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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
...and my daughter Emma's Music
A little something different this week...
As most of you know, my daughter Emma is a very gifted musician. She plays piano and sings, and she is one of the most gifted songwriters I've ever known. Her primary gift is her ability to come up with beautiful melodies and chord voicings. They just flow from her naturally. That's how it often is when a person is sharing from the center of their God-given gift(s). It just flows, and often we make light of the power and depth and even quality of the gift because it just seems like "no big deal. Anybody could do it." But that's not true. God gives specific gifts to specific people for specific reasons. What's your gift?
Emma has done her part to polish and refine her gift for songwriting. She took piano lessons as a kid and worked hard at it. She spent hours and hours learning to become musically literate, and then also played around lots with her ability to just sit down and play the music she "hears" within her. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied Music Education and Songwriting. She taught K-7 music at a public school in Brookline, MA for 7 years. She gives private voice and piano lessons (including to football player Tom Brady's son at the Brady home!). She's the choir director and musician at a UCC church in MA. She also just took a job at the 2-4th grade public school in Medway, MA where her own kids go to school and will be starting in February. She's no slouch. She's done her homework. I'm so proud of her.
One of the joys of my life has been to collaborate with Emma. She's a better lyricist than she gives herself credit for, but she often shares melodies with me and asks me to see if the melody inspires any words. When I was with her the week after Christmas, she said, "Dad, I think I've got a good one in me." She sat down at the piano and played the chords and hummed the melody she was imagining. I video recorded it and brought it home with me.
Before you go any further, go to the bottom of this letter and listen to the recording, before you read the words I felt led to put to it. See what the music by itself says to you. This is how she and I "do it" when it comes to co-writing songs. Go ahead and listen, and then come back and read the rest of what I've got to say here. (by the way Emma's going to have a fit when she finds out I let you all hear this! She'll get over it, and she hasn't seen the lyrics I wrote yet, which she'll probably help me tweak a bit once she does. I just wrote these today for this article...first draft).
Okay I won't say much more before I share the lyrics, except for this. It's a crazy world out there these days. 2024. So much stuff in front of us with this election year and all that's going on in the world. We really have no idea what's about to confront us. Not that we ever really do, but it all just feels very uncertain, tentative, and potentially volatile at this point. And that doesn't even take into account the personal challenges so many of you are facing.
But the other thing I found myself feeling deeply as I listened to Emma's music and thought about this moment in history was the little catch phrase of sorts that I made up somewhere along the way and that I've shared with you often in my sermons and ministry these past 5 years. It goes like this, and I hope by now some of you know this by heart. I often say that the only thing I really know for sure is that...
"God will always give us the grace to face whatever we have to face."
That's not a promise of certainty regarding any outcomes. It's a promise of the presence of Love and Grace in the midst of anything and everything. To me, that promise IS everything. It is the only real security there is, and peace comes when that promise truly is enough.
So I'm calling the song, "Count on This," and here are thy lyrics.
When everything’s uncertain
And we can’t find solid ground
When things we thought would last have slipped away
When treasured maps and landmarks
Are too old to serve us now
When all at once we can’t recall the name
When things we were sure we could count on
All seem out of reach or simply gone…
There's a Love
A Love that's always here
Even when things are not clear
Count on this
God will give
Give us grace we need to face
Whatever we must face
Count on this
This world is full of anguish
So much anger, so much fear
This world of so much heat and not much light
We cannot see tomorrow
All the outcomes are not clear
But one thing we can do with all our might
We’ll pray, God of justice give us strength
To risk boldly living out our faith
Chorus
Bridge: God will give us, Grace that we need
To face anything, count on this!
God will give us, Grace that we need
To face anything, count on this!
Hope to see you all soon one way or another,
Pastor Bryan
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