KingdomTide

This is a song that my friend Mark Benjamin and I wrote together 2 years ago. It was inspired by a series of chapels at Asbury Seminary named KingdomTide. The vision and the voice behind it came from JD Walt, the Dean of the Chapel. At first, I admit that I didn't really understand the image and what he was trying to say. But soon, the image of the Kingdom and God's work and presence in the world as a rising, unstoppable tide worked its way down deep inside me. Since then, I haven't been able to shake it. I have found myself actually drawing and doodling the image... swelling waves, rising tides, unleashed momentum. Recently my friend Matt Lewis and I were eating at the Great Wall in Wilmore and he began to share the same story... of an image and idea (vision) that had been gripping his heart... I knew before he even said it what the image was going be... the rising tide. It's a metaphor on the move, a visible word with a life of its own. It is also consistent with the kingdom images drawn out by Jesus...the kingdom is like a mustard seed... like a pinch of yeast... like something that starts out small and unassuming, but swells and pulses and churns and explodes... like a tide on the rise.

"Kingdom Tide"
Hear the roar of rushing wind
Breath of God, bring life again
See the waves of coming change
A mighty movement advancing His name

Dawn breaks through the darkness
Hope swells like the sea
When the body is as one in beloved community
A city on a hill
The light you can't hide
You can't stop the rising of the Kingdom Tide

Feel the flood sweep through the streets
In its wake, the song of the redeemed
Taste the rain fall fresh and new
Awakening the world to You

May Your Kingdom come
May Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven