Mitch McVicker
Album: Canticle of the Plains
Track: Heaven Is Waiting
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Heaven Is Waiting Lyrics Rich Mullins, Beaker, and Mitch McVicker
Vocals by Mitch McVicker
Genesis 24:42, Matthew 13:44
I don't need no woman to kiss me.
And I don't need no man to stand by my side.
I don't need to slake my thirst with whiskey.
Don't need to shuffle cards to pass the time.
'Cause the stars are bright and silvery.
And with the dry ache of a lone coyote's whine,
My Savior's calling, and I'm listening.
Time to saddle up my pony and ride.
'Cause heaven is waiting
Just past the horizon.
Just over the mesas.
Across the great divide.
And faith is blazing
This trail that I ride on up this mountain
I'm prayin' I have the strength to climb
I ain't looking for no seven golden cities,
But I know there's a fortune somewhere to find.
There's a peace that I hear whisperin' through the pinyons
And a love that's taller than the ponderosa pines.
And heaven is waiting
Just past the horizon.
Just over the mesas.
Across the great divide.
And faith is blazing
This trail that I ride on up this mountain
I'm prayin' I have the strength to climb
So don't ask for no lengthy explanation
When there ain't no reason quite wild enough.
No words could be as tender.
It's greater than the fears that we imagine.
More than the warmth that we remember.
It's always just beyond the pass
And I must go
'Cause heaven is waiting
Just past the horizon.
Just over the mesas.
Across the great divide.
And faith is blazing
This trail that I ride on up this mountain
I'm prayin' I have the strength to climb
Oh, heaven is waiting
Oh, heaven is waiting
Heaven is waiting
In the first half of the play, what is really happening is the core group is really coming together, and they have finally reached a point where they are really committed to this journey. And this song is a song that Frank sings, a song of commitment, one of those songs when you realize that if you say yes to one thing, you say no to everything else. When you say yes to one spouse, you say no to everybody else. When you say yes to God, you say no to the world ... And Frank is kind of recognizing, "man, my commitment to Christ has to be all-consuming." And he's already kind of made that commitment, he's already acted on that commitment. Now he just is ... sometimes we think of commitment as being this really solemn, kind of heavy duty thing. But in this song, I think ... I get the impression that Frank is more relieved. Sort of like a lot of times the joy that we find when we make a commitment to Christ, I think it just comes from ... that we have resolved a conflict over whether we will follow the world, or whether we will follow the Lord. And anytime you resolve a conflict in your life, you feel some joy. I suppose if you chose to abandon the Lord and follow the world, even then you would feel some relief, just that the conflict was over, even though you will have resolved it in a desperately wrong way. And so this is how the first half ends, is that Frank has been called by God to love Him, he's been called by Christ to rebuild the church, he's been joined by Buzz, who is a soul mate of his. Ivory has joined them, and sort of helped direct what their quest is for; it's for Dineh Bekeya, and Clare has realized that she wants to have the experience of God that Frank has, and in order to experience God fully, she has to discover God on her own, and Frank here kind of sums everything up by singing that song.
[At the beginning of Act 2,] we see Buzz, Ivory and Frank, and they meet a mountain lion. And, you know, it's one of those things where you think you know somebody after you've met them, and you've spent a little bit of time with them, and the longer that you're with them, the more amazed you are by them. And this mountain lion is this ferocious lion, and even people that they've met out on the plains have talked about, "Oh, there's this really ferocious mountain lion." And when they meet him, Frank of course just strikes up a conversation, because that's what he does with animals. And Buzz and Ivory are both a little bit surprised that he actually does talk with it. I mean, they'd heard other people say that they'd seen Frank, but all of a sudden they're talking to this lion, and they begin to talk about kingliness. And the lion talks to them about this one-armed miner named Lefty, who is this really mean guy, and as they're talking with this lion, Lefty comes onto the stage. He's been hunting the lion, because the lion tore his arm off. And the lion did that, because lefty was so strong and so violent, that he thought that if he lost the power of one of his arms, he would look for a higher power. And, of course what happened was when Lefty lost his arm, he became more bitter. And so this next song is a song that Frank sings, because as they're talking with Lefty, they can see how bitter he is, and Lefty has, in spite of the fact that he's been a fairly successful miner, he's never cashed his gold in. He just hoards everything he gets, and so this is a song that Frank sings to him in an attempt to bring him into a greater understand of what life is really about.
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