Took us quite a while to release a new song. We had multiple delayed releases, with two songs that was supposed to come out first hitting some snags. Now this song, Mighty, was supposed to be released last October or November. But this too got into some delays. So the delays eventually righted the original sequence of our releases. With Mighty being the first one out for this year. The song was originally written for our planned third album. But as the story went, our change of direction would mean that the songs written for that supposed third album, will have to be assigned to be interpreted by a featured artist of my own choosing. Falling in Love was the first one to be released, but not under Thoughts And Notions. Mighty however, is one that I've held close to my heart. After all this was one of the first songs that I wrote when I decided to return to songwriting. I actually find this song daunting to write. Because at that time when I wrote the song, my personal relationship with God was in a state of repair. I lacked the conviction to talk about my Faith. And there was this lack of confidence in sharing my Christian Faith. This stemmed from the constant deluge of scandals rocking the Christian churches which dominated the News at that time.
All those scandals made me come up with this phrase "Faith above religion, God before ambition." This phrase had constantly repeated on my mind so much so that I was inspired to write a full song about it. It would seem that Churches from different Christian denominations have been experiencing a fall from grace. With Church leaders acting more human with their decisions and actions rather than lean on to their divine calling and trusting God to make things right. And to be informed in their decision making not to defend institutions and personalities as how human beings does, but to come clean and allow God's justice to do his work. These scandals however shouldn't come as a shock to the congregation as the Bible itself is filled with similar stories about great men or men of God falling from grace. More than anything, these stories should serve as a warning to us. True, being a Church leader, the pressures to be perfect and holy is magnified. But if we put Christ at the center of our life, and pursue a real and pure relationship with him, then there would be less pressure to follow his teachings. Because following his way is something that we should embrace doing rather than treat it as a tedious and daunting task. Though we'd always want to hold our Church leaders on a higher pedestal, we also must not forget that they are after all humans like us. And we also need to pray for their continued strength and purity in their roles as our leaders and men/women of Faith.
Though these scandals could possibly turn the Christian faithful away. I however thoroughly believe that while no Church is perfect, it also does not mean that we should turn away from these Holy places of worship. We should remember to focus our attention on worshipping God and not the personalities. We can't become better Christians without the guidance of the Bible scriptures and a healthy Church community. So, with the phrase "Faith above religion, God before ambition", initially it veered me away from Jesus' story. As at that time I felt like I need to write something to help mitigate the situation. This is where the challenge of writing the song Mighty came to be for me. The original version of the lyrics of the song "Mighty" was centered on what I (or we) could do, rather than what Jesus has done and will continue to do. Consider these lines:
Original Version:
Verse 1
We're starting a revolution, to take over this world...
It's the power of his love
that we should hold and have
Chorus
.... Mighty is his word, it could change the world
Verse 2
Intolerance and indifference causes to separate
To this revised version:
Verse 1
He started a revolution, to take over this world...
It's the power of God's love
that's been sent from above
Chorus
.... Mighty is his word, it will change the world
Verse 2
Come let us seek the holy one, with pure hearts he creates
Subtle phrases and small word changes, but the changes made have so much more Spiritual and Faith based significance and conviction. If you have been listening to our songs, especially the old ones. Our songwriting styles sometimes plays with the vagueness of words because there's a conscious effort to make our songs accessible to Christians and secular audiences alike. We don't want to turn them away and sound too preachy. Though the lyrics are still rooted in our Christian values and Faith experiences, sometimes there's this danger that you'd lose the spiritual aspect and the Christian context of the song. Therein lies the danger of being misinterpreted. The song Mighty went through a lot of revisions (specifically the verses above) because the original version lacked the conviction to send through the message that I wanted to tell. I asked two Pastors to review the lyrics and I was left with a lot of questions centered around what message I wanted the song to tell, which I could not answer. Specifically, the question, "What revolution are we starting and how do we go about it?" This all goes back to us and our ministries or to our Church authorities where we are too engrossed with doing the work according to our own power and what we think we are capable of doing rather than to stay Faithful to God and allow his grace and provision to work. I honestly took the question personally. It felt like the question was pointed at me.
And here are my honest thoughts. As an individual who is accustomed in giving 101% in everything that I do, may it be work, passions, ministries, I have this characteristic where I feel I am compelled to do everything in my power to achieve what needs to be achieved. Especially when it comes to ministry work, I always give it more than a 100%. It is not so that I wanted to become popular or want to have the focus of the attention to myself. But it is more so on the belief that I want to do more for God. And giving it more than my best is what God deserves. Feels like more about "I" or "me" doesn't it? But the bigger question that was shot back at me as I had my discernment and prayer was, "When does the "me" step aside and start letting God do his grace and provision?" This was the greatest learning that I had when I did the revisions. I stripped everything about what "I" could do, and let God do his work. And I have Ben Oribe to be thankful for this realization that enlightened me. True, when the original lyrics that I wrote was criticized and questioned, it stung. It hurt. Because all I wanted to do was to honor God. But then it is not in my place to be greater or be "Mightier" than God. And that is me saying that even if I wanted to do more for him, I will always have my limitations. And the danger for this over zealousness to be corrupted is very possible. For you shouldn't compete with God, only God is the Almighty One. And Ben reminded me of this as I started reworking some of the words in the song. It helped me toned down my zeal to do more (shouldn't be that bad right?), but also allowed me to have more conviction to share my Christian Faith and belief thru this song. In the end, the song transformed from what I believe that "we" could do and turned it into a testimony of Jesus' story.
By the way, Ben is a singer/songwriter himself. My affinity with him goes back to our Mindanoan roots (he's from General Santos City, while I am from Cagayan de Oro). And he's currently handling the Youth Ministry in his Church, a role that I also used to be responsible for back in the day in our Church. But more than anything, it was music that connected us. And Ben is an amazing songwriter himself. Even way better than me, as his songs are very full of spiritual conviction when he talks about our Faith. It does help that he interprets his songs himself, keeping the songs pure as he intends it to be when sang and delivered. So, when the reformation of our band did not come to fruition, I knew that only Ben can do justice to this song. And as another fun fact, we've kind of removed Ben from his usual comfort zones and made him interpret this song differently from the ones on his catalogue (you should check them out on the link below). Mighty has some traces of Motown sound and reggae beats. So, you'll be hearing a different kind of Ben Oribe for this song.
In closing, Mighty is a song that talks about God's Love and the revolution that Jesus started. It is never about our works (nor the Pharisees and the Sadducees during his time). It's never about the repetitive "religiosity" when we worship. But it is about what is at the heart of that worship. It's our FAITH in God. The parables and the teachings that he had imparted to us. And the spiritual relationship that we commit to him. And when we do our works, it's not about our ambition that would lead us, but rather, it is about putting God first in everything that we do. For if we honestly seek him and embrace his wisdom, then we'll understand our Faith with so much more clarity and purity. This season of Lent, may we reflect on this as we try to become better Christians in this world today.
To know more about Pastor Ben Oribe and his songs, check out his Official Website:
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