Love Covers A Multitude

Color slide R.P. Marxhausen

When I wrote this song ten years back, I hesitated to play it, especially in church, despite the religious imagery.   I'd finally gotten comfortable with sharing parts of my real life in my songs and performing them to  people who would know who I was referring to in a lyric.  So I was afraid this song would be interpreted - wrongly - as describing trouble in my marriage.

But in fact, one of my high-school aged children had just had a relationship with a close, long-time friend go terribly, irreparably wrong, with many severe consequences.  It hurt to see how much pain could result.   Eventually both my kids would experience relationship blowups with long, hard recoveries.  

(And I discovered a hard truth: it's one thing for me to forgive somebody who has hurt or offended me.  I found out I did not know how to forgive somebody who had brought pain to my children. Thankfully this too is possible, but never easy.)

This song was a response to what I was watching, maybe it was a cry for hope.

  

 Listen To/Download "Love Covers A Multitude"
 Paul Marxhausen 5/20/05

Here we are
no way back
from words that we have said
and deeds that we have done
where to now?
are we sinking in the wreck of this
relationship our anger has undone
But ...

Love covers a multitude   Love covers a multitude of sin
Love covers a multitude   Love covers a multitude of sin
Love suffers long  hopes and believes all things does not remember wrongs
Love covers a multitude of sin

We may spend
days and days it takes to work it out
to see the other side
We may walk
miles and miles in one another's shoes
to get beyond our pride 

Love covers a multitude   Love covers a multitude of sin
Love covers a multitude   Love covers a multitude of sin
Love suffers long  hopes and believes all things does not remember wrongs
Love covers a multitude of sin
 

there's no way to change the way we are,
the way we see unless
He lays His fingers on our eyes
only one who has created us
can heal what has been torn, bring truth into our lives

And His Love covers the multitudes
Love covers a multitude of sin
Love covers a multitude
Love covers a multitude of sin

Love suffers long
hopes and believes all things
does not remember wrongs
Love covers a multitude of sin
Love covers a multitude of sin
Love covers a multitude of sin

Something Like A Miracle

"Thou Openest Thy Hand" Mural R.P. Marxhausen

If there's one thing I've learned in my walk it's that facing the impossibilities of today requires remembering the impossibilities of the past that have been overcome by God's doing.  It's a recurring theme in the Old and New Testaments, and the very heart of our faith is whether or not we trust God completely.

Reflections on that theme weren't what started this song. Instead it's another example of a second try at a song topic that works better than the first. (See posting on "Lazarus"  for another example.)  

The topic was a lifelong friend of mine.  I wrote a complete song lyric that explores how closely my life and his were connected, and our many similarities, but how he arrived at a place of conviction that rationality rules out belief in Christ.  And I felt that there was nothing left for me to do but pray for him.

Instead of finishing that song with music, at some point the first verse of this song appeared, simpler, succinct, and more heartfelt, and with a beautiful chorus melody already connected to it.

That one verse and chorus were all I had, but they made me reflect on the hopeless circumstances I've encountered before, and the other verses emerged from that.  

I've sung this song far more times as a personal prayer than I probably ever will in public.  The focus is always that final lyric: "He did not spare His Son but gave Him up for me, will he not freely give us everything we need?", and that line of Scripture makes this a hard song to perform because I choke up singing it every time.

I figured I would sit down and record a decent rendition of this but in my archive I discovered this live performance from 2006 that has ethereal harmonies from Molly Bassett and Lisa Heidbrink , and there's no improving on that.

Listen to / Download "Something Like A Miracle"

Something Like A Miracle

© 2003 Paul Marxhausen

I watched you walk away   you said you lost your faith
I guess you drew your own conclusions
to treat the cross and nails     like ghosts and fairy tales
well-meaning pious old illusions
I don't know what could change your mind by now
I don't know what to say but I'm praying anyhow

It would take something like a miracle
something like a miracle
something like a miracle for things to change
but I've seen something like a miracle
something like a miracle
something like a miracle before today

I've seen when sickness comes the strength of flesh undone
I've watched it drain all joy away
I've known the loss of hope  the ending of the rope
the struggle just to endure the day
locked up in a cell of human frailty
not daring to believe that there might be a key  

It would take something like a miracle
something like a miracle
something like a miracle for things to change
but I've seen something like a miracle
something like a miracle
something like a miracle before today

Been laid off,  I've been poor  
watched hope fly from my door
borne the crushing end to things I've tried
but I'm standing here today   somehow God made a way
when all the good that I could do had died
He did not spare His Son but gave Him up for me
will He not freely give us everything we need?

'cause Jesus did 
something like a miracle, something like a miracle
something like a miracle when He washed my sins away
I know He does 
something like a miracle, something like a miracle
something like a miracle, and everything can change
So He can do 
something like a miracle, something like a miracle

Something like a miracle again today   
Today

The Year Of Our Lord / New Year's Day

35mm layered slide composite, RP Marxhausen

It's December 31 2014, the end of a year rich in blessing and challenges.  For all the amazing graces of this year and the promises of 2015, and the hope of the Advent and Christmas season, I find my heart is unquiet and apprehensive.  I thought I'd post two songs that the turning of the year generated in past years, drawing on previous confidence to aid where it is lacking on this morning.

I really like "The Year of Our Lord", a verbose song that underwent a lot of careful musical and lyrical editing and tweaking to arrive at the final upbeat result.  It works better than many of my songs at packing a lot of imagery into just three verses.

In contrast to the patient construction of that tune, "New Year's Day" was a new instrumental tune (not the U2 song) that leaped out of the mandolin Kim gave me for my birthday in just a few minutes the morning of one New Year's Day, so quickly that I was able punch the other instrumental parts into my scoring software and complete this recording before noon, leaving plenty of time to round up the kids and head out to Pioneer's Park sled run to take advantage of the glorious powdery snowfall that had arrived overnight.  I think it may owe some inspiration from local Irish-rock band The Killigans.

Listen To / Download "The Year Of Our Lord"

Listen To / Download "New Year's Day"

The Year of Our Lord
© 2006 Paul Marxhausen

Waving goodbye to the year as it dies and it fades in  the cold December night 
I hear our laughter and tears catch their breath while we wait 
for the returning  of the light
Here on this planet our triumph and pains  
overwhelm  us with the  passions of the age
yet in this moment our hope still  remains, 
faith and love for the turning of the page

May the year of Our Lord be the year of His grace
be the hour that His mercy falls upon us
Let the day that has come   Shine the light of His face
May we see the fulfillment of the  promise
may the pain of the past  let the fear that we'll fall
be the burdens we leave behind us all
in the year of Our Lord  may His glory fill the earth       yeah 
may His glory fill the earth       yeah 

I let the pages of the calendar go  watch them fall 
and the wind sweeps them away
measure by measure we change and we grow 
as the hands of the Sculptor form the clay
reaching behind us the deeds we have done, 
and ahead all the deeds that we will do
All God intended that we should fulfill  
in a masterpiece that's hidden from our view   

May the year of Our Lord be the year of His grace
be the hour that His mercy falls upon us
Let the day that has come   shine the light of His face
May we see the fulfillment of the  promise
may the pain of the past  let the fear that we'll fall
be the burdens we leave behind us all
in the year of Our Lord  may His glory fill the earth       yeah 
may His glory fill the earth       yeah 

One last reflection and one last goodnight 
then I lay me down to rest upon my bed
One last surrender to sleep as it comes here 
to wash all of the worries from my head
Shining and shattered, the year that has gone 
takes its place among the record of my past
all that matters is that Christ carries on 
in this life from the first day to the  last    

May the year of Our Lord be the year of His grace
be the hour that His mercy falls upon us
Let the day that has come   shine the light of His face
May we see the fulfillment of His promise
may the pain of the past  let the fear that we'll fall
be the burdens we leave behind us all
in the year of Our Lord  may His glory fill the earth       yeah 
may His glory fill the earth       yeah 

Wipe Away

Photo by RP Marxhausen

When my daughter Anne was in Confirmation class, she was asked to pick a Confirmation verse from the Bible.  From attending so many Confirmation services during my lifelong Lutheran sojourn, I've noticed these selections tend to stick to certain dedicatory, encouraging formats, which is appropriate.   I asked Anne what verse she had picked, and she told me, "Revelation 7:17".  

"For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,   and he will guide them to springs of living water,and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.  

When I read this, I was speechless.  

I tried to share this selection with my wife Kim, but I choked up, and she wanted to know why.    I believe it was because I was overwhelmed that such a young person would hold the eternal vision of this, the pure heart of every longing hope we can have on Earth.  

I regret to say that in the end somebody prevailed on her to use something more conventional, but I've seen from all that has followed in her life that this was not a random choice but reflected her heart.

According to the copyright, I didn't write this song at exactly that same time, but it does draw from the same verse. 

Download / Listen to "Wipe Away"
© 2004 Paul Marxhausen

Pain and disappointments 
everybody has  more than a few
So when friends and kids come crying 
we all do the things that we learned to do
like grab the box of Kleenex and a Band-Aide if it's needed
a  hug to help these wounds begin to heal
the little human things we do 
to let them know we know the way they feel

But He's going to wipe away 
wipe away our tears
on that resurrection morning 
I've been looking forward to for all these years
and pain and grief and crying will fade with all our fears
and death is swallowed up in life 
and He will wipe away our tears

People shrug and tell me 
God can't care what's going on today
my problems are right here and now 
and God is huge and much too far away
but I say that He's kneeling, looking in your eyes
every time a teardrop leaves a weary trace
and you will know the feeling of His fingers 
as He wipes them from your face

and He's going to wipe away wipe away our tears
on that resurrection morning 
I've been looking forward to for all these years
pain and grief and crying will fade with all our fears
and death is swallowed up in life and 
He will wipe away our tears

So cry if you need to  each tear is a token
of joy that will be when the morning  has broken  
 
He's going to wipe away wipe away our tears
on that resurrection morning 
I've been looking forward to for all these years
pain and grief and crying will fade with all our fears
and death is swallowed up in life 
and He will wipe away our tears  
death is swallowed up in life yeah
and He's gonna wipe away our tears.

Bonus Live Track:  Chris Mackie/bass Nathan Weinhold/congas

Almighty One

Mosaic, photo by RP Marxhausen

If you write songs and play them enough years, you start to get some objectivity and distance about songs you wrote.  It's almost as if somebody else wrote them.  The band will play them yet another time and it's like a surprise: "Wow, you know, that IS a pretty good song.  I like that."  

I have to confess I've taken pride in some songs because I think the lyrics are clever or profound, or maybe I pulled off some tricksy chord progression, or in some other way got to put my musicianship on display.   

But for a few tunes, it's not like that: I'm just glad the song exists, and that I had anything connected with it existing.  

All this is a windy way to approach the question, "what's the favorite song you've written?"  I don't know if that is the same question as "what's the best song you've written?"  Some days I think the answer to both might just be the song that is also the shortest song I ever wrote, "Almighty One".  It emerged while noodling on guitar, just singing the word "holy", and after finding the two-line lyric, I knew it was enough.  Here's the demo I recorded by myself.

Solo demo, "Almighty One" 

I liked it.  But the revelation that smacked me upside the heart came when our praise band breathed their voices into those chords and when the congregation learned it, making it massive and majestic.  Now when I walk into that familiar guitar part and those harmonies arise on the second verse, it's all I can do to make it to the end of the song.  

Worship service board recording, "Almighty One" 

Time Stands Still

Photo P Marxhausen

I've mentioned my initial reluctance to write a song for my daughter's wedding on the grounds that "walking her down the aisle" tunes are an overworked genre, and more than that I'm much too self-important to let down my hair (umm ... metaphorically speaking) and reveal any schmaltz to the world.  But if you're going to write anything authentic then sometimes you have to get over yourself and let the chips fall where they may.

Such is the case with this now ancient song that I do not believe I've performed or recorded anywhere at any time.  I'm tremendously stoked that my 20 year old son has found a sweet deal renting a room in a house that his immensely  sane friend recently bought, but apparently I am not immune to the pang of that last-kid-leaves-the-house feeling.  And so this song, probably written before he was born, came shuffling up from the cellar saying, "Excuse me, is it OK if I come out now?" I dusted it off and wrote a new bridge and here it is.   (And I just this moment realized the guitar introduction is a complete James Taylor ripoff, but it's going to have to stand as I recorded it.)


Download/listen to "Time Stands Still"

Time Stands Still
©  2002 Paul Marxhausen

Seems we spend our life
chasing things that we can keep
to make it all seem worth more than 
a dream within our sleep
So why do I embrace
what I know cannot remain
like a child's  sidewalk masterpiece of chalk
before the rain

And the hours slip past
and the days race by
weeks melt into months and even years begin to fly
but the moment that I spend
as I watch you fall asleep
time stands still
time stands still

The lightning of your smile
the laughter like a song
the joy of rediscovery in little things long gone
these treasures that I gain
in the time that you are here
work on me like antidotes for weariness and fear

And the hours slip past
and the days race by
weeks melt into months and even years begin to fly
but the moment that I spend
as I watch you fall asleep
time stands still
time stands still

Over and over and over we dance 
these same steps every day
Planets revolve and suddenly there you go 
on your way

Everybody says
that the young ones grow so fast
we don't know where the time has run away to when it's past
But I feel like I've spent
my  whole life watching here
past and future fade away
the moment's all that's clear

And the hours slip past
and the days race by
weeks melt into months and even years begin to fly
but the moment that I spend
as I watch you fall asleep
time stands still
time stands still
time stands still
time stands still

The Fourth Watch

Mural detail and photo: RP Marxhausen

Songs are written a hundred different ways, but interviews with songwriters often mention the power of a title.  Like supercooled water quickly forming a snowflake around a particle of dust, an interesting phrase is literally "catchy" in provoking a whole set of ideas or a suggesting a back story that needs to be filled out.  John Fogarty is just one of the musicians who jots down and collects interesting suggestions for song titles that later turn into well-known songs.

Some Bible translations give the time that Jesus approached Peter's boat, walking on the water, as the "fourth watch of the night", and that phrase was a dust mote that had me stop what I was doing and do something with it right away.

Listen To/Download The Fourth Watch

I've been sailing so many years miles out from the land
I've forgotten how it would feel to set my feet upon the sand

And I keep hauling hard on the ropes trying to steer my way
wondering if I'm close to the hope that I can reach  the light of day

In the fourth watch of the night You come to find me
Where I'm fighting in my boat against the wind
To call to me to come to You and walk upon the waves
I will sink if You don't help my unbelief

I've been watching life slipping by so much said and done
realizing now I don't know how to end what I've begun

And still I keep my eyes on the storm when You come to me
it would cease to roar when You step aboard and suddenly there's peace        

In the fourth watch of the night You come to find me
Where I'm fighting in my boat against the wind
To call to me to come to You and walk upon the waves
I will sink if You don't help my unbelief

I can see a fire on the horizon waking with the sun
I will let it be and rest upon the sea until that morning comes   
In the fourth watch of the night You come to find me
Where I'm fighting in my boat against the wind
To call to me to come to You and walk upon the waves
I will sink if You don't help my unbelief
I will sink if You don't help my unbelief
I will sink if You don't help


© 2014 Paul Marxhausen