MIDWEEK CONNECTION
We open this week’s Connection letter with Psalm 137:1-4 (NKJV): By the rivers of Babylon,There we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For there, those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
The writer of Psalm 137 begins by remembering his people being taken away from their home. Jerusalem had been attacked and conquered; the temple destroyed by Babylon.
Defeated, with the knowledge that their country had been ravaged, their homes ransacked and looted, many of their family members and friends had died during the struggle- they were being “carried"- "taken against their will” to what was, to them, a completely godless place.
The psalmist writes how they had stopped on the journey, probably to rest by one of the canals of Babylon. And as they sit down, the Israelites begin to cry; they are weeping for all they had lost; their families, their homeland, the temple was destroyed and they were exiles from Jerusalem.
The Babylonian captors begin to poke fun at their prisoners- to taunt them at the core of their pain… Mockingly they ask: “Sing us one of those songs of Zion”- meaning, one of the songs they used to sing in Jerusalem, in worship- a song about and for God.
This description, from a blog called Theological Stew, accurately reveals a long season for Carol and me, in Harrisburg. Some of you know that God made us prolific songwriters while we served in ministry in St. Louis, MO. We didn’t write earth-shaking songs that could win Dove or Grammy awards, but they were meaningful songs for our youth, young adults, and eventually for our entire church congregation. The songs reflected our corporate journey and echoed the sermons and messages that came forth out of that ministry.
Since 2006, we’ve only written one song. That’s ONE song in almost EIGHT years, after writing nearly 200 songs in 12 years, at a rate of at least one song every month. Occasionally someone from St. Louis will ask if we have released any new music and songs, but we just say that we are just too busy because of our jobs and the church. The truth is that our harp was hung up on the willows beside the rivers of Babylon. The cry in our hearts has been, “How can we sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land?” This place of captivity is a foreign land for Chris and Carol Green.
We wrote a handful of songs when we first moved to Harrisburg, but as we went into our Babylonian captivity, we hung our harp and wept as the enemy taunted us over our losses and disappointments.
A couple of weeks ago, the Lord surprised us with a prophetic impartation during a Saturday afternoon lunch via a couple of pastors from Ohio. Ever since that encounter, the Lord has been continually working in us.
One day, while sitting at work, completing a task and listening to a certain worship leader’s teaching session, the Spirit of God touched my heart as she revealed something about her private time with God. She said that her way of praying was often expressed in writing songs. Many of her prayers come forth as songs to the Lord. Instantly, the spark was ignited within me because that’s how it was for me in St. Louis. Songs always came to me in my prayer time.
Even though I have been praying and spending time with the Lord in the foreign land, I wasn’t willing to pick up that instrument to play and sing again. Like the exiles, I didn't want to sing in a foreign land. I didn’t recognize that we were no longer in that place of captivity. We are surrounded by lives and stories that prove that God is fulfilling His promises to us in this community.
Suddenly, my heart was stirred again and I was aware that there are eight years of songs built up and stored up inside of me. They’ve been there all this time. I transitioned from feeling empty to feeling like I was 8 years pregnant with music.
So last week, I installed our music studio software on our home computer and started writing songs again. There are so many tunes bubbling inside of me that it’s like trying to control the water behind a dam by letting a little bit out at a time through a water hose. It just explodes out of my heart and I can't write the lyrics fast enough. Two songs came forth the first night and I found myself up past midnight. I had to stop myself because I still have a job to get to every morning.
So we’re posting this blog just to let you know that new songs are on the way Urban Life family. They are new songs about the Urban Life family’s journey. They are OUR stories, OUR testimonies, OUR experiences, OUR victories in the Lord OUR God. We’ll begin teaching you the new songs as soon as we can.
The reason it’s so important that we teach you the songs is because it has been proven that a church PRACTICES, what they SING; especially if the songs are birth from that congregation or its leaders. Years ago, we always wrote a song to go with each message or lesson. We think it's time to get back to that again. If we sing the message, we will practice the message. If we practice the message, we will live the message. If we live the message, we will become the message.
It’s nice to sing the music from Hillsong, Bethel, Planet Shakers, Israel Houghton and all the others. But there is a different and powerful anointing that is released when the songs come from our own lives and out of our own hearts.
Urban Life, we have come out of the foreign land of captivity and we’re going to sing the songs of Zion.
