One
of the rare opportunities for pastors during this season of social distancing
and digital worship is the chance we have to “attend” the services of other
churches and to be led in worship ourselves. It’s like being a chef and having
the opportunity to enjoy a meal that you didn’t have to prepare. I have been
blessed by the work of some of my friends and colleagues and consider this a special
gift.
The morning
of April 26th, just as I got home from sharing our own online
worship service at First UMC – West Memphis, I turned on Facebook and saw a
friend of mine who is a United Methodist pastor in Whitefish, Montana. Morie
and I had met at an Academy for Spiritual Formation at Flathead Lake near Kalispell
back in the fall. Their worship service was just about to begin as I got home.
As
the service began, it became clear that we were joining Pastor Morie and his family
in their home for worship. Morie’s spouse Erin brought out her guitar and sang,
“Let Us Break Bread Together,” that great Communion song, and I began to get
into the spirit of worship. The next thing she did caught me by complete surprise
and touched me right to the heart.
Accompanied
only by soft chords on her guitar, our worship leader began to sing John Denver’s
“Annie’s Song” (1974):
You fill up my
senses
Like a night in a
forest
Like the mountains
in springtime
Like a walk in the
rain
Like a storm in
the desert
Like a sleepy blue
ocean
You fill up my
senses
Come fill me again
Come let me love
you
Let me give my
life to you
Let me drown in
your laughter
Let me die in your
arms
Let me lay down
beside you
Let me always be
with you
Come let me love
you
Come love me again
You fill up my
senses
Like a night in a
forest
Like the mountains
in springtime
Like a walk in the
rain
Like a storm in
the desert
Like a sleepy blue
ocean
You fill up my
senses
Come fill me again
As I
heard her sing this song my eyes began to fill with tears. Growing up in the
years when John Denver was active, I remembered hearing this song many times during
his performing life and after his untimely death. He said he "wrote this
song in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift" after having "just
skied down a very difficult run" and being inspired by the beauty all
around him and being moved to write this heartfelt ode expressing his love for
his wife, Annie.
When
I remember this song, I remember that tragically, his marriage to his beloved
Annie did not survive John’s troubled and volatile personality, and he himself
would be gone all too soon.
Over
the years I had often been brought to melancholy by hearing this song and
remembering the circumstances, but now on Sunday morning, so many years after
its release, I was hearing this lyric celebration of both nature’s beauty and
romantic love now being sung as a worship song.
Hearing
a young mom from the Rocky Mountain West singing this as a love song to God moved
me in places too deep for mere emotion. I will never hear this song in the same
way again.
Now
most people who know me, know that I am a “man’s man.” After all, I eat animals
and drive pickup trucks and all of that. I am in no way an expert on feminine
spirituality. But as a trained spiritual director and student of nature, I also
know that the divine feminine is active in all of our psyches whether we are
male or female, and how we relate makes a difference in how we integrate our
spiritual lives.
The
saints and mystics of old would often refer to God as the divine Beloved, and
now many contemporary Christian lyrics are love-song lyrics to God, as are many
of the Psalms and the Song of Solomon/Song of Songs in the Bible. Bringing “Annie’s
Song” into church and making it “God’s Song”’ is a beautiful way to continue
the tradition. So, thank you, Erin, for this profound and delightful surprise.
You have changed forever the way I will hear this song.
Come let me love
you
Let me give my
life to you
Let me drown in
your laughter
Let me die in your
arms
Let me lay down
beside you
Let me always be
with you
Come let me love
you
Come love me again
2 comments:
John Denver's songs are sacred to me, having heard his Sunshine on My Shoulders when I was in high school and fallen in love with him right then and there. Haha. But Annie's Song is also sacred, in its way, as the second of his songs I ever heard, and popular when I met my future husband. It's been a journey of mourning for both the singer for my marriage, listening to the memorial CDs in my car when I drive to my mom's in Coos Bay (4 hour trip). I've learned so many new songs by him, but the ones about Annie always jerk the heart and the tears come out.
Thank you for giving this already sacred song a new meaning for me!! <3 Thanks for alerting me to its posting. :) I'm glad to read more from you. Peace, ASF brother.
This song has touched me since my college years. My wife and I each chose a song to celebrate our 10 years together, and I chose this one. My mother-in-law and father-in-law (an awesome tenor) sang it. We strive to always acknowledge the divine feminine in our home and in our relationships. Thank you for writing and posting this article.
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