Lyrics
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Poorer Than These (Words and music by Eric Park)
The morning sunshine illumines the African land / A dark eyed boy saying "Bruni, please I take your hand"
Some women sweep out their houses, some women kneel down to pray
The sights and the sounds and the smells usher in the new day
What is my reason for coming to such a strange place / Am I a tourist or am I a servant of grace
I trusted myself to interpret all of the things that I'd see
I never dreamed that the things here would interpret me There's no cause for percussion but the drumbeat is strong
No cause for music but they're quick with a song
No cause for dancing yet they do it with ease / Could it be that the wealthy are poorer than these
In simple cathedrals they bring forth their bold offering
They've nothing to give yet they manage to give everything
Like an impoverished widow bestowing her small copper coins
They dance to the altar where sweet songs of praise are rejoined
There's no cause for rejoicing but their laughter is wild / No reason for children yet they cherish the child
No reason for asking but still they say "please" / Could it be that the wealthy are poorer than these
A culture of poverty saps human dignity / Brotherhood suffers when a brother is poor
I too am needy, there's a glutton's graffiti / Inscribed on the privileged side of the door
The evening sunset brings rest from the day's scorching heat
Right down the road there's a family with nothing to eat
I weep for the depth of their hunger and weep even harder for mine
A poverty shared in a union that's hard to define
There's no cause for percussion but the drumbeat is strong
No cause for music but they're quick with a song
No cause for dancing yet they do it with ease / Could it be that the wealthy are poorer than these
There's no cause for rejoicing but their laughter is wild / No reason for children yet they cherish the child
No reason for asking but still they say "please" / Could it be that the wealthy are poorer than these
Play (Words and music by Eric Park)
Long ago when God rested on the 7th day / It wasn't time for sleeping or a holiday
Maybe it was a day to soak up the newborn sun / A playful recreation in light of what he'd done
If we're made in the image of this kind of God / This working, playing, moving, resting kind of God
Then deep within our soul we find a common way / A healthy rhythm making room for work and play
And don't forget to play / It's part of what's inside us
Don't forget to play / It limits what divides us
Don't forget to play / There's laughter right beside us
No better time for playing than today / Join the recreation, come and play
Stifling our playfulness is nothing new / It's looked upon as slothful when there's work to do
But even work is playful when it's done with grace / A playful spirit softens up a hardened place
And don’t forget to play / It’s part of what reveals us
Don't forget to play / Removing what conceals us
Don't forget to play / It unifies and seals us
No better time for playing than today / Join the recreation; come and play
It's what keeps my spirit light / Keeping things within me bright
It's what brings me off the shelf / And helps me be my truest self
A soul deprived of playtime in time will long for more / It's part of why we nurse the sick and feed the poor
Reaching to the broken souls that they might be / Brought closer to a playfulness that sets them free
And don't forget to play / It's part of what reveals us /
Don't forget to play / Removing what conceals us
Don't forget to play / It unifies and seals us
No better time for playing than today / Join the recreation; come and play
And don't forget to play / It's part of what's inside us
Don't forget to play / It limits what divides us
Don't forget to play / There's laughter right beside us
No better time for playing than today / Join the recreation, come and play
Why Settle (Words and music by Eric Park)
Why settle for a catnap when you need a good night's sleep
Why settle for the shallow when you're longing for the deep
Why settle for generic when you're hungry for the brand
Why trust in self-reliance when you need a helping hand
The journey isn't long enough to make the space for wasted choices
The road’s been littered by convictions left behind
If the bar gets lowered far enough it's on the ground beneath the voices
Of those who want what's easiest to find Why settle for the prideful when your penitence is due
Why settle for the ancient when we all need something new
Why settle for the selfish when there's such a wealth to share
Why settle for the well-preached if the practiced isn't there
The journey isn't long enough to make the space for wasted choices
The road's been littered by convictions left behind
If the bar gets lowered far enough it's on the ground beneath the voices
Of those who want what's easiest to find A life that always settles is a life that loses hope
And spawns a quiet longing at the end of passion's rope
The path of least resistance can become a road to pain
A land of arid soil where there's little hope for rain
The journey isn't long enough to make the space for wasted choices
The road's been littered by convictions left behind
If the bar gets lowered far enough it's on the ground beneath the voices
Of those who want what's easiest to find
One in the Margins (Words and music by Eric Park)
Abandoned and jobless and four months with child / Shunned by a mother who calls her defiled
Desperate and lonely, she prays for salvation / But a cold flow of shame is her only libation
There is another whose story I hear / She hides from her husband whose temper she fears
She never knows when the next blow will come / But refuses to leave because he owns a gun
Help me to see the one in the margins / Help me to know her journey's design
Help me to be the one in the margins / Standing with her whose pain is now mine
Homeless and cold in the heart of the city / A man sits alone, and he's hoping for pity
His begging's a blemish, at least that's what they say / One dollar more, and he'll call it a day
There is another whose story I hear / Who just lost his job after twenty-three years
"Thanks for your work, but we need some revising" / Such is the whimsy of corporate downsizing
Help me to see the one in the margins / Help me to know his journey's design
Help me to be the one in the margins / Standing with him whose pain is now mine
I worship with passion; I pray with desire / I come to the altar with heart set afire
But there's a temple outside that I often ignore / It’s a temple with margins and a wide open door
A child in Zimbabwe will die before long / He's crying for food as I sing you this song
I am not he, having grown up in wealth / So why am I burdened by an African’s health
There is another who's sitting quite near / In the pew next to mine, her eyes filling with tears
I don't really know her - should I keep it that way / A quick "Hey, good morning!" and "Have a nice day."
Help me to see the one in the margins / Help me to know his journey's design
Help me to be the one in the margins / Standing with her whose pain is now mine
Help me to see the Christ in the margins / Help me to know his journey's design
Help me to be with Christ in the margins / Standing with Him whose love is now mine
Very Best Day (Words and music by Eric Park)
Thanks for indulging my attempts to be sly
Those glimpses I catch with a fast moving eye
I watch you awake, and I watch you asleep
Each glimpse forms a memory that is precious to keep
Thanks for indulging my attempts to be coy
Beneath beats the heart of a shy lovesick boy
The time that I spend simply watching you be
Is the very best day of a long week for me
The very best day of the week is a moment with you
Your presence brings me into place
The best day of the week
Is the time that I spend simply watching your beautiful face
We sit at the movies enjoying the show
My whispers to you are distracting I know
But it's hard to be still when you're not far away
You're better than movies, what more can I say
The very best day of the week is a moment with you
Your presence brings me into place
The best day of the week
Is the time that I spend simply watching your beautiful face
Christmas morning has nothing on you / Neither does 4th of July
New Year's Eve is not nearly so new unless you are standing nearby
We sit at a restaurant enjoying the food / The candle nearby just enhances the mood
We talk about things that are silly and small / When it hits me that this is the best day of all
The very best day of the week is a moment with you / Your presence brings me into place
The best day of the week / Is the time that I spend simply watching your beautiful face
Get Over Yourself (Words and music by Eric Park)
A story's being told that's very old / It's a story that we hear from birth
Fulfilling all our needs (so the story reads) / Is the essence of a walk on earth
But when the story's all we're fed a distortion's bred / Idolatry of human greed
An inflated sense of me makes it hard to see / Things I want become the things I need
Get over yourself / It's not about you anyway
Why don't you look past yourself / To see the panorama in which your life appears
In the climate of our day it's often been our way / To define ourselves by our desires
Relentless appetite, everything's alright / If it feeds the inner fires
But the life for which we're made is of a different shade / It brings us to this point of view
We're just as much defined by what we leave behind / Sacrifice is nothing new
Before which God will I lay prostrate / At which altar will I kneel
Will I dare to be transformed / Or simply trust the way I feel
Will I recognize the claim on me / Or cater to my whims
Will my song be self-indulgence / Or will I sing the sacred hymns
There's another story told that's very old / About a Rock that's now a Cornerstone
He calls us to depart with a servant's heart / Into a life in which we're not our own
So which story will you hold when your days grow old / By which narrative will you be claimed
The story that we live is what we have to give / It's the legacy by which we're named
Get over yourself / It's not about you anyway
Why don't you look past yourself / To see the panorama in which your life appears
When You Forget (Words and music by Eric Park)
What makes a man a man; is it his ability to remember things
Or is more a man's desire to do a thing in the first place
I'm thinking of a man whose memory fails him all too frequently
But I refuse to think that he's less of a man than he used to be
The memory is just one portion of the person one becomes
And when it fails it doesn't mean that one's a failure
I'll hold your memories as though they were a sacramental bread
And we will break that bread with reverence and frequency
And I'll remember for you when you forget / Your noble legacy demands nothing less
Don't think me burdened by this sign of respect / It's an honor to remember for you when you forget
I see you in the back yard teaching both your sons how to throw a ball
I see you in the living room reading to your daughter
Your 50th anniversary looking at your wife like you did fifty years ago
I see you in a preacher's robe teaching about the things of God
And I'll remember for you when you forget / Your noble legacy demands nothing less
Don't think me burdened by this sign of respect / It's an honor to remember for you when you forget
With the pure water of your outpoured life / You have filled five hundred thousand cups
We have drawn from the wellspring of your decency / You're who we want to be when we grow up
What makes a man a man; is it his ability to remember things
Or is more a man's desire to do a thing in the first place
I'm thinking of a man whose memory fails him all too frequently
But I refuse to think that he's less of a man than he used to be
And I'll remember for you when you forget / Your noble legacy demands nothing less
Don't think me burdened by this sign of respect / It's an honor to remember for you when you forget
Come Thou Fount (Words: Robert Robinson, 1758 Music: Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813)
Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come
And I hope by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above
Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love
What They Found There (Words and music by Eric Park)
Stepping over bloodstains
Two days old upon the ground
Tripping over memories
Of losing what they thought they'd found
Holding fragrant oil
The smell of which was lost within
The stench of death and suffering
The reek of blood on tattered skin
They were weeping women broken by their savior's doom
They were desperate women on a pathway to a tomb
But what they found there was a transfigured world
An in-breaking kingdom, a new hope unfurled
What they found there transformed everything
Not a body to care for, but a new song to sing
Listening to a stranger / Bringing news of life from death
With angelic confidence / He speaks of lungs that now have breath
Running on the pathway / Looking for someone to tell
Hearts are beating thunderously / As their hopes begin to swell
They were desperate women clinging to an angel's word
They were hopeful women contemplating what they'd heard
And what they found there was a victory cry
A stark "He is risen" and a shout lifted high
What they found there put an end to their strife
Death was forced to kneel down before the Giver of Life
And when we find ourselves beset with suffering and anguish
The empty tomb from long ago means we need not languish
For though the human journey often leaves us weak
Death no longer has the final word to speak
They meet him on the pathway / Mystically the Lord arrives
Yesterday no life in him / But now he is somehow alive
And what they found there was a victory cry
A stark "He is risen" and a shout lifted high
What they found there put an end to their strife
Death was forced to kneel down before the Giver of Life
But what they found there was a transfigured world
An in-breaking kingdom, a new hope unfurled
What they found there put an end to their strife
Death was forced to kneel down before the Giver of Life
Song of Sanctification (Words and music by Eric Park)
Reform my heart, O God
Redesign my soul
Like a potter come, and remold the clay
The clay that is my life / The clay that is my life
Remake my thoughts, O God
Realign my way
On the canvas of my life display
The colors of your grace / The colors of your grace
Rework my desires, O God
Recreate my will
Like a poet come and rewrite my song
That I may sing for You / That I may sing for You
