The Voice of a Young Poet

Sam Swofford came up through the children’s choirs at my previous church and began taking piano lessons from the lovely wife a couple of years before we moved to my current location nine years ago. Now a college student, he continues to pursue music and song-writing. You can hear some of his music at his MySpace page (click on the title of this entry and it'll take you there). Here’s one of his texts:

“The Eyes of The Lord”

Everybody’s tired, everybody hurts,
Everybody’s wondering why things work out for the worst.
Everybody’s dreaming of a heart that doesn’t break,
Everybody’s paying for the choices that they’ve made.

But if we all stand in line,
At the gates of heaven, we will find:

When you look into the eyes of the Lord,
There’s nothing left to hurt for, and everything to hope for.
Open up your eyes, look up to the skies, and cry, children, cry.
Oh, it’s a sight, Lord, a sight.
When you look into the eyes of the Lord.

Everybody’s hopeless, everybody’s cold,
Everybody wants to, but they know they shouldn’t go.
Everybody’s striving for bigger, better things,
But bigger’s not always better, and you find out the hard way.

But if we all stand in line,
At the gates of heaven, we will find:

When you look into the eyes of the Lord,
There’s nothing left to hurt for, and everything to hope for.
Open up your eyes, look up to the skies, and cry, children, cry.
Oh, it’s a sight, Lord, a sight.

When you look into his eyes, you’ll see:
The Christ is staring back at me.

Hallelujah, sing.
And when you’re completely broken,
the Christ is there; just get to know him.
He will set you free.
He will set you free,
When you look into the eyes of the Lord.

I haven’t heard this text to music yet, but it doesn’t matter. It moved me to tears just reading it out loud to the lovely wife this afternoon. There are a couple of lines that are just what I needed today. Way to go, Sam … and thanks!

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.