Healing God
September 11, 2009“If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” – Mark 1:40
Sometimes you start a song and it seems disconnected from life, uninformed and unimportant. But then sometimes life can catch up with it — if you’re lucky — and give you the raw experiences that are needed if a song is to have any real meaning.
In church one day the question came up, “How do you see God? Is he a vengeful God? Is he a guiding God? Is he an anguished God?” Good question with a different answer, I imagine, for each of us.
I thought, What sort of God is my God? In the margins of my notebook I wrote: “Healing God.”
A few weeks later I tried to turn this notion into a song, and came up pretty soon with the chorus to Healing God. But it didn’t have meaning, not to me personally.
Within a month my life had changed in many ways:
My beautiful wife Joie was diagnosed with breast cancer. A friend and fellow bass player went away for a while to deal with an addiction that’s threatening to pull his young life apart. I met the world’s second most beautiful woman, struggling herself with a mysterious and frightening form of cancer. And my little song took on the special, personal meaning it had been lacking.
I went back and threw away most of my old verses and now I have this version of Healing God. This is my answer to the question, “What sort of God is your God?”
I’m not naive (much). I don’t mean by this that God will heal all wounds and cure all sicknesses in the here and now. I remember Brooke Hansen with as much sadness as gratitude, and remember that in the end her family lost her… for now.
But this notion of the Healing God defines God’s intent for me, his very nature. God wants nothing more than to heal us, repair us, make us whole, restore us. It’s why he moves out and about and through the world.
Caveats :: As I keep sayin’ in this blog — Not a singer, not a piano player. Bass player. But me and Bessie (my Fender Jazz) aren’t a good duet at all. So the only way to lay this down was with my funky sloppy piano playing. Forgive me!
PS :: Thanks Georgia for helping me finally finally finally get this song down so I could forget it for a while!
INTRO Em/D —-D—-Em/D—–D
A———————————G
Are you the God of angel armies
A————————————–G — Bm
The One who parts our raging seas?
A———————————G
Will you free us from our bondage
A———————————-G — Bm
and bring us to a land of promise?
——–C#m7
We know you Lord through your mighty deeds
————-Bm7
But your healing touch is what we seek
CHORUS
———–A—————–Bm ————–C#m7
Healing God… Healing God… Healing God
—————-Bm
You’re the one who soothes
—–A—————–Bm ————–C#m7
Oh God… Healing God…. Healing God
————–Bm
Only you restore
—————-A
You’re the one heals our deepest hurts
-—————Bm7
You’re the one who quenches every thirst
—————-A
You’re the one who takes our pain away
—————Bm7
You’re the one who kindles each new day
—–A —————–Bm —————G
Oh God… Healing God…. Healing God
—–A —————–Bm —————G
Oh God… Healing God…. Healing God
VERSE 2
A———————————G
You come to us in our afflcition
A—————————————–G — Bm
To heal our cravings and addictions
A———————————————-G
You’re the strength that fights our weakness
A——————————————G — Bm
and pulls us from the darkest reaches
——–C#m7
each soul sees you in a different guise
————-Bm7
But I see you through a sick man’s eyes
(CHORUS)
BRIDGE
E/D
Broken spirits, broken souls
D
Lord breath on us and make us whole
E/D
Weary bodies weary minds
D
In you we find our peace divine
(CHORUS X2)
You need to remember to breathe
Great back-up singer ~ I like it!!!