Inspiration

For a long time I have carried a desire to make something. It started back in 2015, and for years it stayed just that: a desire, with no name and no shape, waiting underneath everything else that life asked of me.

Then I found myself in the middle of one of the lowest seasons of my life. Work consumed me. Someone I love was in a very dark place, and it was one of the most frightening times I have ever lived through. There was serious illness in our family, one on top of another. My marriage was there, but it was strained, and depression came and went in our home.

There was not a single place in life that did not need my attention. I was stretched to every side, and every scene was extreme. Nothing felt easy, or peaceful, or strong. It was sandy footing.

I was parched.

It was in the middle of that season that I read these words.

When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

I will open rivers
on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

Isaiah 41:17–18

Rivers on the bare heights. Not in the valley, where you would expect to find water, but on the dry, exposed ground where nothing grows and no one would think to look. I could not get past it. The water comes when every other well has run out, and it comes in the last place we would search.

…at that time especially they ought to trust, because at that time the Lord has more abundant opportunities of displaying his power, when men perceive no ways or methods, and everything appears to be utterly desperate.

John Calvin, on Isaiah 41

That is where the name came from, and it is where this music comes from.

I think most of us are living parched. And we have mostly stopped noticing. We move from one thing to the next and call it normal. But I believe there is rest for us. Not only at the end, and not only when life finally slows down, but in every season of the journey: the full ones, the dry ones, the ones we did not choose.

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I also believe we have to fight for it. Moments of stillness do not arrive on their own. We have to make room for them, protect them, and come back to them again and again. A few quiet minutes. A walk. A song with no words, and nothing being asked of you.

That is my hope for Bare Heights. I want this music to be a place to stop. A little room for solitude and refreshing in the middle of whatever season you are in. You are not alone in your thirst, and there is a river.

If anyone thirsts, let them come to me and drink.

John 7:37

Joe

P.S. I've placed the Hebrew and Greek meanings of the words of scripture on this site. I encourage you to take the scripture and slow way down with it. Take one word at a time and seek to know the deep meaning of it. Let it rest on you like cool water on your neck in the middle of a hot July day. For reference, I use blueletterbible.org.