Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 39

pastor all these years later. A young girl in his
youth group was dying of cancer and this lyric
is, “I thought that we prayed for healing, we
believed for healing, we declared healing, and I
thought you would have stepped in and saved
the day, but you didn’t and she died, and I don’t
have any answers for that”. For me it was fast
forward to 2017 and this song that my husband
had written twelve years earlier all of a sudden
began to minister to us, to my own husband. In
a way that was, what do you mean? You gave
me this voice, you gave me this gift, what do
you mean I have cancer? What do you mean
I may never sing again? What do you mean?
And that’s when you know it’s a good song,
because the message stands the test of time.
The way that we did the song, I wanted to be
respectful because I love the original and its
forever and always the best. But we didn’t try
to redo the original, we just took it to England
and said we’re just going to do it with piano
and strings, and even the string arrangement
that Mark wrote, my husband said it perfectly,
he said you hear the tension of believing in
faith that He’s going to make it right but yet still
being in the middle of the storm you hear and
feel the tension in the music and the strings.
I think that’s true that Bernie really captured
something special in his string arrangement
that he wrote. But I feel like the lyric has never
been more pertinent than right now. I think the
lesson I’ve learned in the middle of this is that
when the storms are loud, that is the time for
our praise to get louder. Often its easy and we
sing all of these songs and we declare them,
then all of a sudden when life turns to junk and
you can’t find your way forward, this is actually
the time that our praise needs to get louder,
because praise and worship doesn’t change
the circumstances it changes us.
It shifts our perspective from the problem onto
the constant answer. I love the story of when
Jesus walked on water, and the telling of it in
Matthew. We all know the story and oftentimes
we focus on the miracle of Him walking on
the water, but I think we forget that, one,
they had already been back on the mountain.
Jesus had just done the incredible miracle of
feeding the five thousand and then he sent the
disciples ahead and they said they would stay,
and He said, no, I’m going to stay and pray.
And do you not think that He knew a storm
was coming? There’s theology that He sent
them into the heart of the storm not to harm
them, but because He knew that they would
learn more about the character of the God they
serve in the storm than they ever would back
on the mountaintop. So I think that’s what we
sometimes miss, that in the storm is where we
actually learn who He really is, He speaks to
us in the storm. Even when He showed up at
the boat, and He did eventually calm the storm,
but when He showed up and He walked on
that water the storm was still raging, and I think
that’s important for us to grab ahold of, just
because the storm is raging doesn’t mean He’s
not there, He’s in the middle of it with us. I think
that’s one of the reasons this song has kind of
become brand new to us all over again.
[WM] In the old days we would have release
parties and dedications for new records, so
I’m going to offer this prayer: Father, I ask for
Your blessing on No Strangers. I ask that You
comfort hearts, heal minds, and change lives
through this project. I pray that new souls will
come to know you, and that the impact of its
songs will be far and wide. And I ask these
things in the name of your Son, Jesus.
[Natalie] Thank you, I receive that.
[WM] Natalie, what an extreme pleasure it has
been for me to visit with you. Thank you for this
time.
[Natalie] Thank you!
hopeforjustice.org
September 2020
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