Song Stories: Thirsty

So I thought it might be nice (even if maybe over-explanatory) to take some time and use up some of the infinite interweb real estate to share a little bit about where the songs from the new album came from.  You can click the linky-link below to listen, and scroll on down to read the lyrics -- because, well, that's where my heart tends to show up and where most of that fun angst lives.  :)

THIRSTY (listen here) 

“Thirsty” was actually born out of a somewhat lame guitar chord exercise.  (Hang on, it gets better.) Several years ago, I would often play around on the open-E forms to build hand strength.  My then little boy would come dancing into the room, spinning and bouncing, making blaster sound effects, and kindly point out when I missed a chord (he does that at times).  Eventually, I found that a song was coming up from beneath the fundamentals.  It took a while for the melody and lyrical idea to present itself, but when the characters came into focus, I grabbed hold pretty tightly.  The contrast of the dark and light timbres within the song seemed to fit just right for this true story that laid so close to my heart.

One of my favorite Jesus interactions in the Scriptures is found in John 4 with “the woman at the well”.  I have always identified with this figure; this seemingly cast-off, used up, confused and grasping lady who came to the usual watering hole one day to draw water and ended up quenching a thirst she had not even fully recognized within herself. She was truly, soul-deep parched. 

And Jesus -- He is so gentle with this woman.  He digs into her undoings with scalpel-like precision, speaks unflinching kindness into her cynicism and deceptions and then blazes light into her shadowed spirit.  He offers her a taste of truth and ends up making her mouth an instrument that brings others to this living water.  

I wanted to get inside her mind.  In what manner did her thoughts spin when he spoke? How was her heart rent, her chains melted off through this dialogue?  She came empty, trash to those around her.  She left full, a treasured treasure.

So, yeah, I identify with her story.  And with her rescue.  It is mine (and probably yours) in many ways.  

Thirsty   

My life’s run dry
The journey seems so winding to the quenching place yet I set out alone
From here I see a mystery man who takes His stand leaning, resting on the sacred stones
At my wishing well

My solace flees
My satisfaction seeking interrupted by this presence here today
His eyes ablaze, He’s looking through me yearning to oppose the waywardness of my ways
Enveloped in the brutal heat of day, He says to me

I’ve heard your cries of silence and I know of all you fear
So much defiance, child, why have you come here
Are you thirsty?

I hear my name 
Come dripping off His lips just like the sweetness in the sweat of sacrifice
My hard heart fails, 'cause there’s no way that He could know the trueness of the story He recites
My parched and empty spirit takes to flight as He speaks again

You’ve been seeking refuge in the arms that will soon return to dust
Making merry with the temporary
Child, you must stay with Me, follow Me to a life that’s more than skin deep
Where you can drink deep
Drink deep

Through your cries of silence and in spite of all you fear
Set aside your defiance
Embrace me right now right here
I know you’re thirsty
And only I can fill you in truth 
With streams of eternity welling up inside of you


Copyright Jennifer Hildebrand 2015