for this album I wanted first to imagine the songs that inspired me to keep the faith – songs that introduced me to a God who would not fail me in time of need.  I also kept an ear open to what some call “secular” music (the music of the masses), looking for ‘Jesus in disguise.’  Finally, while songs that uplift and motivate are important to me, there is also a need to lament – to sing from that place where depression and despair await.

It’s a tough subject to address: domestic violence.  I do not intend to put a happy face over the pain people experience in oppressive situations.  There’s nothing lovely or beautiful about abuse, especially among family members.  To simply tell people to cheer up is reckless at best and heaps more abuse on those hurting, at worst.  In the church, we call this the theology of glory – of not being able to call a thing what it is.

In the song, “We Are The World,” it has always troubled me, that line: “We’re saving our own lives…”  If that’s true, who needs Jesus?  The songs on this album pay tribute to Christ as our savior and source of all joy.  And yet, there is a choice we’re making each time we encounter suffering.

If worship attendance is any indicator this time of year, we love our Easter more than our Good Friday.  But we know the resurrection is meaningless without the story of Jesus’ humiliation, suffering and death on the cross.  Just to know that God has ‘been there’ and has overcome the world, is enough.  We make a brighter day for others, only because the Spirit has burst into our lives with the life-changing power to do so.

Listen for that lament in the longing in the song: In My Heart.  You can hear it in the song, Who Knows Where The Time Goes, when “all your fickle friends are leaving.”  And it’s there in the cover song: We Are The Children, asking:

Who’s crying
Who’s dying
Who’s loving
Who’s up above
When there are
Children crying
Children dying
Our children
We are the children
Now

But listen also, in these songs, for hope to carry on, for the light that shines in the darkness, for that place where we all belong.