Skip to content Skip to footer

The heart Behind the Song Story Of Grace

I remember the first Sunday we did the song, Story of Grace in church. 

A little background to that though: I closed out our second service the previous Sunday with what I would later find to be an absolutely Holy-Spirit inspired ‘announcement’ that Sycamore Worship had some new stuff they were about releasing. It honestly wasn’t pre-meditated. If it was, I probably wouldn’t have dared say it- at least not in front of the several people in church.

I’ve learnt to be bold about what I sense the Holy Spirit is saying in those moments. After all, he knows way more than I do and He is always speaking from that vantage point.

As I heard the whole church scream excitedly at the announcement, my mind began asking me ‘what new stuff?’

When I look back, I guess God surely had it all figured out and prompted me to say that so that we could find the faith to pull out what He intended.

Our little journey of songwriting has been hinged on the awareness that it starts from what God is saying. It doesn’t ever start from how skillful we think we are, or how much music we can create, or how expectant the people are. We are simply always trying to catch a sense of God ’waves’ and ride on them. That way, things have a way of falling in place and our effort is blessed.

A couple of days later, riding in that awareness of God being up to something, I asked some of the Sycamore Worship guys whether they had anything they were working and they sent me some music they were playing around. I heard it and thought there was a special song we could work out.

Somewhere in the middle of the week, I was back and forth; conceptualizing and capturing; writing, canceling and rewriting; trying all I could to fix thoughts into accurate lyrics.  

Just a few days later, as the team began leading it in church, I found myself tearing up as each new line unfolded- it no longer felt like a song I wrote, it felt like they were singing my life story to me! 

Maybe that was what I was looking for after all!

I was trying to be sincere about my story, but also not in denial about the story of the grace of our God, and in some way demonstrate how both stories intertwine and create a hopeful climax.

It’s hard to explain, but I felt naked- and then clothed. I felt spotted out- and then welcomed in. 

And quite certainly, it’s not just my story- it’s the story of every one of us!

We say it a lot around our church that grace has not yet done all that it can do. Just when you get overwhelmed in all the riches of God’s grace, you still realize ‘God gives us even more grace’ (James 4:6 EXB) I love that thought!

Story Of Grace is about what grace did, what it’s doing and what it will still do!

My prayer is that this song will really help people locate themselves on a ‘grace map’ and propel them into the more of God’s working in their lives.

My prayer is also that they’ll find that response that grace is always inviting us to. 

One of the beautiful things about writing songs for me is how isolated and abandoned dots join up.

After the last chorus, I felt the story of grace wasn’t complete without the response it draws out of us. As I was looking for that apt response, I suddenly found myself landing on a chorus ‘Loni and I had abandoned a few years ago when we couldn’t quite work out the song around it. 

I will live for you
I will stay with you
I found life in you
I find life in you

I love that grace doesn’t just work in us. It empowers us to respond right! Grace isn’t an accomplice or cover for human stupidity. It’s an empowerment for a new beautiful and audacious God-direction for our lives.

We start out, like Adam, reacting to our nakedness, guilt and shame, with all the never-sufficient leafy coverings we reach out for; but because God reached down to us through the all-sufficient Jesus, we can stand bold, guiltless and empowered to respond.

Trying the song out in Church, it’s always a really beautiful point in the song for us when we can just drop off the music and the song leading, and allow people to just raise their voices and hands and respond to the way this story of their life became a story of grace and of a forever hope. It’s like the fresh breeze after a storm.

I will live for you
I will stay with you
I found life in you
I find life in you

I hope people far away from Jesus can hear in this song how loud the grace of our God is. I hope people who know Jesus can see the beauty of what we stand in and respond again and again. I hope people struggling can see the hope in the horizon.

It’s a story of the lost. It’s a story of the found. It’s the story of the weak. It’s the story of the strong.

Better put, it’s a story of what God’s amazing grace did, is doing and can do with every one of us.

And here’s to forever…!

Tolulope Moody

 

Story of Grace
© Sycamore Worship
Words & Music: Tolulope Moody, ‘Loni Familoni, ‘Tobi Salako & Remi Agun
Official release- Sunday, November 3rd 2019

Leave a comment

0.0/5