Sweet Song-spiration

In January, I found a note at my folks house that I'd written when I was maybe 10 or 11.  It said:

"If I could invent a color of my very own, I would call it 'Jordan' (my middle name) so that my name would seem pretty.  It would be the most wonderful, graceful, glorious, peace-making color in the world.  It would be kind, yet 'sufistacated'.  Peaceful looking, yet powerful looking...I would be a purple, blue-green color...

I'LL WRITE THIS LATER!!!"  

It made me laugh!  No one was twisting my arm to write about what color I would invent!  When I read it again, though, I realized that, more than describing a color, I was trying to communicate the kind of person I wanted to be.  Then I realized, I still wanted to be that kind of person.  Heck, I still wanted to be that color!  I'd just put purple highlights in my hair!

I thought I'd found a helpful little clue leading me toward more solid song inspiration.  I decided I'd start paying closer attention to those more timeless bits of my character and roll those into my songwriting ideas (profound, I know).   

Days later, an old note I'd made from Isaiah 61 fell out of my Bible, so I read it again:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me 

• to bring good news to the afflicted;
• He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
• to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
• and freedom to the prisoners.
• To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
• and the day of vengeance of our God;
• to comfort all who mourn

...giving them beauty instead of ashes, 

the oil of gladness instead of mourning, 

the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. 

So they will be called oaks of righteousness, 

the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."  

I immediately remembered reading this for the first time.  I read it at a corner cafe, eyes wide, because I felt like I was reading something that...well, I might as well have written in my prayer journal!  "Bring good news to the afflicted?  Proclaim liberty and freedom to captives?!  Bind up the brokenhearted?!  Comfort those who mourn...?...That's what I want to do!  This is ME!"
 

"Hmm...I wonder..."  I counted the number of things Isaiah listed.  I'd found a theme for each song on our album.  Sweet song-spiration!