September 19, 1997.  The Day the Music Really Died.  The day the pen was stilled and the amazing word pictures ceased to flow.  The day one of the most talented songwriters of our day went to be with the One of whom he wrote and song.

It would be impossible for me to pick one favorite Rich Mullins song.  I think that at one time I had a top twenty-eight, and had even whittled that down to a top seven.  But one favorite?  It would depend on the day and the mood and the need.

Do I need Rich insight into my own human condition?  I might reach for this song:

Somewhere
Between the lost and the found
We're all hanging empty
Empty and upside down
But I'm hanging on
Though the fall may tempt me
And I believe in the dawn
Though I tremble in the night...

or this one:

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees...

Rich reminders of Who God is?  I might listen to these words:

There's a wideness in God's mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God ...

Do I want Rich observations about following Jesus?  Perhaps I would choose this:

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

Or maybe this:

I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man

And if I wanted to worship, I could choose this song:

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

Or:

Well, the eagle flies, And the rivers run
I look through the night And I can see the rising sun 
And everywhere I go, I see You
And everywhere I go, I see You

And I'd have to end up with this one:

Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

But what I loved most of all, and still do, are simply the beautifully Rich word pictures:

There's more that dances on the prairies than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's when her baby's at her side...

...the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun
Across the sky north to south...

In the west I see an evening
This scarlet thread stretched beneath the gathering dark
Red as the blood on the hands of the Savior
And rich as the mercy that flowed from His broken heart...

And it's one of those word-picture songs that I would, if I were really pressed to pick a favorite, be most likely to choose.  The kids and I have been reading this week about the prairies and the wild west and the Native Americans, and this one fits right in with that.  Of all the Rich Mullins song I love, I might possibly love this one the most:

Well the moon moved past Nebraska
And spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills
And angels danced on Jacob's stairs
Yeah, they danced on Jacob's stairs
There is this silence in the Badlands
And over Kansas the whole universe was stilled
By the whisper of a prayer
The whisper of a prayer

And the single hawk bursts into flight
And in the east the whole horizon is in flames
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

I can feel the earth tremble
Beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant's wings
And there's fury in a pheasant's wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring
And I've seen love make heaven ring

Where the sacred rivers meet
Beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever 'til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope

The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name

And I know this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And with the prairies I am calling out Your name

Nobody writes songs like that anymore.  And I miss them.

If I sing let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home

You can find links to last year's 4-day tribute, with even more song lyrics, on this page.