Don wrote the title song for I Will
Sing in his car and his first reaction was, "I
don't know where that came from, but I'll never
put it on a Hosanna! Music album.
Don had spent the day at one of Alabama's gulf
coast beaches, about an hour south of Integrity's
studios in Mobile, hoping to write songs for the
upcoming album.
"I didn't feel anything the entire day,"
he says. It was one of those times when you wonder
where God is. I was driving back home, feeling
frustrated, and I said, "Lord, You seem so
far away, a million miles or more it feels today."
It just popped out. Then I got another line: "And
though I haven't lost my faith, I must confess
right now that it's hard for me to pray."
The words kept coming, and I wrote the entire
song right there in my car, but I didn't like
it. I thought, "What a waste! I need songs
for the album; I don't need this!"
Don promptly filed the song away, thinking he'd
never use it. Not long after, Integrity's staff
was stunned by the news that the ten-year-old
daughter of David C. Reilly, a graphic artist
who has designed album covers for Integrity Music
for more than a decade, was killed in a car accident.
Don remembered the song he had scribbled on a
paper, so he recorded it on a CD and sent it to
David with a note: "I know you're going to
have days when you feel like, "Where in the
world is God?" but I want to encourage you
to sing. Don't give up."
"The reality is that everyone goes through
days when we feel God is far away," Don says.
"There's a phoniness in Christian circles
that says you don't admit that. But look at Psalm
109. How could David, the sweet psalmist of Israel
who said, "I will bless the Lord at all times",
write these angry words? Because he was honest
before the Lord, and that's what God wants in
our worship, too." |
