caught somewhere between real life, simple faith, & raw emotion
Supplication: Not just a song anymore
I have reached a new plateau in my life.
I received an email last week from a guy who got a Strongarm tattoo. That is, he got a tattoo inspired by some lyrics from a song I wrote while I was in Strongarm. The lyrics in the phrase pictured here are:
I surrender all
All I am I give
They are lyrics from a song called Supplication. It is what I describe as a martyr’s prayer. I wrote it envisioning what the many people might have been feeling who were put to death in the past for believing that Jesus was actually God’s son and rose from the dead. That was my inspiration.
It is an amazing to imagine that 12 years after I quit Strongarm what I did still lives on. Someone has been moved enough to mark themselves for life with words I wrote. And as I work to finish a new endeavor, my first book, I hope and pray that this new revelation will have a positive legacy too. I hope that it will inspire people’s curiosity about the life and teachings of Jesus.
So thanks Joey for the email! The tat looks great. And you have moved me very deeply by honoring me in this way.
PS-I have posted the full lyrics below if you want to read them. They are floating around the web, but here they are in the correct form as I originally wrote them:
There can be no justice
Where there is no truth
A life of self-sacrifice, a new creation
Devotion to purity, in the midst of the light of conviction
Set fire, to the hearts desire, taken by storm
No longer in the dark, dwelling in the shadows nevermore
I surrender all, all I am I give
Give there of ’til end much more, more than this death
I surrender all, all I have I’ve spent
Spent my essence and much more, more than this death
Far be it from me to flee from the den of lions
The truth can be blinding
Cast me forth for stoning
Misunderstanding causes fear
I feel your pain, I feel your emptiness
And on this day blood will touch blood
Because I am an example I will not flee
Waiting for an end as breath fades away, fades away, fades away
Waiting for an end as breath fades away…
I surrender all, all I am I give
Give there of ’til end much more, more than this is death
I surrender all, all I have I’ve spent
Spent my essence and much more, more than this is death
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Thanks man! That’s awesome. Plus, I love being able to add to the toilet graffiti. Who wouldn’t?
Jason, I oft quote the first line to “Supplication”. Not that you would want me to graffiti your old lyrics every where, but I often feel inspired in bars and in common places where people feel the need to hide their true feelings in anonymity. Homophobic and racial slurs are often left on the stalls of bathrooms. Many times, some sentiment about God is left as well. I love writing, “There can be no justice where there is no truth” because I know that Christ’s truth is the only constant that truly frees humanity from the bondage of sin. I do quote Hatebreed on occasion (“Satisfaction is the death of desire” when I want people to strive for more than mediocrity. Thanks for sharing your heart with us some 15 years ago. You don’t know the benefit it had.
Cheers.