Standing at the top of a cliff one day – two, maybe three years ago – I couldn’t have known what life would be like in 2020. Of course, none of us could.
I watched the slowly boiling waters below as gusts blew my unkempt holiday-hair sideways and funelled seafowl mercilessly down into the gulley below. Being the creative type (or maybe just a bored tourist, another moment with nothing to do), I whipped out my iPhone and filmed the waves in slow-motion. I don’t know why I thought it was the most appropriate way to capture the moment. I suppose I had some artistic view in mind. Maybe one day it would mean something.
More than 10 years ago, I began tinkering with a chorus idea. ‘I am the way, the truth and the life,’ Jesus said. My chorus turned it around to speak to him in worship: ‘You are the way . . . ‘ so if he’s the way, then what should be my response? ‘ . . . and I will go. You are the truth my heart can know. You are the life I’ve died to live’ – I didn’t want to shy away from the challenge of the gospel – ‘Jesus, my life to you I give’.
I’d had this chorus cooking on the back-burner for years. I had tried it in one song, which I liked but didn’t really find any use for outside my own little studio. The chorus though, it was strong, and eventually I cut it adrift from that earlier song to rework it. The new verses take each aspect in turn – way, truth, life. Finally, a bridge extends the response that flows naturally from the chorus.
I didn’t know why I captured that video of the sea, and at the start of 2020, I didn’t know what significance this song might have. I’d been planning to release it after it had a warm reception at a few events in 2019. After lockdown hit, while we tried desperately like everyone to hold course, the metaphor became apparent to me:
When life gets stormy, it’s more important than ever to remember that we know The Way. His name is Jesus. What a beautiful way.
A new song for 2020 about Jesus being the way, and suddenly those slow motion waves became part of a story. Here they are:
Ben David Trigg 