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Church Demos Rock and/or Roll

Beautiful

I’ve been working on this song forever. A sketch has been in my idea folder for at least a year and multiple recorded fragments reside on my handheld recorder, my phone, and my computer. On a beautiful fall day not long ago, I sat outside in the afternoon sun and completed the lyrics. Since then, I’ve been adding a few tracks at a time until it was full enough that it felt like a finished recording. This is a little different for me: simple music as a frame for the lyrics, with atmospheric instrumentation swirling around in the background.

1. You’re taking the dirt
and the clouds and the rain,
and you’re making it beautiful.
Out of the ground
There sprouts a grain.
And it is beautiful.

Even the fire
and the flood;
Rising from ashes;
New life from mud.
Even from fire and from flood
There comes something beautiful.

You’re making it
Beautiful.

2. All of my doubt,
my fear, and my pain—
can You make them beautiful?
All of the things
I can’t understand—
Will they become beautiful?

You’re taking my failures,
and my scars
and making
a canvas for your art.
The night is dark,
But it’s full of stars.
They are so beautiful.

You’re making it
Beautiful.

3. I burn a bridge,
can you part the seas?
Lord, I need a miracle.
O God, make a way
When I can’t see
How it could be beautiful.

A story of sin
Told in regrets;
A history
Written by mistake…
Will there be hope
When morning breaks?
Will it be beautiful?

You’re taking it,
You’re making…

All things new. All things new again.
All things new. All things new in the end.


For the record, yes, the atmospheric background vocals were a tip of the hat to 10cc’s hit “I’m Not in Love.”

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