The Comfort Song

There's still a lot of work to be done on this song, but it is the first one from my new CD
that is somewhat ready for public consumption. I originally wrote this song for my church
on a Sunday morning when I was going to be preaching and playing a little bit of music.
The topic of discussion that morning was suffering, and my belief that while God is not the
author of suffering, he does use bad circumstances and turn them around to be long-term
blessings. I used to believe that suffering in my life could be attributed to divine discipline
- a sort of "spanking" from my Heavenly Father. For this to be true though, he would have
to be disciplining us with one hand, and comforting with the other. I believe he seeks to
comfort us with both hands.

The song was written in the morning, as I rushed around with my wife to get ready to go.
By the time I had arrived at the church, I had the melody and three verses scratched out,
but I had never actually played it out loud. We practiced it with the band that morning,
and performed it.

The really profound thing happened afterwards. Our church has many members with
physical and mental disabilities. It is the home church for several group homes in
Abbotsford, which makes for very interesting Sunday morning services! One of the
members of our church was Eddie, a 50+ year old man with Downs Syndrome. We called
him Pastor Eddie, because of his navy blue suit, his big Bible that he faithfully brought
every week, his love for prayer, and his encouragement to all of us. That Sunday, as I
spoke about God's comfort, he was on stage behind me, shouting "Yes Lord, yes Lord,"
throughout at all the appropriate moments, and laughing hysterically when I said that I
had forgot my notes on what I was going to speak about. That Sunday was Eddie's last at
church, because two weeks later, he passed away.

I think of this song as Eddie's song, and as the song for Freshwind, because God, in his
infinite wisdom, allowed me to write it for the church just before we were about to lose
someone very precious to us. We turned to the Lord, and he was there.