Rich Mullins part 5

I missed the last 2 Rich Mullins posts last week. This one would have been Friday's.

Today’s song is “If I Stand.” It is from his 3rd album, “Winds of Heaven…Stuff of Earth. It was released in 1986. This was about when I first heard of him. The concert I mentioned earlier would have been about this time.

This is another song that carries the theme of nature scenes. I love how he compares the reality of the “stuff of earth” and the “allegiance…I owe only to the Giver...” Early in Rich’s career, he set up a team of advisers to handle his finances. They paid him a yearly salary around $24,000, equivalent to that of a common worker and gave the rest to various charities. Certainly “stuff of earth” did not mean as much to him as it does to me. He had taken a vow of poverty and stuck to it in the face of tremendous temptation, leading some to label him “monastic.”

Here are the lyrics:
There's more that rises in the morning than the sun
And more that shines in the night than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here that keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That You will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

There's more that dances on the prairies than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's when her baby's at her side

And there's a loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiment
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That You will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home.