Rich Mullins
Album: Canticle of the Plains
Track: There You Are
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There You Are Lyrics Rich Mullins, Beaker, and Mitch McVicker
Vocals by Mitch McVicker
Psalm 61, Psalm 104
I stood on that Cherokee Plain,
And the Cimeron broke free and jumped its banks
All in a rush of life.
The thunderhead roared out its song,
And it gave what was too much for it to hold.
And so must I.
And You light the sun to lead me.
Send the wind to be my guide.
Just the wonder of this prairie,
So lonely and so alive.
And the song the moon is singin'
With the rain and with the fire.
Says there You are.
(There You are)
There You are
In front of me.
The antelopes' white flashing flanks
Sparked in the heart of the Cheyenne breaks,
Only to disappear.
Just like this memory of what once was my home.
And as I move beyond everything I've known,
You pull me near.
And You light the sun to lead me.
Send the wind to be my guide.
Just the wonder of this prairie,
So lonely and so alive.
And the song the moon is singin'
With the rain and with the fire.
Says there You are.
(There You are)
There You are
And Your kingdom sings of a glory.
Of a power that is Yours alone.
And You're the one breathed into the many.
You're faith, You're love, and the hope.
As we lay our hearts before You
Our hands are free to let go.
And there You are.
(There You are)
There You are
In front of me.
The character of Buzz now enters into the play. Buzz is a former slave that Frank meets in Lawrence, Kansas in a burnt-out ruined church that was destroyed when Quantrill raided Lawrence. And, I meet him because Buzz's mother cleans that church in Lawrence, and she hooks me up with Buzz, and Frank and Buzz kind of become soul mates and head off on an epic journey. So together, the two of these guys begin to head west. That's a key thing in the Franciscan movement, is that they would travel not solo, with the understanding of church as something that happens among people as opposed to just an individual effort. Buzz, being a former slave, really loves freedom, so he of course loves the plains. And Buzz's mother just sort of gets the two guys together, and she says that she's always believed that Buzz had a special part to play in the history of the world. And she recognizes in Frank that they could accomplish it together. And she sort of ... in the [original story] St. Francis was commissioned in the ruins of St. Damian and Christ spoke to him from a crucifix and said "rebuild my church which you see is in ruins." And, in our play, Ms. Johnson, who is Buzz's mother, sort of is the voice of Christ and says, "Rebuild the church," because the one she's in has been ruined. And she goes there, because she loves the place, and loves the church. And so she sends them out together. And this song is just Buzz talking about being on the plains. And the plains are sort of a metaphor all through the play of going to that place that is quiet, going to that place that is silent, and encountering God in a sort of un-cushioned way, encountering God in your soul, as opposed to just through your senses.
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