Pastor’s Blog

Through a series of circumstances I recently latched on to an album called ‘The Ill Tempered Klavier’ by singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Ben has worked with Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite artists, and that was part of what led me to this album.

As happens to me too rarely, I was totally blown away by the whole album. I have listened to it over and over and virtually memorized all the songs.

As a service to the internet community, I’m planning to blog the words, as best I can decipher them, to the whole album. This entry gives the words to ‘Nothing for the Ache,” which may be the best song on the album. See Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 and James 4:14.

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Nothing for the Ache, by Ben Shive

The world’s a friendly salesman, blowing down the door.
To have is to be happy; what you need is something more.
And they charm you with the package,
And they bleed you with the price.
He can empty out your pockets – can he fill you up inside?

It’s all a lie: there’s nothing for the ache;
the groaning of a heart about to break.
You’ll notice when you lie in bed awake,
Feeling like you’re falling.

And the world’s a pretty harlot when you’re traveling alone.
And a fool could see she’s looking, and a fool would take her home.
‘Cuase her love is so expensive, and her flattery is cheap.
When you’ve gotten what you wanted
And you’re back out on the street.

Then you’ll see there’s nothing for the ache,
The groaning of a heart about to break.
You’ll notice when you lie in bed awake,
Feeling like you’re falling.

And there’s nothing for you here.
Your life is like a mist that disappears,
Fading like a ringing in the ear;
You strain to hear the sound and then it’s gone.

How my heart is bleeding; I cry with every beating.
Tell me why are we born with these souls inside
That burst and break us open?

Why? If there’s nothing for the ache?
No healing for a heart that’s bound to break.
No lover when you lie in bed awake,
And not a hand to hold you.

When the word that won’t deceive
To bring you and meet this burning need,
In the haven of a love that never leaves.
In all your dreams you’re only falling in the arms of God.

Through a series of circumstances I recently latched on to an album called ‘The Ill Tempered Klavier’ by singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Ben has worked with Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite artists, and that was part of what led me to this album.

As happens to me too rarely, I was totally blown away by the whole album. I have listened to it over and over and virtually memorized all the songs.

As a service to the internet community, I’m planning to blog the words, as best I can decipher them, to the whole album. This entry gives the words to ‘She is the Rising Sun.” On Ben Shive’s (rarely updated) blog he describes this song as ‘The moon confesses his true feelings.’

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She is the Rising Sun, by Ben Shive

I would say that I was lost in space;
A shivering stone in a lonely sky. I was
sinking in my silent grave
and I was drowning in the darkness
‘til she woke me with her light.

She is bright as the morning,
Fair as the evening wanes.
There is warmth in her fingers,
Light on her lovely face.
Oh, she is the sun; she is the rising sun.

There’s a hole in the pocket of the midnight blue. I am
Slipping through like a lucky dime. I am
Running like a boy in brand new shoes.
And when I’m flying by Orion, she is shining in my mind.

She is on my horizon, rising to wake the dawning day.
She is drawing me homeward, driving my tears away.
We are dancing in orbit, marking the season’s turn.
Though I cast her reflection, she is the fire that burns.

She is bright as the morning,
Fair as the evening wanes.
There is warmth in her fingers,
Light on her lovely face.
Oh, she is the sun; Oh, she is the rising sun.

Through a series of circumstances I recently latched on to an album called ‘The Ill Tempered Klavier’ by singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Ben has worked with Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite artists, and that was part of what led me to this album.

As happens to me too rarely, I was totally blown away by the whole album. I have listened to it over and over and virtually memorized all the songs.

As a service to the internet community, I’m planning to blog the words, as best I can decipher them, to the whole album. This entry gives the words to ‘A Name, A Name, A Name’ which is actually the first song on the album. I’m not taking them in order, just in the order I like them and can decipher the words.

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A Name, A Name, A Name, by Ben Shive

Monday at dawn the alarm’s crowing on,
Ring, ringing the new day in.
She’s up out of bed making breakfast and dreading
heading to work again.

She’s tired; so tired.

She’s swept off of the train and then out in the rain,
Carried away on a stream of strangers.
Men gaping out from their papers
And ladies, weightless as vapors

Make her tired; so tired.

The telephone calls and the windowless walls
Siphon the life from the halls where all these
Half-human beings sit staring at screens
Repeating routines without meaning

Leaving her tired; so tired; so tired.

She closes the door in her office and sits in a chair.
And there in the quiet she hears it,
a name she knows from somewhere

And the aspect of a face; the colors in its shapes;
And a fragrance and a taste;
she hears a name, a name, a name.

And the melody that plays behind the memory of a place,
And a kiss and an embrace;
she hears it, a name, a name, a name.

And if every passing day is the unfolding of a play
then the sum of it should say
a name, a name, a name.

Through a series of circumstances I recently latched on to an album called ‘The Ill Tempered Klavier’ by singer/songwriter Ben Shive. Ben has worked with Andrew Peterson, one of my favorite artists, and that was part of what led me to this album.

As happens to me too rarely, I was totally blown away by the whole album. I have listened to it over and over and virtually memorized all the songs.

As a service to the internet community, I’m planning to blog the words, as best I can decipher them, to the whole album. This entry gives the words to ‘Do You Remember’, a song which I’ve been calling ‘a love song for those married thirty years’ – which my beloved Gail and I will be on June 24th.

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Do You Remember? By Ben Shive

Do you remember how I called you by your name
When we were innocent and tender; tender to the flame.
How I watched you for a moment from across a crowded room
Until you turned as if to notice, and I wondered if you knew.
Do you remember?

Do you remember how we stood so close beneath
the falling awning of September; I was shaking like a leaf.
I pulled a ring out of my pocket and I held your hand in mine.
I rode the roller coaster rocket through the ceiling of the sky.
Do you remember?

Do you remember all the nights you kept me warm
How in the refuge of your laughter I found shelter from the storm.
Now I know that love is faithful, through the changes and the tears
And I will always be so grateful when I look back on those years.
Do you remember?

The years have gone so fast.
And I wish that I could hold you
Forever.
But you’re slipping through my hands.
Please believe me I’m
Better ‘cause I’ve known you.

Do you remember when the morning fills the sky
How all our darkest dreams surrender to the coming of the light.
When I brush aside this curtain, find you shining like the dawn.
Beyond the ending of this world, we will go on and on and on.