These are songs that I’ve written over the years. I wrote them in an attempt to grapple with suffering, both my own and others’. Divorce, fatherlessness, loneliness, broken families, disease, poverty, untimely death – these things are real. Yes, tiny, malnourished children in South India live in a hospice, infected with AIDS because of the foolishness of their parents. Yes, so many people are lonely, so many marriages are crumbling, so many struggle for hope and meaning. Yes, I’ve felt the sting of these things, and so I will not offer trite answers or belittle the big questions.

These songs are for my brother, Micah, and for the kids at PACT, Chennai. Life might have tried to name you Ben-Oni (Son of Sorrow) but the Father has named you Benjamin (Son of my Right Hand, Son of Strength), and I pray He carries you on His strong shoulders (Deuteronomy 33:12).

These songs are for my cousin, my brother, my friend, Reuben, who dreamed of living a life of uncommon generosity. He went to be with the Father long before we were willing to let him go, but we know we will see him again, in the twinkling of an eye, when the right Person speaks the word “Arise”. (1 Corinthians 15:52)

These songs are for Cousin Abi, for Paul, for Masrat, for everyone who has been through the dark night of the soul. ‘Don’t forget in the dark what you knew in the light’ – God is still loving and faithful and kind, and everything’s going to be just fine. (Romans 8:37) He’s going to fix everything, we will hope in his promise until it comes true.