This new album of mine is an attempt to connect.

To connect the first world to the wisdom and beauty of the third world – for the benefit of both. But also to connect two opposing theologies. Two rival gospels.

One side pitches God’s salvation as hope for the soul, something that begins someday when we die. Come to Jesus, this side says, be forgiven and live with God forever someday.

The other side depicts God as humanitarian, repairing the physical world, ending injustice, filling empty bellies, educating the poor, housing the homeless. Come to Jesus, this side says, and you’ll have what you need today.

Both sides are often at odds with each other. But they don’t need to be.

You’re just sending healthy happy people to hell, one side shouts. Well, you don’t care that some people live in hell on earth, the other side says.

One side focussed on up there. The other on down here. Both sides lacking without the other.

The word “salvation” in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word “sozo”, which does not mean forgiveness of sin. Or rescue from death. Or from hunger and injustice. It means to be made whole or healed. We are not whole if we are unforgiven, chained to shame, afraid to die. And we are not whole if we are malnourished, abandoned, victimized.

Jesus is our salvation! His way of living and His death are a declaration that God cares for the body and soul, about today and forever. A gospel that offers no hope in death is incomplete. And a Good News that isn’t good for the poor is not the Good News of the bible.

So I sat down to write. Night after night. Locking these two foes into the tight space of verse and chorus, pushing them closer together with each rhyming line until they got along as they always should. Life providing plenty of painful inspiration.

My Uncle Joel was diagnosed with cancer. Mom said the doctors weren’t hopeful.

A friend chose alcohol over his wife and kids. He stopped returning my calls. I was told he’d gotten booted from the Salvation Army and was living in his car.

My head was full with the faces and stories of friends I’d met on my last trip overseas.

Prayers for an atheist unanswered.

It struck me that none of this mess was physical or spiritual – but both. That all of these stories, started here in time, would have their completion in eternity. It was all connected. And it was all connected to the cross.

At an old out-of-tune upright I started writing, uniting forever and now, soul and body, up there and down here.

Down Here (Mastered) by shaungroves

What in this life ain’t passing
Big deals and beggars end in ashes
All go from cradle to casket
Down here

What in this world ain’t busted
Crowns and cathedrals rusted
Is there a thing we can trust in
Down here

Up there
The prayers of generations split the clouds
The groans of all creation turn to shouts
Up there
The One who has no start and no goodbye
The One who mourns our fall, hears our cry
And comes to live with us and die for us down here

What in my heart ain’t twisted
I’ve kissed for less than thirty pieces
Oh, God, can heaven even reach me
So far down here

Up there
The One who has no start and no goodbye
The One who mourns our fall, hears our cry

(Emmanuel, God with us
Our king has come to bring salvation
Emmanuel, God with us
Our king has come for us
Our king has come)

Up there
The prayers of generations split the clouds
The groans of all creation turn to shouts
Up there
The One who has no start and no goodbye
The One who mourns our fall, hears our cry
And comes to live with us and die for us and live through us down here

Order the new album for $10 at shaungroves.com/store