The Stories of Our Lives
A Trinitarian Worship Song
After Aimee Smith and I finished recording “Your Voice,” we collaborated on three more songs for a song contest—a chance to get onto The Porter’s Gate’s next album Sending Songs. Spoiler alert: we didn’t win the contest. But we had a lot of fun writing and recording three song demos in less than a month!
Worship for Workers recently featured one of our songs, “The Stories of Our Lives,” on their website. Here are a few brief notes on the creative process, followed by the song demo and lyrics.
Behind the Song
Some of you may notice that the first and last verses come from a trinitarian writers’ prayer I wrote in 2020 for a workshop I co-lead called Spirit & Scribe.
When my wife Christie saw the first draft of this song—which was simply my original poem-prayer plus a chorus—she suggested that I rewrite the second verse and chorus to better fit the theme of speaking / breathing / authoring / writing in the first and last verses. Her wise insight unlocked for me the second verse and chorus you see below.
I sent Aimee the first four lines of the new chorus but didn’t know how to end it. She suggested we simply repeat “the stories of our lives” at the end and suddenly the song was done—and we had an obvious title too!
I don’t think I’ve ever sung a song which addresses a different person of the Trinity in each chorus, but I really like it.
We recorded this demo in Aimee’s classroom in the middle of a school day, just a few days before the contest deadline. If you listen during the second half, you can hear kids playing at recess in the background. We tried to avoid these sounds as much as possible while recording, but I’ve actually come to love their presence in this demo. It’s an audible reminder to me of how Aimee and I made time and space for creativity in the midst of the stories of our lives—and how God honored that with a song.
The Stories of Our Lives
Creator God, who spoke the world
Who breathed Your life into our parts,
Who authored us — your love unfurled,
Your name is written on our hearts.
Send us out, Father, breathe on us again,
For we are your poems, we are your songs.
Father, come take up your pen
And write with us the stories of our lives,
The stories of our lives.
Eternal Word who heard who our plight,
Who came to us in flesh and breath,
You died to rise — you dared to write
The song that overcomes our death.
Send us out, Jesus, breathe on us again,
For we are your poems, we are your songs.
Jesus, come take up your pen
And write with us the stories of our lives,
The stories of our lives.
Come, Spirit, Scribe of all our days,
Come breathe into our souls anew,
That re-inspired — our lives would praise,
And all our words be filled with You.
Send us out, Spirit, breathe on us again,
For we are your poems, we are your songs.
Spirit, come take up your pen
And write with us the stories of our lives,
The stories of our lives.
Here is the chord sheet if you want to play it yourself.
What a gift to journey with you and Chante through Spirit and Scribe! Thanks for sharing, Michael!