Lead Me To The Water/Lyrics

0:00It's Brian again, your Lunatic friend. And by Lunatic I simply mean I could be wrong about a few things, but then you won't find any of my verses in the Bible. The my daddy told me that my name is in the Lamb's book of life, and because of the grace of God, I don't have to be right all the time. But let me tell you, you've made my day a few times listening to my lyric episodes and commenting on them. Not everybody likes lyrics, but I'm glad you do. And this is a lyric episode about a song called, Lead Me To The Water. And just by the title, you can tell it's not a theological discourse. But considering that I wrote it back in 1986, the description of people around me and the way I feel about them are still pretty accurate to this day. The first thing I remember about this song is I just said down to write one more song because we needed one more song for this record I was working on. So to start with, not only was it not a theological discourse, it didn't even come from a spiritual inspiration. But I've discovered through songwriting that there's a lot of thoughts rolling around in your head that you didn't know were there. Now, I'm not sure how I got started on the idea of water,

1:01but in songs you'll hear a lot of spiritual concepts with easy to relate to illustrations, about the sun, moon, its stars, mountains and oceans, rivers. And now I remember why I picked water, basically, because we were running out of it in our neighborhood. It was a drought. Yeah, so don't wash your car or water your lawn. Now, even in this case, picking a subject already, I don't usually start with lyrics of any kind. I usually start with some kind of a music bed. And back in 1985, Tears for Fears came out with a song that I really liked called Everybody Wants to Rule the World. And I was thinking to myself, well, here's your problem, Vern. And I really liked the smooth pace of the song. So with that in mind, I picked a mid-tempo blues kind of groove with a bass playing like a heartbeat. And I remember thinking, I wonder how I could make a piano sound like water. And here's where I remember Kerry Livgren of Kansas telling me that he used to write songs based on the scale patterns that he would practice. And because of a scale pattern that I've found to start this song with, this is still one of my favorite songs to play live. The piano riff goes, but it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it.

2:06I'd stopped playing it for years, but then one day I was doing some kind of work, trying to find songs to start a concert with. And I came across this one again, and I thought, wow, that's almost hypnotic. Here we are 40 years later, and I'm still playing lead me to the water. But then let's face it, water is a necessity, but here's where I ran into a little problem. What can you say about a situation with water where it's not like I went to the water fountain? There's a boring story. So first I started thinking about baptism, but then a lot of people have covered that pretty well in music. But then I was thinking baptism is a demonstration of the death of your old self. But then I've done enough songs about death and dying. My dad always hammered that home in every alter call. But then here I was thinking about it again. I'd heard a lot of songwriters try to soften the edge of the subject of death by calling it crossing over Jordan. But here's where I started to think of lead me to the water as the edge of our lives, or the end of it as we know it. But then I wasn't looking to sing about crossing over Jordan. I want God to lead me every day till we get to that water. And let's face it, if you're not taking care of yourself day to day, the river is going to come to you.

3:09So anyway, let's cut to the chase and get to the lyrics. Between the divide, there is a river. And my implication without explaining it is that life is on one side and eternal life is on the other. And I add, the water is clear and pure as driven snow. It flows from a spring that wells forever. Enriching the world, beneath God Almighty's throne. And in this next line is my first conviction about the world I live in. Where I sing about what God offers in the way of a cleansing rain and the need for a purified soul. And here I'm speaking of my own disappointment in sharing God's good news in the reaction that I often got. Though the masses won't believe it, if it's there, talking about the water of the words of Scripture, and even the existence of God, it's not too far to go in pursuit of the real truth, especially if there's a promise of the life after a temporary life. And here comes my determination from early childhood. And the chorus starts with my soul's cry, lead me to the water, wash my heart clean,

4:11and replenish my spirit, lead me to the water, the crystalline water, and let me start over. And here I refer to Jesus saying, whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from them. In the springs of living water, let each new day begin. And in this second verse I can hear myself commenting like it was yesterday. After just hearing everybody's opinions on social media, I had my own opinion. They're standing their ground out in the desert, wasting away, but not thirsty anymore. And I had what they would say to me, you're taking a chance against the current, and that line for me had a lot to do with how I felt about choosing Christian music. Especially when I knew that I was never going to be the best example of Christian life transformed. And here's where I had a line where I'm actually talking to myself. Where I say, old habits will stand, and they'll curse you from the shore. Because I'm always thinking, am I really going to trust in the grace of God and the death of Jesus on the cross?

5:13Believing that I'm a pure child of God because of His work and not mine. And here in this song is my continued ongoing decision to follow Jesus and trust in His promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish. So I'm sure I want a chance at, and the time has come. So let me go. And in my prayer to God, I say, lead me to the water. Or in other words, walk with me between here and there from where I am to the end of my life crossing over Jordan. Yes, lead me to the water that can wash my heart clean and replenish my spirit. Lead me to the water and let me start over. And that's the great thing about a new day with Christ every day as a new day. So wash, rinse, and repeat in the springs of living water. Let each new day begin. And in the song right here, I exhale really loud like I just had a huge glass of water. And here's where we go to the guitar solo and think about more water coming. So I go out singing, lead me to the water. Let each new day begin in the springs of living water.

6:17Now right here, don't think for a minute that if you're at my concert sometime, that I won't stick a mic in your face and expect you to know these lyrics. In the springs of living water, let each new day begin. And hey, thanks for listening to the lyrics from your lunatic friend at Church in the Wind, where all us nutchillians are on the back row. Oh yes, we're never dismissed.