SONG: WHILE WE WAIT

[ CLICK HERE T O HEAR THE SONG "WHILE WE WAIT" ]
I hope you enjoy and share it with someone hurting or in need of rest!

Words by Leah Bridges Taylor
Music by Leah Bridges Taylor and Robert Weston Gilliard
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> Producer/Engineer: Dave Sands
> Keys/Orchestration/Pads: Robert Weston Gilliard
> Vocals: Leah Bridges Taylor and Robert Weston Gilliard
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WHO IS THIS SONG FOR: (Pro 25:11)
I know the power of these lyrics, because I have experienced it.  This song is for anyone who has ever heard the phrase…”when God closes a door, He opens a window. (smiley face smiley face)”  and thought, “Uh…I DON’T SEE A WINDOW, PEOPLE! ”   If you struggle with the perfect words to say, please share this song for healing, rest, or encouragement.

THE SONG:
They say 90% of success is just showing up.  That’s really how I feel about my part in this song.  Leah and I started working on one of her many pages of lyrics, and as I started singing a line, hers naturally came underneath it.  As the song began to unfold as a duet, pieces of other songs we had worked on began completing the natural thought of the song.

THE MUSIC:
I really wanted this song to have a “rainy Saturday” feel.  You know, those days that you had planned an epic day of yard work for yourself—only to wake up and find it pouring down rain.  So you spend the day resting, discovering life and the people around you instead of work.  I love those unexpected moments that God puts a break in our hectic plans to teach us something greater about life.  But just as symbolic as God subtracting things from our lives, we had to subtract tracks from the song.  What we were left with, was almost exactly what we started with, a piano and vocals.  (thanks to Michael Carbaugh, John Paul Holmes and Doug Merritt for your support and encouraging presence on the journey of this recording.)

A PERSONAL RESPONSE: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
(Yes, this is a little hard to write.  Living in ministry and the Bible belt, you are taught by example to hide anything in your life that isn’t picture perfect.  But, in my 37 years, God has publicly broken me so many times that transparency and truth is all I have to offer.)

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t operating at some level of brokenness for the past few months.  While I can’t put my finger on just one thing exactly, I can say that I am understanding aspects of Bible stories that didn’t make sense before.

SAMSON:  How confused Samson must have been that morning he woke up powerless.   How did his strength become a weakness so abruptly?  Had he finally pushed his limits too far?   At what point exactly had he given the enemy too much ammunition? (Jdg 16:20)

ELIJAH: I think about Elijah.  He had just brought fire from heaven ending a famine.  He then destroyed all the false prophets only to hide in a cave; because the queen wanted him dead.  It’s easy to read the story from the comfort of your chair and laugh at him for not having faith.  But until you are in that dark cave you can’t really speak with any authority or value on this subject.

WAITING:  I can’t help but feel that these men had plenty of faith in God—or even obedience in Elijah’s case.  But sometimes God’s direction doesn’t come the moment we think we need it.  The only thing we know to do is retreat, because operating without God’s power is not an option.  Then the mountain-top emotions swing to an all-time-low for which you didn’t know to prepare yourself.  Then you start questioning the point of everything you have done, or do…every path God has taken you down…your purpose in life.  The mountains can crash around you the earth can quake and you are not moved or impressed…you only yearn to hear that familiar still small voice and hope it comes quickly. (1Ki 19:12)

THE SOLUTION:
haha. You really thought I would have something didn’t you, but “KEEP WAITING & LISTENING” is all I can offer!  From what I have seen…this lack of desire to “keep going” is only exasperated by shallow friendships and a Sunday religion.   And the cute cliche phrases we pass along only further deepen the thought that you may be the only person in the world who sees past that veil of delusion in which so many people are happy to operate.

SOME ENCOURAGEMENT:
First, know you are not alone.  Anyone who is sincere, honest with themselves, and live with an open heart and mind, must lose their faith on some level to motivate us to rediscover the very core of that faith.  The only hope I have found lately have been in a very few listening ears, this song, quotes from the Bible, and other great men of history who have shared this same season:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “I am now the most miserable man living.  If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth.  Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell.  I awfully forebode I shall not.  To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better it appears to me.”

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE – “I have made a captive of myself and put me into a dungeon, and now I cannot find the key to let myself out.”

PRAYER: God, I cannot make it without you! I cannot move on!  I cannot make it without you, I cannot move on!  Lord, while I wait, I wait on you. I put my trust in you.  Through it all, I will not be moved.  Thought the storm around me rages, I will wait on you. 

Now, pull up a chair.  You are not waiting alone.

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