Wednesday Words - What Could Have Been

I have quite a list of songs "in the can" waiting to be recorded. A number of them are simple meditations and others are scripture and worship songs I've been writing for church. It would please me greatly to get caught up with some overdue recording this year.

I'm hoping to record two projects in 2012. One will be a new collection of me singing and playing some simple songs. The other will be a new collection of scripture songs sung by church friends at Valley Christian. All my previous recordings are available here.

A good friend sent me a note last week asking me for the lyrics of an old song of mine that had crossed his mind. I was glad for the note because it's a song I had almost forgotten about, and one I want to include on my new project. The working title for the song is "What Could Have Been." The idea came to mw after meditating on Isaiah 48:17-19.

What Could Have Been
Saw you walking out the door
With ambition in your pocket and a thirst for something more.
Heard you promising yourself
You’d work twice as hard as anybody else.
Saw you turning on a friend
Some are winners, some are losers, some are means to get an end.
You should hear the things you say!
But when I look you in the eye
You just turn and pass me by
And I’m not the kind to make you go my way.

Your peace could have been like a river,
Your righteousness like waves on the sea,
Your children could have been like the sand,
Like the numberless grains they would be.

Heard you tell another lie--
In the old days you’d feel guilty now you never blink an eye.
Saw you tossing in your sleep
I guess you dream about the company you keep.
Saw you driving down the road,
It was quiet in the car so you turned on the radio--
They just play the same old songs.
And though I whispered in your ear
Loud enough for you to hear
You just turned the music up and sang along.

Your peace could have been like a river,
Your righteousness like waves on the sea,
Your children could have been like the sand,
Like the numberless grains they would be.

© Copyright by Dave Burkum.