RAY HUGHES
Songwriting is not just about hearing a new sound and writing it. It's also about hearing old silences and allowing them to speak.
Some of God's most honorable attributes and most significant expressions of His grace and love have flown to the earth only to be taken captive by religious trends and silenced by time. Some of the deepest and most profound expressions of His nature have become redundant rhetoric trapped in rhyme, held hostage by superficial surface chatter, and married to cultural relevance.
Every time creativity occurs, God reveals another facet of His infinite nature. Yet, Churches all over the world have opted to sink everyone to the lowest common denominator creatively and call it unity. That is not unity; that is same-ness. Why would they want same-ness? - because same-ness is safe.
Theologically safe, culturally safe, and financially safe. Safe preaching, safe teaching, and safe atmospheres are created by safe instruments played by safe musicians behind safe worship leaders singing safe lyrics of safe songs written by safe songwriters. Then, there are songs in heaven that have silently waited and still wait for you.
Write the silences, touch them awake, give them wings, and let's find out just how safe they are.
Give voice to what has never been heard, cast light on what has never been seen, and welcome a beauty that has never been known outside of jasper walls.
Worship Songwriting is creating a language that invites seekers into deeper experiences with God. Worship songs should reveal unforeseen wonders and unapologetically pour them into people's hearts.
Ask for wave after wave of astounding revelations of God that simply must be sung rather than constantlyrevisiting semi-familiar-sounding melodies wrappedsafely and stylishly in well-known images and commonphrases with predictable lyrics. If we revisit the old without reconsidering and revealing something fresh and revelatory, we deny creativity its truest voice.
There's nothing new under the sun? — Well, look above it then.
Imaginators can become revelators, if we will, but raise our eyes in song.
We dare not restrict ourselves to limited structures by writing bridges of safe yet stimulating thoughts. Bridges are typically built to ensure safe transitions to the other side of something. We need lyrics void of narrow, predictable pretense that pacifies us with the obvious and leads us to the mundane. The obvious restrains and detains us in the narrow, away from the unknown, exhilarating breadth of the presence of God. He desires to break down the safe bridges we have built out of acceptable tones and polite noise where we safely sing as we amble from here to nowhere and sway to familiarity, oblivious to the heavy weight of wonder and unaware of the roaring waters of unlived life below.
We were created to compose lyrics and language with truths powerful enough to destroy man-made, man-ufactured structures. The bridges that sustain us and suspend us above the rivers that we long for and yet disallow the heights that call to us to become real to us. We were born to soar and born to swim. Let some walk and linger safely above the water, if they will. Let some...not you... You were created to write the lilts that lift the spirit in flight and the lulls that bring soaring hearts to in the deepness of God.
You can stand on well-placed stone
where life is safe and dry
or you can live and lean over the rail
and dream and hope and fly
Or you can sing a ladder
into the restless wind
Where awestruck voiceless angels
find reason to descend
Your melody gives them wings
Your tempo gives them time
Your lyric touches them awake
They feel what you call rhyme
They look at you in amazement
They stand in stillness and awe
That your song is the one that broke the silence
inside the jasper walls
For thirty minutes it lingered
A sober and holy hush
Then all that has breath in heaven
Began to swirl and churn and rush
The light of endless glory
As far as the heart can see
Where we fly at the speed of worship
and soar over a crystal sea
So throw your safe-ness into that wind
God flies faster than you can fall
Let old silences speak again
What you hear behind jasper walls
Ray Hughes lives in The Shoals Area of Alabama a stroll and a half from the Tennessee River, better known as the Singing River, with all its history and lore. Having traveled the world for over 50 years as an author, storyteller, songwriter, and poet, he currently continues his work from the porch of their historic downtown home. He is passionate about homemade cornbread, old guitars, his beautiful, Denise and five dazzling grandchildren… but not necessarily in that order. If you want to gain knowledge, read a book. If you want to gain a knowing, take a slow walk in the rain – then write about it. RayHughes.org
