Someone's Sowin' In Your Soul

West Virginia highway. Summer 2003. Alone in the car. Two hours from  the retreat center where a small group of fellow Brethren pastors will gather.


 When I arrive I will lead a reflection on a story Jesus told: 
"There was a sower. He had some seeds. He scattered them. Some did good. Some not so good. Some got eaten up by birds. Some got choked out by weeds. Some got scorched by sun. And some did amazingly well!"

Masanobu Fukuoka, Famous Sower

As I drive I begin to sing a new song that just flows out:"Someone's sowin' in your soul. Someone's sowin' in your soul. Someone's sowin' and a crop is growin'. Someone's sowin' in your soul."

I taught the song to the other pastors and we sang it together that day. Five years later I recorded a live version  of Someone's sowin' in your soul with Bearfruit. Bearfruit is Tim Dunmire, Duane Rhodes and myself. We performed together from1998 to 2010 while I was the pastor of Spring Run Church of the Brethren near McVeytown,PA.

Over the years we sang Someone's Sowin' more than any other song, but never did we do it any better than that night for our Love Your Neighbor concert at Spring Run. You can now hear this recording on my CD "Look For Me" or by clicking on the hyperlink in the preceding paragraph.


 As I sang that night in 2008 I looked out on the approximately 125 people in attendance. I knew most of them. I wondered:'What seed had been sown in their  inner beings? What ideas, images,inspirations, information, intentions had been planted in them? Which of these were taking root? Which ones would one day produce a harvest in their lives? Are these dear people longing for something good and lasting to come forth? Would the harvest of their lives be nourishing and beneficial? Might there  be a day of bitter harvest ahead for some?'

And WHO is the 'someone' doing all this sowing?

Recently I discovered that the artist Vincent Van Gogh was enchanted by the symbol of the sower. Van Gogh saw the sower as a longing for the infinite. This idea inspired many of his paintings. (Van Gogh's The Sower is a great example!)

I wonder what would have happened if Mr Van Gogh and I had ever known each other.
What might he  have thought about my song if he could have heard it? Would he and I have discussed our longings for the infinite if we had been contemporaries? Would we have wondered together about who was doing the sowing in our lives and in the lives of those around us?

Would we have wondered if a God of Love was planting seeds for a harvest? Would we have recognized that not all seeds are planted by a good sower with good seed? How would we have distinguished?

Would he have painted another variation on The Sower? Would I have written a different song? Can a painting or a song be a seed?

What about you? Any sower, seed or harvest thoughts you want to plant here?

Music From A Thin Place

 I spent one life changing week on the island of Iona in June of 2005.  Although I've had 7 years to process my experience, I still struggle to explain what happened to me on that storied Scottish isle.   

Iona is one of those places the Celts refer to as a ‘thin place’, a spot where the veil between heaven and earth is exceedingly thin.  I wish I could describe the feeling I had there. If you’ve ever felt the presence of something supernatural and  fully expected to meet a time traveler or an angel with a special message just for you; if you’ve ever  suddenly seen into the very essence of  rocks and tall grass; if you’ve ever had an 'aha' moment when you've 'known' that all things seen and unseen are made out of the same energy that you are; then you have an inkling  of what I felt 7 years ago.

 I wrote down a song on Iona, called "Look For Me". It is the the title song of a CD I released this month. The song “Look For Me” is music from a thin place.(If you want to hear Look For Me, click on the song title in the last paragraph of this entry.) It  expresses what Iona showed me.

Strangely- even though I desired to share my Iona experience with everyone, I also felt a competing inclination to keep it hidden. Therefore I did something quite different with one verse in the song.I purposely hid the meaning by having that verse translated into Irish Gaelic. I can’t quite explain why I wanted Irish Gaelic because I was in Scotland and one would think the Scottish form of Gaelic would be more fitting. But I knew immediately that I wanted the verse to be in the Gaelic of ancient Ireland.

The translation came surprisingly easy and very quickly! All I did was ask my  new Iona  friend,  Florence. Florence  is from the city of Cork in Ireland, so I thought she might know someone back home who could aid me. To my astonishment, Florence said “Yes! I can do it!”  Within a couple of hours she had the translation, phoning her sister in Ireland once for a little assistance.

That very evening Florence  sang her newly translated verse into my small voice recorder!

How could my idea turn into reality in such a short time?

Some might call this a  happy coincidence. Others may recognize synchronicity in action. I’d say “This is just the way music from a thin place works-it's all right there when one's heart is open to it!"

Step by step I continued to follow an unseen guide after I returned to the States. Four months later I followed this unfolding musical path into Bill Stine’s recording studio near East Petersburg,PA.  My old friend  and songwriting mentor,Nancy Honeytree Miller, a legend in the field of contemporary Christian music, accompanied me. Nancy sang the Gaelic verse and also played both guitar parts for the recording of “Look For Me”.

Now I’m ready to tell you what I’ve kept hidden for these 7 years.

On Iona I had a profound sense that all is one and deeply connected. That's called a mystical experience. Many have had one. Mine was somewhat different however. I can best express it in the words of my Gaelic verse which I here return to the original English.  

“Music, the heart of life.

Life, the heart of music.

Music on the first day.

Songs forever after.

 Fields of music.

Orchards of song.

Multiply! Multiply! Multiply!”

All from me. All from me.”

That's my poetic way of saying "Everything is made of music!  Everything IS music!"

 Leonard Bernstein evidently saw this or something close. The great composer once asserted that the best translation of Genesis 1:3 is not, “And God said.” The best translation from Hebrew is, “And God sang.” God sang the universe into existence!

Here's one more way to say it:
Iona showed me something in plain sight that can't be seen. Except when one has eyes to see. Iona sang me a symphony that is everywhere yet can't be heard. Except when one has ears to hear.
Got it?

The recording of “Look For Me” still has the Gaelic verse. But now, when you hear it , you’ll be able to catch a bit more of the mystical meaning and I hope you will find yourself transported to a thin place.