Inspiration

It is no accident that over 100 million songs have been recorded about love!

1 Corinthians 13:13 says:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

This is our anthem and our theme song for the album. Love is what holds everything together and is the lens through which every other Fruit of the Spirit must be viewed. Followers of Jesus have a unique insight into this power that sustains the universe:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us”

Inspiration

In writing this song, I wanted to capture a flavour of the Hebrew musical tradition that would have been so familiar to Paul, the writer of much of the New Testament. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Our joy is not a fleeting, happy feeling that comes and goes with the weather. It is a deep rooted comfort and contentment in knowing who we are, and how well we are loved. The music reflects this in its solid beat and constant repetition of ‘rejoice and again I say rejoice!’ highlighted by the Inspiration Youth Choir.

Inspiration

Everything you hear in ‘Peace’ is a paraphrase of Jesus’ own words to his followers in John 14:27:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

And in Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

My prayer is that you would hear Jesus’ own voice as you listen to this song. He loves to give his deep, healing peace to his children – a peace that ‘the world cannot give’.

Inspiration

There is much that could be said about patience and, in all honesty, this is not the song that I expected to write. However, it is a song for our time. I started writing it more than a decade ago in a very dark period of my life and completed it while we were in full lockdown in the height of pandemic. 

The first verse speaks of ‘the world you thought you knew’ falling into confusion. Followers of Jesus in this moment are being called to practice a great amount of patience. Wether that is waiting for an endless lockdown to end, waiting for common sense to prevail, waiting for great injustice to be defeated, or waiting for the moment when Jesus will return and set all things right.

The second verse goes much more personal and speaks of the pain of those we love ‘turning from the light’. The sense of betrayal we experience when we are hurt by a friend leaves a permanent scar. Sometimes the best we can do is choose to live in hope for one more day:

“Just hang on a little bit longer

Count the days and you’ll feel stronger

As the mornings turn to night

Keep on hoping: turn to light”

Inspiration

During lockdown, Out of the Box had a competition where children wrote a song that would be included on the album. All the lyrics you hear were written by children and we wanted to let them be heard in their – almost – unaltered original form.

For those who are wondering, Kindness and Goodness is a single word in the original Greek: χρηστότης (khrēstótēs) so it made sense on a few levels to group these as a pair.

There is a lot of talk in our schools and on social media today about how we should all be kind to each other, but these can often be portrayed in a fairly superficial way. In Jesus we have a picture of ‘the kindest man’. Not only did he feed people, heal people and wash his followers’ feet – he was willing to give his life for his friends.

Inspiration

Faith is quite a complex concept for children to grasp so I wanted to express it in terms of the innate sense of awe that is in every human.

Psalm 19 says: 

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

It is a universal experience to look up at the night sky and to feel an overpowering sense of connectedness with a power so much bigger and wiser than ourselves. I believe this is part of the enduring nature of the nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ – we all ‘wonder what you are’ in every generation.

Jesus famously told his followers:

“whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:4)

Clearly children have something to teach us about Faith. The ability to look up to the stars and ‘wonder’ is a quality we must never lose. Rocco and Sh’kinah’s young voices in the intro set the scene and later we hear Carlo’s voice (on the verge of adolescence) as well as my adult voice. Finally, they all join together.

True to its childlike roots, I wanted the song to be primarily about God’s unconditional Faithfulness to us, as much as our faithfulness to Him.

“Like the Lord who hears my prayers

You are always shining there”

My prayer is that people of all ages would never miss the opportunity to gaze at the stars, and when they do they would remember these words as they experience the transcendent love that God’s creation points us towards.

Inspiration

Here we pick up where our verse about Joy left off in Philippians 4:4:

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

In a world where anger and conflict characterise so many lives, it is uniquely beautiful to see true gentleness.

An individual overflowing with joy who is also gentle in their words and actions has the ability to transform even the darkest community. Naomi’s beautiful voice perfectly captures this reality that I pray will be both healing and comforting.

Inspiration

In every album there is the song that shocks even the writer!

In all my work with children and young people I feel a burden for the struggles they are facing that my generation never had to contend with.

I could not shake the conviction that this song needed to be about social media and internet addiction. Despite the many good and powerful benefits of the online world it is undoubtably the most dangerous idol of our age and children find themselves as victims of its irresistible algorithms. 

Carlo’s emotive voice on the cusp of adolescence brings an urgency to the message of the rap verses:

“This isn’t who I am, it’s not the me I want to be

Does anybody understand I need you to believe!”

It was very important to me that this song about self-control was not about our own will power, but rather about the Holy Spirit’s power working within us. It is the Spirit that gives strength, comfort and transformation. Our part is to cry out as in Psalm 130:

“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;

    Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my pleas mercy.”

The chorus gives the truth we need to combat every destructive idol, from 2 Timothy 1:7:

“For our God has not given us a Spirit that makes us fear

But a spirit of power, a spirit of love and a spirit of self-control”