Track #4: Your Blood Covers It All

I travel to Nashville a few times a year for the purpose of writing with other writers, or "cowriting." It is a chance to combine my strengths with others' strengths, and widen the perspective of the writing room. I have come to really enjoy and appreciate cowriting because it has helped me discern my strengths and weaknesses. It has helped me become a better listener. I have made fast and enduring friendships. And it has helped me develop a few words scribbled in a journal into a song that is bigger than either of us could have accomplished alone.

One of my favorite books is "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. My first reading of the book was a spiritual experience. I underlined nearly every phrase and filled the margins with my own notes. It was a major filling of the well from which I draw song ideas. And yet I didn't just want to hastily paste Ann's beautiful phrases into songs for the fun of it. I let those ideas simmer and soak for a long time, trusting that the phrases I marked would find their way into songs at the right time. One of the phrases I wrote down was "the cup and the loaf," a simple description of the wine and bread of communion.  I meditated on this phrase and asked God to help me express what Christ's body and blood has done for us.  I only had the first verse lines when I brought the idea to my cowriter, David Moffitt. He, too, was compelled by its simplicity, and together we chased the heart of communion into the song "Your Blood Covers It All."

As with many songs, I had people's faces in my mind as I wrote. One was a friend who had struggled with crippling guilt over a choice she made years and years ago. One was a friend who struggled daily with addiction. One was my own face, as I know too well the reality of the flesh, the sin, the mere seconds that pass until I have more confessions for the day. I wanted people who listen to and sing this song to feel relief -- a blessed, colossal sigh from the weight of guilt, and from the oppression of regret. I wanted them to feel the weightlessness of forgiveness, the release of confession, and the real relevance of what a Jesus did for us.

The bridge invites lines from the old hymn "It Is Well" because, in forgiveness, there is no option other than to be "well" -- we are at peace with God Himself.

My dream for this song is that it would be sung in churches all over the world. I feel the message is true and important, and I pray those who sing it will know the joy and freedom of forgiveness bought by the blood shed on the cross.   The chord sheet and lyrics are on CCLI, the catalog used by many worship leaders throughout the world. Here is a link: Your Blood Covers It All (CCLI resource)

Dear reader, would you take four minutes to listen, to ponder, to sigh, to smile, to laugh and give thanks that Christ's blood covers it all?