Songs

Story Behind The Song, Unreleased Vol. 2: Wherever We Go

This was probably my favorite song that didn’t make it on the new record. And since there’s still no definite news about the record, I thought I’d tell you about this song instead. It’s really continuing the journey of On A Corner In Memphis. In fact, the alley that I picture in my brain is one in Memphis. So basically it’s addressing the idea that God’s truth can come from anywhere. The other day I was reading about Balaam and his donkey. You can read it yourself in Numbers 22 (and end up like I always do reciting, “Balaam, he had a donkey, who was gentle and true and kind.” Free copy of NEED to whoever can identify that quote first.) In the story, Balaam is saved from God’s wrath by a talking donkey, and not the one from Shrek. But God doesn’t just use donkeys. He uses all of us. Not just those who have been to seminary. Now that doesn’t mean seminary isn’t important or valuable. It just means that someone who hasn’t been to college has just as valid a relationship with God. The homeless man has just as valid opinion on who God is to him as I do. Therefore, I can learn about God from anyone who knows him. ANYONE. And I ignore other people’s opinions about God to my peril. So I told this story through a song. But it didn’t make the record. But you can read it here, and probably hear it live sometime.

Wherever We Go

I got lost downtown last Saturday
A dark alley on a stormy night
A man dropped down from a fire escape
And I nearly died with fright
He said, “I’m sorry, sir, There’a nothing to fear.
There’s no one left but the broken here
But you’re welcome to stay.
It’s out of the rain.”

And he said,
“I don’t know you or where you’ve been.
I don’t know where you think you’re going to, but
All I know is I found Jesus can reach us
Wherever we go. Wherever we go.”

He told me stories I had long forgotten
From when I was a child
About Daniel in a lions’ den
And his three friends in the fire
He said, “You’ll find God on the streets of Sodom
And at heaven’s pearly gates,
But tonight He’s downtown,
Around this fire of the broken-down.”

He said,
“”I don’t know you or where you’ve been.
I don’t know where you think you’re going to, but
All I know is I found Jesus can reach us
Wherever we go. Wherever we go.”

And I said, “Who are you to lecture me
On life and God above?”
He said, “Once I was just like you,
But lost everything I loved.
My family, my job, my home, my life it came unwound.
But he never let me go; He never let me down.”

He said,
“I don’t know you or where you’ve been.
I don’t know where you think you’re going to, but
All I know is I found Jesus can reach us
Wherever we go. Wherever we go.”

c.2011 Ardent/Koala Music All rights reserved.