Solidarity and Continuity

I've been enjoying a new Sara Groves album that was given to me for Christmas, and one song in particular has grabbed my heart this week. It's a new take on the old "When the Saints Go Marching In" motif, and it brings a tremendous sense of solidarity and continuity to bear on the idea of a great cloud of witnesses that has gone before us. The music has a driving undercurrent, and the lyrics are almost chantlike with a stirring rhythmic quality. As you listen, you get a sense that there is a steady pulse, a single heartbeat that unites the body of Christ into one ever-onward march. What an incredible testimony to the faithfulness of God through the ages, and what an awesome encouragement to us who believe ourselves to be afflicted and yet are sharing only the smallest part of the burden of the saints.

I'd like to share the lyrics in hope that it will do justice to the spirit that this song it conveys.

"When the Saints" ~Sara Groves

Lord, i have a heavy burden of all i've seen and know,
it's more than i can handle
but your word is burning like a fire shut up in my bones
and i can't let it go
and when i'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
i think of paul and silas in the prison yard
i hear their song of freedom rising to the stars
and when the Saints go marching in
i want to be one of them

Lord it's all that i can't carry and cannot leave behind
it all can overwhelm me
but when i think of all who've gone before and lived a faithful life
their courage compels me
and when i'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
i think of paul and silas in the prison yard
i hear their song of freedom rising to the stars
i see the shepherd moses in the pharaoh's court
i hear his call for freedom for the people of the Lord
and when the Saints go marching in,
i want to be one of them.

and when the Saints go marching in,
i want to be one of them.

i see the long quiet walk along the underground railroad,
i see the slave awakening to the value of her soul
i see the young missionary and the angry spear,
i see his family returning with no trace of fear
i see the long hard shadows of calcutta nights
i see the sister standing by the dying man's side
i see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
i see the man with a passion come kicking down that door
i see the man of sorrow and his long troubled road
i see the world on his shoulders and my easy load

and when the Saints go marching in,
i want to be one of them.


Lord, how I long to be counted as one of your faithful! Adonai, grant me the strength to persevere through these tiny trials I face. Like the passing of the Olympic torch, help me to carry on the legacy of the faith and pass it to the next generation of your children. May I pass on a blessing.

But, between you and me, do you want to know the part of this song that pierced me through?

"i see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor, i see the man with a passion come kicking down that door."

I am that young girl. My friend, I was once so lost in my sin that I was huddled in the despicable brothel of my whoring with no hope of ever leaving. My soul was so dark within me that I had no desire even to turn toward the door. But beloved, praise the Christ of God that He is no gentleman! The instant that he kicked down that door, my heart leapt within me and I recognized my savior. Gently but without apology he dragged me from my sin and though I clung to it, he loosened my grip and gave me a desire for himself. Like Aslan, he breathed life into this heart of stone.

A heart that continues to leap at the reminder of his great grace even to me, a sinner.

A heart that is so prone to wander, prone to leave the one I love.

Take and seal it, Lord, seal it for thy courts above...and when the Saints go marching in, may I be one of them.