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"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God" - 1 John 5:13 NKJV
In my previous post about "Father, Son, and Spirit", I made a reference to the first song I had written which ended up turning out terribly. The song was called "That I May Know". It was based of the last sermon that I heard from preacher Gary Blakeney. In late 2014, I took a weekend trip to Bertram with Aggies for Christ. That Sunday, Gary spoke of being confident in our faith and salvation and used 1 John 5:13 to emphasize. This verse has since stuck with me since and I decided that I wanted to write a song about it. Soon after hearing that sermon, Gary passed away. He had been a longtime supporter of the Foundation School of Church Music and had also been my cabin counselor the first two years I attended the school. Gary had a gift of making me think about the things I believed in without opposing me in a confrontational way. Conversations with him were easy as I always knew that he cared more about me understanding why I believed rather only focusing on what I believed. Gary was a blessing to a young 17/18 year old struggling with his faith. I was now more determined to get this song written, not only because I thought the idea was important, but as a thank you to Gary Blakeney.
After failing miserably with "That I May Know", I set aside the concept and moved on to other songs. "Father, Son, and Spirit" was the first and soon after, "Need You", a song also from Over the Edge. In fact, I wouldn't come back to this song until late 2017. In those two years, I did a lot of growing up and maturing. Specifically, I recall conversations with my mom about hope and how important hope is and how often we lack it. With these conversations ringing in my ear, along with Gary's strong confidence in his salvation, I came up with the words and tune to the chorus of "Hope in the Lord":
"Hope in the Lord
From this time forth and forever
Hope in the Lord
For a life awaits that's better
For the words of God were written
To those who do believe
Hope in the Lord
That His kingdom I will see"
Most songs I write, I write in my head and work out the parts on the microphone. But I needed this one to be better than anything else I had done. So I actually wrote this one into sheet music. Between the sheet music and the recording process, I spent at least 24 hours actually working on this song (not all at once though). Most of that was spent on the sheet music. Changing keys, adjust chords and changing rhythms.... I just needed it to be good. Once I was done, I was proud. I shared the song with my parents (who loved it and shared it with others), my grandparents, and my friend Abi. Anyone I shared it with usually told me that I ended up being stuck in their head for days. It is still one of my favorite songs and one I'm particularly proud of. I'd like to think Gary would have enjoyed it as well.
Just as the concept and inspiration behind the words challenged me, I wanted the music to do the same. All of the previous songs I had written were pretty simple and straightforward. I wanted to change that with "Hope in the Lord". So I tried to give the chorus a contemporary feel, opting to give the soprano section all the words while the other parts provided a background. The verses instead go back to a traditional feel with simple harmonies and easy rhythms. It was a lot of fun to write and even more fun to watch people enjoy it. At the 2018 session of the Foundation School of Church Music, I performed the song during the Friday night program. I rearranged the song to sing the first two verses with a group of my guy friends that I had sung with for a couple years then be joined by the whole camp of singers for the third verse. Getting to lead the whole group on a song I had written was phenomenal and remains one of my most favorite memories today. The recording of this live performance is included on the album version of Over the Edge.
As I stated earlier, "Hope in the Lord" is one of the few songs I made available in sheet music. It is available to download for free on the Sheet Music page on our website! Feel free to take and share it.
-JB