BEHIND THE SONG
“Waterfalls”
IT’S ONLY ONCE
WE’RE DOWNSTREAM
In the spring of 2024, I had gotten together with a friend for coffee. She was someone from my church who I’d gone to for advice, wisdom, and insight. During our conversation, this very topic of time and faith was brought up as I expressed my frustration and sadness at how certain things in my life were unfolding. I didn’t like what changes were happening in some areas or the lack of resolution in others. And I was having a particularly hard time in believing God’s promise about Him working everything out for my good and His glory. Both were blurry in the moment.
AND ALL THE RUSHING RAPIDS THAT WERE HARROWING
It was a word picture that became profoundly helpful and I thought deeply on it as I returned home from that visit. The route home took me along some backroads that run parallel to a twisting creek. This brought to mind my experiences of hiking and kayaking, giving another word picture on perspective.
By the time I arrived home, I had written the lyrics and melody to this chorus. I put down the lyrics and captured a voice memo of it so I wouldn’t lose the notes and words to this frustrating erosion of time.
SO I’LL HAVE NO FEAR OF DROWNING
A few months later, this chorus would still come to mind and still sit in isolation. But time had done its task in its steady pace forward, unearthing new lessons to be taught. And that first subject of faith had been brought forward to the spotlight.
It was in this renewed struggle with faith that some new lyrics were born. I realized I was feeling almost silly about how hard it was for me to have faith. I was raised going to church. I became a Christian at 21. I was surrounded by mentors and rich teaching. And yet I am still riddled with questions and doubts. My saving faith wasn’t new, but some days it felt exactly that. And that’s what the rest of the song needed to be about.
AND ALL THE HEAVY HEARTACHE THAT I’M CARRYING
I had encountered 2 Corinthians 4 a few times over this process and it gave even more depth to the word pictures that sparked this song:
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
In hindsight, we’ll see all the bumps and turns of our life as part of God’s sovereign plan. In heaven, we’ll see how He redeems it all.
Time is a common theme in my writings, I’ve realized. Particularly the frustration that accompanies it. We want it to do so many things it’s simply unable to do; slow down, speed up, take a pause, reverse its course. This seems to be a big component of another problem area in my life: faith. Faith has never come easy to me, I am far too skeptical about far too many things. I’m even skeptical about people who claim to have easy, child-like faith.
CAN WE LOOK BACK AND SEE WHERE
WE HAVE BEEN.
My friend gave her wise counsel, which was mostly a firm reminder that our eyesight is limited. And she shared a word picture, which I believe was a quote, though I can’t recall its origin. But the summary was this: our lives are like broken pieces of glass, and right now that is all we can see. But once we arrive in Heaven and can see from an eternal perspective, we’ll see how He formed all those broken pieces into a stained glass masterpiece.
IN HINDSIGHT WE’LL SEE THEM AS STUNNING WATERFALLS.
And then, perhaps appropriately so, the song remained unfinished for a long time. I came back to it occasionally, trying to pair verses with it, but nothing felt right.
By this point, I had written a few songs and started sharing them. I was beginning to get the feeling that God was orchestrating my life in a way that opened the door wide for more music. I was no stranger to working through the creative process, as it was something I had polished in my professional career. But there I sat with half a song I couldn’t finish. It felt like a lot of other things in my life that were left incomplete and unresolved.
THESE TRIALS THAT I’M IN ARE NOT THE END.
As I was preparing a few recordings to send to a producer, I revisited this chorus I had written months prior. And I began writing, starting with the admission, “I have so many questions.”
This sparked the rest of the lyrics, and within one evening I had finished this song that previously felt so elusive. I recorded it and sent it in the batch of songs to be considered for this album. But as soon as the writing was complete, I knew it had to be on the album. As I wrote it, my questions and doubts were still hanging in the air. Even now, they have yet to fully dissipate. But the journey of this song captures the same thought as its lyrics do.
IN HEAVEN I WILL SEE HOW HE REDEEMS IT ALL.
