New Favorite

As much as I love music, I find that I don't listen that much... Part of it is the dearth of good material on the radio - while there certainly is some god pop music, much of it leaves me cold. I find I don't have that much time to listen at home and I find that I usually don't have the CD I want to listen to with me when I'm driving (I don't have mp3 capabilities in my car). And my life situation doesn't expose me to as much new and under-the-radar music as I'd like.


Every once in a while though, I come across a song that clicks for me. Recently I got a mailing of a retreat sponsored by the Alliance of Baptists, the most progressive group in Baptist circles. Carrie Newcomer is slated to do the music. I knew her name but wasn't real familiar with her music and I hadn't known that she had any kind of faith commitment so I went to her website and listened to some tunes.

One song really caught my attention... The Clean Edge of Change The lyrics are wonderful... a sublime performance... just a great song in every way.

First there is the folding in,
To gather light and dark to you.
The journey down so far that it,
Has nowhere else to go but through.
I thought if I tried hard enough,
With endless motion like a bribe,
As if by this the will of God,
Could be bent to my version of right.
Chorus: What happens next is nearly weightless,
The opening where we stand breathless,
On the clean edge of change.
She cannot live beneath my wings,
No more with he see seventy.
How many mornings did I wake,
And wished that it would be you I'd see?
Chorus
Bridge: And who am I, who makes this sound,
Who rode the shadow all the way down?
In that clear space of knowing there's
As many names for dark as for light,
I am choosing mostly now to speak
The names that get me through the night.
But always, with humility,
With a worn out but grateful heart.
Having sang so recently,
Full-throated In the dark.
Chorus:
First there is the folding in,
To gather light and dark to you,
The journey down so far that it,
Has nowhere else to go but through.

I love this song and find myself going back to it again and again.