A couple of months ago, my dear friend Mamie pinned Andrew Peterson's new album on Pinterest, and I commented and asked her if she'd ever want to do a guest post about his music on my blog. She responded with an enthusiastic, "Yes, PLEASE!". I was only slightly familiar with Andrew Peterson's music until recently, but since Mamie is a wonderful writer and has been a long-time fan of his, I knew she would do a beautiful job telling you all about him. Happy reading, and happy listening!
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“Could it be that the many roads
You took to get here
Were just for me to tell this story
And for you to hear this song
And your many hopes
And your many fears
Were meant to bring you here all along.”
In September of last year, I sat down on the front row in a little concert hall in Nashville, TN. I was here to see my favorite artist perform a release show for his brand new album “Light for the Lost Boy.” I was trembling with excitement for several reasons. (One of which was the fact that others such as Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, Jason Gray, and several others were sitting in the very same auditorium several pews behind me, but that is beside the point.) It was because I knew this music was powerful. I’d been listening to Andrew Peterson for as long as I could remember, and it had never ceased to do wondrous things in my soul.
To be honest, I’d been having a pretty tough year. It was also a great year, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time, things had happened that’d chewed up my little girl heart and left it lost in the wilderness clinging to Jesus.
It just so happened that the ten new songs he was about to sing were all about the process of growing up and being made into something new.
(Picture credit: Mamie Carlstrom)
And so I sat with anticipation. Knowing that somehow, God was going to use this in my life.
And boy, did He ever.
I ended up sobbing through most of the concert. Tears were literally streaming down my face.
It wasn’t bad crying.
Instead it was catharsis.
It was letting go.
It was healing.
“It's there on the page of the book that I read
The boy grew up and the yearling was dead
He stood at the gate with the angel on guard
And wept for the death of his little boy heart
I say, ‘Come back soon.’
We wake in the night in the womb of the world
We beat our fists on the door
We cannot breathe in this sea that swirls
So we groan in this great darkness
For deliverance
Deliverance, O Lord”
Andrew Peterson (henceforth “AP”) is like none other that I’ve ever listened to. He’s like the musical cross between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He cuts one deep to the soul. I’m often left aching because he so poignantly sums up what I’m feeling.
“Love is not a feeling in your chest,
it is bending down to wash another’s feet,
it is faithful when the sun is in the west
and in the east.”
“It knocked me down, it dragged me out,
it left me there for dead.
It took all the freedom I wanted and gave me something else instead.
It blew my mind, it bled me dry, it hit me like a long goodbye,
and nobody here knows better than I that it’s a good thing.
What I love about AP is the fact that he somehow combines passion with gentleness. He can soothe and convict all in the same breath. I’m sitting here trying to write this, but really, all I want to do is copy down every single one of his lyrics ever and let you read them. Or better yet, post links to all of the songs on YouTube and lock you in a closet for 24 hours so that you’ll have time to listen to all of the beautifulness.
(Picture credit: Mamie Carlstrom)
AP is husband to Jamie, and a father to two boys and a girl. Several of his songs are directed at them. (For example: Family Man, You’ll Find Your Way, World Traveler, Dancing in the Minefields, to name just a few.)
“Like their father, they are looking for a home
Looking for a home beyond the sea
So be their God and guide them
Till they lie beneath these hills
And let the great God of their father
Be the great God of their children,
Let the great God of my fathers
Be the great God of my children still.”
AP is not only a songwriter. He also writes books and is a regular contributor for his community website “The Rabbit Room.” Recently he wrote a letter to his little boy that really grabbed my heart. You can read it
here.
“But everything I had to lose
Came back a thousand times in you
And you fill me up with love
Fill me up with love
And you help me stand
'cause I am a family man.”
Listening to AP’s music is not unlike going on a journey, a journey through our lives. During the span of our years we go through valleys and stand on mountaintops. We feel close to the heavens and in the pits. But every step of the way our Jesus stays close, whispering His love. His promises are “written in a script of stars.”
We are eaten by the ache for the reckoning, we are restless to see God’s face, and yet in the waiting and the asking of “how long?” we carry our cross and sing on.
“And when the world is new again
And the children of the King
Are ancient in their youth again
Maybe it's a better thing
A better thing
To be more than merely innocent
But to be broken then redeemed by love
Maybe this old world is bent
But it's waking up
And I'm waking up
'Cause I can hear the voice of one
He's crying in the wilderness
"Make ready for the Kingdom Come"
Don't you want to thank someone for this?
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallalujah! Hallelujah!
Come back soon
Come back soon.”
If you have never listened to Andrew Peterson, I highly encourage you to do so. Look him up on YouTube or create a Pandora Station…better yet take the plunge and support his family by buying a song or two or three. Which ever it is, sit back and let yourself be enveloped in the deep lyrics and melodic notes. Take time to listen carefully, you might just find a little bit of your story told within the folds of the melodies.
Mamie Rose Carlstrom is a nineteen year-old young woman seeking to devote every area of her life to Christ. She loves reading, writing, family, the color gray, music, dancing, movies, travel, modest fashion, Adventures in Odyssey (don’t laugh), photography, the Green Bay Packers, meeting famous people, and healthy smoothies. Not necessarily in that order.
She scribbles blog posts at: www.ransomedbyone.wordpress.com.
And her Pinterest page can be found here.
