Song Story: I Want To Be Where You Are

From Don

05.04.09

I was sitting alone in a church trying to write the first song of a musical (which turned out to be God With Us) that would be a big and powerful choral anthem inviting people into God’s presence. What came out of my mouth really surprised me because it was so gentle. I put it aside thinking, “This is not the big choral anthem I was looking for;” however, I couldn’t get the medley out of my head.

I tried it out for the first time unfinished in a little church in Oklahoma. I had my legal pad at the piano and because I didn’t have the rhymes yet I just sang the four thoughts I had sketched for a bridge (I want to be where you are, dwelling in your presence, feasting at your table, surrounded by your glory) and decided I’d figure out the rhymes later. But the song so impacted the people that I never changed it.

This song was unique because I felt the Lord had let me capture, in music, a prayer and a cry on hundreds and thousands of people’s hearts, people want to be in God’s presence (Psalm 27:4).