Temptation, coming over me,
This situation, Lord, is more than eye can see,
Believe me, Lord, I'm doing all I can,
But You can see me, Lord, You see I'm such a sinful man,
Lord You know I've been here before,
When all of this evil was knocking at my door,
Lord You know how I long to be free,
But I know that You could use this to grow me,
This temptation, that's pulling me away!
My moderation, Lord, I'm losing every day,
Lord please give me, a little self-control,
Lord send some of that Fruit of the Spirit to my soul,
Lord You know I was born into sin,
And sometimes I just let that junk back in,
Lord You know what I need is grace,
So please help me take the way of escape,
From temptation,
Though the wrong,
Seems oft so strong,
There is a Savior Who,
Is gonna see me through...
This temptation, He's gonna see me through
In my temptation, I'll always turn to You!
Lord I'll never be perfect, not this side of glory, this is a thing I know!
But sanctify me, Lord, make me holy, until You take me home!
And lead me not into temptation, no, no, no...
The Music: Being one of my earliest tunes, I was very fixated on the key of G, which is the guitarist's best friend, but I was also very enamored with this little trick I had picked up wherein you slide down the bass line from G to Em, and back up to G. (It also works with C to Am, in case you were wondering, which I'm sure you were...) So I decided to put as much of that as possible into this particular song. For you non-musical people, it's the part that sounds like "dun, dun, dahhhh, dun, dun, dahhhhh!" But, in a stroke of either genius or luck or just being stupid, I decided to speed up and totally switch my strum rhythm for the chorus kind of part, which to this day I really like as a sort of reprieve from the repetition of the rest of the song. For the bridge, I figured out a way to make the bass line get all the way to Am so I could have a fun little walk up to Bm (which does not stand for "bowel movement" so get your mind out of the gutter) to add a little "flair" and "pizazz" as it were. So for 17-year old Justin, this wasn't a bad effort, kind of a folk-sy feel, which was very common for me, variations in the same key, harmonica friendly, and ultimately I'd say it all worked together.
Lyrical Explanation: This song, as with most of my songs at the time, was written for a class assignment. In fact, if it weren't for Mr. Malloy, my praise band teacher who sounded a lot like Napoleon Dynamite, and Mr. Neiswender, my Bible/Chemistry/Calculus teacher who did not sound like Napoleon Dynamite, challenging me through class assignments to write songs about Scriptural themes, I might not have started writing them at all. I might have started writing stupid teen love songs and become Justin Beiber, or I might have not started writing songs in the first place. (Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse...) So I owe a lot of thanks to those two, who made it an actual assignment I'd get graded on to write a song, which I took as a challenge to write a good song, which in turn gave us this little gem.
Now believe it or not, this song was based on a section of "The Purpose Driven Life," by Rick Warren. I know, I know, "Justin, how can you write a song about 'The Purpose Driven Life' and still call yourself a reformed, John Piper/David Platt Neo Calvinist?! It just doesn't work!" And I see your point, but first of all, I don't define my theology by any man, living or dead, I define it by Scripture, and obviously I have certain thoughts that line up with what certain other people have said in the past, but none of that is as important as sticking to the word, in my opinion. Secondly, I found several parts of "The Purpose Driven Life" to not be complete garbage, and to be quite helpful and Scriptural. (I didn't like the constant change of versions of the Bible just to make it make the particular point Rick wanted to make, but that is a completely different topic for another day.)
So anyway, this song came out of the chapter on Temptation. I looked at all sorts of Scripture on temptation, and the ways that God helps us fight it, how He provides a way of escape, gives us self-control through His Holy Spirit, will never tempt us beyond what we are able, in fact is not the one tempting us because He cannot be tempted by evil, but is always with us and will never forsake us. So I took all those ideas, plus a line from the Hymn "This is My Father's World," ("Though the wrong, seems oft so strong") and combined all that with my personal prayer to God to lead me not into temptation to form the lyrical basis. Hopefully, you can hear the passion and reality in my voice as I dealt with the real temptations a 17-year old dude faces. This was a real prayer in my life. It still is. Temptation doesn't go away when your teenage hormones die down, or when you're an adult with a job, or even when you're old and retire to Florida. Maybe they become different, but they're still there, and you still need God to keep providing the way of escape, and helping you to take it. I know I still do. I do hope this song speaks to you in a new way today, and that you love it like one of your own babes, like I do... (Well, maybe not that creepy...)
YouTube Video: This one is from way back when I first got a computer with a webcam, so it's most likely shaky and grainy and has terrible lighting, but enjoy anyway!
Recorded Version: From my first album with my brother called simply "North Side Jamboree," one of the best tracks in my opinion, mostly because of the harmonica. Here's the link.
Conclusion: Thanks for joining me on another musical journey into the past. Let me know how you like it, which song you'd like me to do next, if I should keep doing this, and whether I should grow a big ol' mustache again like I had in high school... Now go, and be golden!
Singing off for now,
Justin Samuel Manry
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| Awesome. Sauce. |
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