When You Feel Like Darkness Has You Bound

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I love watching the path my mind takes when I am determining what song to use for the Song Lyric Sunday challenge. I start by thinking about what songs would address the theme for the week, but I often don’t end up there.

This week the theme was protest songs. The song I used for my second week of doing this challenge was We Shall Overcome so I considered some of the 60’s protest songs. But then my mind went a different direction. I thought about two of the Blues songs my son Sreejit wrote some years back. I listened to them both, but as I was considering them, another song came to mind.

My daughter Chaitanya and my son Sreejit live at Amma’s Amritapuri ashram in Kerala, India. People for all religions come to Amma, and all religions are respected. For the last seven or eight years my son and daughter have been very instrumental in creating the Christmas play that is performed on Christmas Eve each year. Chaitanya writes and directs the plays and Sreejit and his friends compose most of the tunes. The plays are in the style of Broadway musicals.

The particular play that came to my mind was performed in 2012 and was titled God is Able. The setting was a Southern style Gospel church. Sreejit was the preacher! The story line covered the stories of Moses leading the Jews to the promised land, Rachael being healed by touching Jesus’ garment, and a fictional account of the heart of an angry store keeper being healed. I never will forget the moment in the play when the stage doors opened and our sparkling “Gospel Choir” became visible. It seemed like everyone in the auditorium did a collective gasp. Part of the reason I remember the gasp and the thunderous applause and shouts that followed our song so well is that I was part of the choir!!!

Choir

The song I have chosen is Dear God. The tune was written by Sreejit and the lyrics by Chaitanya.  It is not a protest song but it is a song that is very relevant to times of darkness which is often what proceeds protest.

The mp3 recording and the lyrics are below.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I still do!

When you feel like darkness has you bound
And you can’t see any way to get out
There’s a power which surrounds us all
Through God anything is possible

Never fear
Never let your doubts draw near
With courage face all that comes
Put your trust into God’s arms
He’ll protect you from all harm
His love will carry you on through

Dear God, hold us tight never let us leave thy sight
Dear God, fill our soul with your love make us whole

Sreejit singing above the choir:

God is able to calm the wild storm
God is able to make the weak strong
God is able to bring change within
God is able to do all things

17 thoughts on “When You Feel Like Darkness Has You Bound”

  1. I briefly read over the theme, and my choice for how I feel about the world right now (and my life 99% of the time) is the song Mad World by Tears for Fears. The lyric “the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had” perfectly embody how I feel about the state of the world and my life.

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  2. Pingback: A Change is Gonna Come – Living, Learning and Letting Go

      1. It is so much easier aiming for compassion and feeling free of worry when I do not watch the news. I hear people discuss issues and they are all so angry.

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      6. That’s an interesting thought but if I moved I’d more likely go to India! I woke up this morning to discover that Trump is ahead of Clinton in the polls.

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      8. When I wrote that reply I was thinking you were talking about the A Change is Gonna Come post. But Dear God is a song that helps me stay hopefully too.

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  4. Such a beautiful song! I’m all about peaceful protests… I turned away from many songs yesterday that were about fighting back and, it seemed to me, more violence. I believe we need to spread love and hope. Thank you SO much for sharing this! ❤

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    1. I’m so glad you thought it was beautiful. I have always wanted to share it on a wider level. It seemed too powerful to only be heard on the one night it was performed.

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