Ann brushed a swath of dark brown hair from her face, turned to me with furrowed brows and pink eyes and whispered, “How do I do this?”
Twenty-four hours later I walked behind Amanda as we snaked quickly through a labyrinth of concrete, cardboard and corrugated metal with armed guards protecting us from gangs that had killed in recent days. The smell of decaying trash grew stronger as we marched toward the city dump. Vultures swarmed overhead. Amanda’s shoulders heaved, her gentle sobs only heard by me and the God she cried to.
Back on the bus safe and sound, Lisa-Jo’s voice shook as she asked God, “Do you see this? Are you here?”
I’m thankful in poverty because it exposes my own.
Blessed Poor
Jesus pronounced the “poor in spirit” blessed. There was a small island where every kind of animal roamed and every vegetable and fruit grew from the most fertile soil in the empire. Ancients named it “blessed”, using the same Greek word recorded in the first beatitude – because it had been so gifted that a person could live there forever and want for nothing.
The “poor” Jesus blessed aren’t the spiritual working poor, those who can grind out a meager living, who through skill and determination can tug until the ends finally meet. The word Jesus used described beggars in his day, those who had no skill and bodies broken, with nothing to offer, no hope except that a stranger might pass by and give mercy and some change.
The mother in the slum whose little girl has gone missing. The twelve year old prostitute pregnant by a sweaty stranger. The boy who’s father, possessed by addiction, beats him every night. The girl who picks through trash for breakfast. The student whose stomach growls for days before being filled. These are blessed not because physical poverty is good – it is evil – but because their poverty has shaken them to the end of their rope, into spiritual poverty. Dependent, they fling their fears and needs onto God’s shoulders. Hopeless and helpless, they come to Him alone for daily bread/Bread.
They dwell in and on Him forever and want for nothing.
Rich Becomes Poor
In the Old Testament the physically poor and the spiritually poor were one in the same. The prophets and psalmist realized the connection between material lack, oppression, powerlessness and the resulting spiritual dependence upon God. In the New Testament the connection remains: Matthew records Jesus’ blessing as being for the “poor in spirit” but Luke records it as spoken over the “poor” and followed by a curse on the rich.
But a miraculous contamination can take place when rich meets poor and God comes by. Poverty of spirit can catch like a refining fever spread through hugs and shared tortillas and tickles and story. And the rich stumble away afflicted with difficult questions and sometimes even shame. We are made desperate for healing answers and absolution. Our tears well up from the deep within us. And the Comforter comes to hover over the deep and crafts out of it surprise hope and gratitude and joy inexpressible.
The rich become poor. In spirit. Our pockets emptied of self-sufficiency, vain religion and so-called knowledge, we beg God to come by here and give us change.
Come By Here
At the end of a day full of questions and emotion I pulled my guitar out and sang a song I’d finished shortly before boarding the plane to Guatemala. I wasn’t sure it was finished. But as I strummed the chords in my hotel room and whispered the words to God, it fit the needs of the day – the day Ann asked me that hard honest question. And I felt pushed to do something very uncomfortable for me, to go play it for Ann face to face without the long secure distance between stage and audience.
I walked down the hall, sat on a hotel bed across from Ann’s and sang this prayer from the poor of the third world and first world and every place in between, from all of us with empty outstretched hands in need of change.
There we sat. Two beggars in tears, blessed to need the peace and presence of Christ, the sovereignty of the Father and the power of the Spirit.
Blessed because the kingdom of God, His rule, has overthrown ours. And we want for nothing.
Today we fly home “full” – as Amanda puts it – made rich by His promises to work all these things together for our good, to be a light unto our path as our feet search for the next sure step, to give us a future and a hope, to hear us when we call to Him, to lead us into good deeds that were prepared for us before the founding of the world, to give sight to the blind and freedom to the captives, to sing over us and fill us with Spirit and guide us into truth, to deliver us from evil, to continuously overcome he who is in the world, to never leave us or forget us: in the slums of Guatemala and the suburbs and cities of America and on a pig farm in Canada.
God has come.
(Facebook & RSS readers: To watch the embedded video, go here.)
Thank you to everyone who read along this week, prayed, sponsored a child and spread the word about our trip. Final posts go up Monday. Read them here
Thank you to Ann, Amanda, Lindsey and Lisa-Jo. I’m proud to know you and serve you and I’m better for it.
Be blessed,
Shaun
Matt Church says:
I have been following along…… it has been a tearful ride. I have also shared with others for them to follow along as well. I have been moved and challenged. I love the song. Thanks for making a difference.
Shaun Groves says:
Thank you for reading, Matt. The tears we shed this week were mostly joyful. Hope yours have been too. We serve a big, compassionate and present God. I know: I saw Him this week.
Michelle says:
Shaun, I have gone through an entire box of tissues reading the posts that emerged from this blogger trip. Thank you for everything you’re doing.
I’ll be honest, for quite a while I have dreamed and yearned to become one of the “chosen” ones, picked to be a Compassion blogger and travel with you. A reality hit me as I read these recent posts. I don’t think I’ve got the chops. I don’t think I’d have the strength to go out into the stark poverty and then be able to process what I had experienced and post.
So, I thank you all. For having the strength, walking the walk and sharing with us all. God bless.
Christine says:
So powerful! Thank you for sharing! I have followed along this week as well and having traveled to Nicaragua just a few months ago, feel as if I’ve walked every step with you. And it’s been a blessing because even just a few months distance from Nicaragua had me falling back into my comfortable existence. These posts have shaken me up again and reminded me that there can be no going back. Thank you!
Michael Patterson says:
The song is awesome! The blog posts and photos have been amazing too! Thanks!
Gina says:
Powerful and beautiful song.
I follow all these trips faithfully and read every post. I am so conflicted about all this right down to my DNA. I have no idea how you do it. I seriously cannot grasp it at all.
Erin M. says:
Shaun – thank you for leading these trips. You are changing so many lives, and not just the ones in foreign countries. My heart is permanently broken for those you have shared with us and those we don’t even know about yet. And the song is absolutely beautiful. What a blessing.
Lindsey Nobles says:
Your song is amazing. You are amazing. So glad to finally know you. Thank you for taking me on this trip. Thank you for guiding us through it. We could not have done it without you. Love how God is using you.
Teena says:
Thank you so much for sharing with all of us. I have cried as I read….
I also shared on my blog, fb and RT lots. Hope I didn’t bug you guys too much.
I am so very thankful for all of you.
Blessings,
Teena
Jill Foley says:
Thanks for another great blogging trip. I just got back from my first trip with Compassion a couple weeks ago and reading about this trip has helped my process my own. I have re-lived parts of my trip and learned even more about Compassion through the bloggers in Guatemala.
I learned some very important things in Peru and they were reinforced through these blog posts about Guatemala.
Thank you for leading these trips and allowing us to “come along” each time.
And your song – it’s amazing. Thank you for being an inspiration to all of us.
jen says:
I agree wholeheartedly with Lindsey’s last statement; I “love how God is using you.”
Love the song!
Liz says:
Beautiful! The posts, the song….God is amazing!
Josh says:
Hey Shaun are you ever gonna write that book?
Kelly @ Love Well says:
God has come. Those of us who’ve followed your trip, we’ve seen Him in the hands and eyes and words of everyone in Guatemala — including the team.
Thank you for being faithful, Shaun. (And thank Becky for allowing you to be faithful. I have a tender spot for the wives who stay at home while their husbands do ministry. I’m a PK, so I know it’s a team effort.)
Amy Sullivan says:
Your trip has made a far off place not so far off. I can’t tell you how many times this week I’ve thought of situations or pictures your team has shared.
Thanks to all of you for taking the time and making the commitment to go so that all of our eyes can see.
Steve Jones says:
I have listened to this twice now, ok three times. Amazing. Absolutely beautiful song. Thank you for moving my heart yet again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Amanda says:
This song is awesome, Shaun. I will never forget struggling through my city dump blog post and suddenly hearing your music through the hotel walls. Patricia and I stopped and listened and it ministered to us. Thank you for giving your life to serve the poor and the pitiful rich. Thank God there is hope for us all.
Krista says:
I read and don’t usually comment. I also don’t usually watch videos in posts, but today I did and I’m so thankful. Thank you for stepping out of your comfort zone to share that song with us, however raw it is.
God has been speaking to me this week. Through friends blog posts, through a song in church this morning, through the book we’re reading in our Mom’s Bible study this fall, Crazy Love by Francis Chan.
He’s speaking. It’s not about me. It doesn’t matter what I did yesterday. It’s all about Him. Today is a new day. Be. Be present with my sons. Don’t worry about the things I didn’t get done. Just be. Be still and content. Be loved by Him.
Ann Voskamp says:
It’s 1:34 am on the pig farm. I am finally home… and i left part of my broken heart in Guatemala.
Your song?
What can you say about a song that’s changed your life? A song that’s your elixir? A song that’s His truth, our prayer, their reality?
Maybe just this:
More.
More music… more Jesus… more grace and giving and gratitude… God.
Your music is all that. So yes — more.
And i am afflicted and wrecked and love-shattered and I hold me to it: to fight the middle ground until my dying breath.
I want to be way out there on the fringe far of center — so I can witness God coming by.
All’s staggering grace,
ann
Robin Dance says:
“His truth, our prayer, their reality…”
. . .
yes.
ali @ an ordinary mom says:
Fight the middle ground- now that is a powerful statement, such a necessary one, and yet so against our very nature, well, at least my very nature… the middle ground is where we live, where we spend most of our time, where we are most comfortable, and yet, when our hearts are so challenged, so changed, the middle ground becomes not the place we work and struggle to get to but the place we work and struggle to get away from!
Praying for strength for all of you (and me!) as we fight the middle ground!!
Jennifer Machiela says:
Thank you Ann — I’ve been reading your blog for a few weeks now and can’t help but be affected by your trip to Guatemala. We sponsor a little girl in the Philippines and she’s been on my mind continually since you began blogging in Guatemala. I can’t help but wonder what her situation is. I’m praying for you as you adjust again to life on your farm with your family and praying that I can in some way take what I’ve learned from you and bring it to my little people here at home so that they can understand how incredibly blessed we are and still see God’s goodness in spite of the extreme poverty elsewhere.
Thanks again — and thanks to Shaun for the song. I was both touched and encouraged and reminded that God is good all the time and He’s always here.
Jennifer
Debbie says:
Thank you for sharing from your heart as you return from Guatamala. I look forward to reading more of the details in the days to come.
What a great song!
Someone commented on my blog post from Sunday that your message went right along with it. I’m glad I came to visit.
Blessings,
Debbie
Charity says:
Oh God, come!!! Awesome.
What a beautiful song, beautiful blog posts this week.
rebecca in etx says:
Shaun,
Thank you.
Thank you for the song. Thank you for a heart that follows hard after our Mighty God. Thank you for the beautiful, heart-wrenching, convicting posts about your trip. Thank you for the great group of bloggers that you put together, again – and for their posts – wow. Thank you for opening our eyes once again to the world beyond our own, for not letting us stay in our suburbs.
And thank You, Father, for Your plenteous mercy.
rebecca
Kelli says:
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful song.
Thank you for finding the right hearts to share their experiences and stories.
And mist of all thank you for doing it for some of God’s most precious children.
Robin Dance says:
Shaun…
Masterpiece. Inspired. Truth set to music, truth liberated.
How do I express my response without pedestalizing you? While that’s gotta feel good, I know it’s not your desire. And here’s the beautiful thing…when you write like this, it ISN’T you! I…see…HEAR…Jesus.
He gave you a new song and I guess my ultimate response?
Soli Deo Gloria
GlowinGirl says:
Stopping by from Ann’s.
Wanting His return ever so much more by the hour. Realizing my selfishness when I see such poverty. Changed.
Thank you for your song.
-karen says:
I watch. I listen.
And I see.
You wear compassion and your heart
on your sleeve.
And I ask God,
“Come by here.”
Thank you…. for traveling
and being our eyes and our ears
our heart
since we cannot all go.
Oh, but we can all help.
What do I do with all this, Lord?
Blessings, Shaun.
-|<@ren
Shelley says:
Shaun,
This post reminded me of something my oldest son shared with me. He went to Mexico in 2007 with Global Expeditions (in fact, it was through them, that we began sponsoring our beloved Daniel through Compassion). Anyway, as part of their two week mission trip, they went to the dump to minister there.
Dustin said he went there completely expecting to minister to the people who lived in the dump. They got there and he was overwhelmed by the stench, by the filth, by the flies all over the little children. The people they found were already Christians and they were there, in this dump, praising God.
It completely broke him. He told me through tears, that he could praise God in our home, in his clean clothes, with his full stomach…….but, if that were him? Could he praise Him there? in the dump? in the filth? with nothing to eat? “Could I, Mom?” He wanted to have that kind of a relationship….that kind of faith. He said, “Mom, I went there to witness to them, but they were the ones who witnessed to me.”
~Shelley
Amber Cullum says:
As I sit here tears streaming down face, my son, drinking his bottle, reaches up and touches a tear……….all I can say is thank you!
Susan says:
Shaun,
This week, these stories, this song, these people…all have left me completely wrecked…thank you!
God is good, all the time!
Kathy says:
WOW … What a song!
What a journey … that you continually yield to the Spirit of God’s calling to make these trips.
I have “experienced” several Compassion bloggers’ trips through blogs I frequent like Ann’s and Amanda’s and Melissa’s (through LPM) and Angie’s… I am moved and humbled and my Spirit stirs and tugs at my heart.
We are THAT family says:
What a powerful song! This is the kind of healing music my broken heart craves.
I don’t ever want to be fixed again.
Love you and all you do for Him.
You are the real thing and I’m honored to know you.
Joy says:
Shaun…
Wordless. Moved.
I’ve been sharing this trip on FB and Twitter like crazy-I’ve sponsored a child for over 10 years but Ann! With her words!
Broken anew.
I am thankful for people like you and Ann (and all the Compassion bloggers!), who walk into the breach, to break our hearts for the things of God…
Loni says:
It’s been a heart breaking blessing following you and the gals to Guatemala. I’ve shed many tears. My children have gathered around our computer to see the pictures . . . and the silence has been deafening as they see how rich we are (when by US standards we are low income). I’ve known Ann since she first started her blog & have met her in person. It’s been special to follow her as well. You’ve all touched my heart . . . we shall see how God uses this for His good and glory for so many. THANK YOU for letting Him use you.
Patricia Jones says:
Monday morning and listening to the song again to start my day. Shaun, thank you thank you for letting me come on these trips and help! Thank you for sharing your heart and pouring out your talent and gifts to change the lives of children. Thank you for making me laugh at your “chic-man” ways. Thank you for this song. You are truly special my friend.
Kaye says:
Thank you for sharing your heart today and while on this very emotional trip. The posts, the pictures and the stories have all been absolutely incredible. I sponsor a child for my sister and her husband, through Compassion. She is a little girl who has the same name as the daughter they lost 3 years ago to cancer.
Shaun, I’ve made something for you but don’t know where to ship it. Can you help me by giving me a physical address so this would get to you?
Just want to bless you a little, as you bless so many others SO MUCH.
Thanks for your time and your heart, for reaching those who are ‘lost’.
Blessings today and every day,
Kaye
Matthew 21:22
Shaun Groves says:
Wow. Thank you. Here’s my address:
Shaun Groves
PO Box 680055
Franklin, TN 37068
And thank you for reading along and for the encouragement!
Marsha says:
This journey has been inspiring, as is your music.
My daughter and her family are missionaries in the bush of Kenya. Visiting there and also the slums of Nairobi, forever changed my life and taken brokenness to a whole new level.
Awareness….more and more needs to flow from our hearts and pens. I can’t help but feel that the financial collapse taking place here in America is part of the Lord’s plan to open our eyes to the eternal. We, as Christians need to share the hope that is only found in Christ.
In a nation where HGTV reigns supreme and the need to update our homes because we don’t have the latest colors or granite countertops, there is still more wealth than the vast majority of the world – even in this challenging economic time. May we be living examples of the kind of brokenness that allows that which we’ve been given to steward, to flow from the brokenness and onto the lives of the needy.
deidra says:
I’m forever different. Forever.
Your five words (shared by Ann): “Is it still about Jesus?”
That question. Changed me.
Lindsee says:
Shaun, this song is beautiful. The words are beautiful and the tune, well, it’s really catchy! Thank you for sharing this story and song with us. As you shared, I was able to follow very vividly what went y’all experienced. I’m almost afraid to read the posts for what it might do to me. It was an honor to pray for y’alls trip. Keep exalting Christ. Thank you for all you do.
ali @ an ordinary mom says:
Beautiful. There is such beauty is the cry of a heart broken by the things that break God’s heart, a heart crying out to Him. Beauty in the pain.
Blessings-
ali
Cherish says:
Thank you.
Ellen Read says:
Hi! We’re currently sponsoring 3 girls (Rwanda, India, and Ukraine). The posts were SO helpful in knowing more about what Compassion does, what the centers are like, who staffs them (how to pray for them), etc. THANK YOU for walking us through that. Thanks for putting faces to every part of the process. The song was beautiful!
Manda says:
Listening to those lyrics… over and over…
So beautiful, so true, so inspiring, so necessary…
Thank you!
Erica says:
I’ve been reading along this week and there have been so many powerful posts! Thanks for introducing me to Ann’s blog….her writing is profound. Thank you so much for doing these trips and opening our eyes anew each time with the need that is out there. I so appreciate your ministry. The song is wonderful with a capital W!!!
Kim says:
Keep shining His light brother. You are a lovely instrument in His hands and I am better for having come across your page : )
Angie Godsey says:
Hi Shaun,
I just returned from a brief trip to Nicaragua where we were privileged to serve in a rescue mission for prostitutes. Little girls and women of all ages shared stories, hugs, tears and hope with us. We got so much more than we gave. I walked away never feeling so rich and so poor all at the same time.
Reading your blog today brought it all back and made me thank God all over again for His love and mercy that reaches across countries to set the captive free.
Blessings to you!
Angie
Tristan de Chalain says:
Hey Shaun,
thanks for doing what you do. I’ve been along on the trip courtesy of Ann’s Blog and have had the good fortune/blessing to meet you and some of the others. God bless you for what you’re doing and if only by a sense of shame at being the haves in the face of such extensive and pervasive ‘have-not-ness”, you have lifted me and others like me to a place we aren’t familiar with. Keep up the good work and we’ll save the kingdom, one soul at a time.
Thank you.
T
Heather says:
Wow. Wish I’d seen this when you started. Will have to go back & read your posts.
meghan @ spicy magnolia says:
Only the Spirit of God could move through your posts in such a profound way to change and touch lives such as mine. I give Him thanks for your team, the opportunity you all had to go, and for all those precious ones in Guatemala that you were able to interact with last week. His Word will not return void, it will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it!
Jacqueline Boj-Sode says:
Shuan,
Beautiful song. It truly is a prayer. One I’ll sing each day in remembrance of the physical poverty in much of the world and the spritual poverty everywhere.
I’m still reconciling this vision of physical poverty in Guatemala, and the reality of spiritual poverty in every neighborhood the world over.
I’ve wondered at how in the West we sing and pray and teach so little about Heaven, while in destitute nations believers wait anxiously to be there.
Thank you for being sensitive to God’s will for you,
for being a servant,
Jacqueline
misty says:
Thank you Shaun for you ministry. Thank you for sharing the blessings with us.
Marilyn says:
In the face
of unspeakable
need
Encountering
at last
our own
undeniable
insufficiency.
THIS
is the only prayer
and the best prayer
and
THIS
is a prayer
He answers.
Jan says:
Shaun – I first saw you and in fact first even heard of you at 1st Baptist Woodstock during Travis Cottrell’s recording that same night back in January 2009. I am a pastor’s wife of 33 years, and God has been so good to our family, our ministry all these years. You blessed me that night young man. I liked you so much. Your genuine heart was so refreshing to me. I raised my hand and took a packet and it has blessed me far beyond what I could imagine. I hope to take a trip one day myself to meet Iduar in Colombia. I’ve followed you and the Guatemala bloggers – what awesome ladies and writers they are. Keep on serving Jesus Shaun. He is so faithful and the least of these are so blessed because of your ministry. Compassion is a blessed organization.
In Christ,
Mrs. Jan
Leslie says:
Beautiful.
I sponsored a little boy from Guatemala today.
I’m weeping. I’m wrecked.
Man, I’m kinda glad y’all are back home.
I don’t know how much more my heart could take. Thank you.
Megan at SortaCrunchy says:
Heartbreakingly beautiful. Such a heart cry.
I have to fully confess that sometimes, I can’t read the Compassion blogger posts. My heart gets shattered over and over again and something selfish rises up in me to paste together some protection. But I adore Ann with all of heart, so this trip, I read faithfully. And yes, shattered again. And inspired and moved and changed beyond words.
This song says everything my heart sobbed as I read the Guatemala posts. Thank you, Shaun.
alittlebitograce says:
i have listened to this song over and over today. i don’t normally check out videos, but ann said to, so i did. i was blessed. i linked to this post on my blog and have shared with several more people. thank you.
Tam says:
Wow! What an incredible blessing you are and how you glorify the Lord in the words you sing and the work you do.
I have only recently started to follow the blogs you and Ann write and I have been incredibly moved. Moved to act for the Lord in a way that I never have before. Thank you for moving me.
God bless you all
amy in peru says:
“come and we will want no more…”
oh that says it all. every desire wrapped up and filled with Himself.
love this song and the desire for Him it expresses.
thank you.
it’s just right.
amy in peru
Stumbeline says:
Shaun, thank you for such a beautiful song. I can’t stop crying, which is a good thing. Usually it’s Ann without an “e” who makes me cry like this with her amazing words. Today was your turn to deliver the much needed “God slap” and I’m so grateful for it. I hope you’ll offer the song here for download since I’d gladly pay for such beauty.
Andrea says:
Beautiful song, powerful message you have all sent us. Thank you. I am praying for the spouses who weren’t on the trip. Hard to be the one at home when the other is on a life-altering trip. It appears to have been a most profuound and intimate time. How do you embrace and connect with the changed/broken heart….?
Christen says:
I love this song! Thank you for sharing. I have followed the trip this week through Ann’s site and I have cried and prayed and it has blessed me beyond words. And now this song….
Donna says:
Thank you Shaun for sharing your heart and song with us. I have been following you via Ann Voskamp’s blog. You guys have seen the raw truth that is often easy to ignore…although I’m sure while the rest of us struggle to remember, you guys will not now. Thanks for writing that song…it make me think of “Come by here…or kum by ya” which is known around the world (even though now trivialized as a camp fire song, has an amazing message). I also appreciated your writing in this post about what it means to be poor in spirit…or at the end of ourselves and ready for God to rescue us to His love! Thanks again!
To Think Is To Create says:
I barely can find words. Thank you for the constant surrender I imagine doing this work takes. Thank you for bringing Jesus-song to us here.
I pray everyone who is wrecked for God puts love into action and does not forget…
[email protected] says:
Hi Shaun,
Though I couldn’t actually listen to the song (I’m in Thailand and we have slower than dial-up connection), I loved reading this accounting of your time in Guatemala. I loved the reminder that poverty comes in all shapes and sizes. I loved the truth shared that often it is we rich people that get blessed the most by rubbing shoulders with the least of these. What a humbling reality. So true.
Thanks for going. Thanks for sharing the story with us. What a gift for the rest of us to hear and taste through your eyes, and the eyes of the rest of the team.
Thanks, again,
Laura
Candace says:
Wow. Thanks so much for all your posts (and the posts of your team) I have read them all…and cried with you, prayed with you and loved with you.
I just got back from Belize about 2 weeks ago and am still having a hard time being home. I know you understand. I go back and forth between being mad, sad, frustrated, helpless, heartbroken…and then hopeful.
I wrote this about the worship I experienced there:
http://candacemercyisnew.blogspot.com/2010/09/worship-in-land-of-little.html
Anyway, thank you for sharing. You have ministered to my heart.
Sara says:
Words fail. You captured my heart of living in the Guatemalas of this world for five years. As a family, walking the tin streets, feeding the poverty, hand in hand with our young children. Forever changed, shaped, shattered for His glory.
Wrapped in hope as Abba called us back home. To be a voice, to shout, to make music for Him, singing of HIs plan for the nations. Words I could never quite express, then you did it for me with notes that match the heartbeat of heaven.
Thank you.
Susan says:
Hi Shaun,
Got to your site via Ann’s. Could you post the words to your song? I’m having a hard time sometimes hearing the words.
Thank you,
~Susan
Shaun Groves says:
Here they are.
Thanks for listening, Susan.
m w humphries says:
It would be really grand if you would post the words to this song. While I got the overall message, there were some words I just could not make out.
Thank you!
Shaun Groves says:
Here ya go:
VERSE:
The orphans shout for a loving father
And the whores reach out for a faithful lover
We’re all singing now
God, will you come by here?
The widows need life to raise their dead and
All the beggars plead for their daily bread – Oh
We’re all singing please
God, will you come by here?
Come, we have nothing else God
And having You we want for nothing
CHORUS
Come, come and meet us here
Come and touch our tears
And we will weep no more
Come, come and meet our pain
Come and lift our lame
And we will limp no more
Come and we will want no more
VERSE 2:
The doubters pray for your signs and wonders
All the cynics say You’ll let us go under
We’re here to stay
God, will you come by here?
Come, we have nothing else God
And having You we want for nothing
CHORUS
BRIDGE:
No death, life
No angels or demons
No depth, height
Can come in between us
And Your love
Your love
Your love, Love
CHORUS
Come by, come by here!
Julia says:
Thanks for the lyrics and the message of grace. God is here, in your expressions as you are doing Kingdom work.
We want no more, because we need no more. He has come by you, Ann (without an “e”) ,those pictures by Keely, etc. Our prayers for our fellow brother & sisters in Guatemala
~Poor in spirit in WA.
Julia
katie says:
1 Timothy 6:17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
(that was in my studying this a.m. and I thought about you and your bloggers and pictures and thought that maybe it would be encouraging for you to see your heart in the Bible…to see that the scalding starkness and burning hope that lives in you are “truly life”)
Dionna says:
I love the song, Shaun and found myself singing along to it already with my heart and soul. I wish I could download it to my IPOD right this second to carry with me in the car and sing when my heart feels so burdened.
Roberta says:
Would you put up the words to your song “Come By Here” on your blog? I’m having a hard time distinguing alot of the words.
Thanks!
Shaun Groves says:
I have, Roberta, a few comments up from yours. ; )
Thanks for listening!
Mary says:
I just listened to this song again for a 2nd time. Could help but relate to the brokenness of people and how that is a blessing which can bring us so close to the Heart of Jesus.
Is there a way to purchase this song on a CD?
Lisa-Jo @thegypsymama says:
Revisiting our Guatemala posts – feeling all heart achey today. And I have this song playing from your new album as I’m reading. And even before I saw which post of mine you’d linked to in this article, I was already thinking it. Lord, come by and yes, we know you’re already here. You never leave. Only we humans abandon one another. Hard memories. Such hope in the music.
Thank you for bringing me, Shaun.