Reckless Abandon
Lyrics:VERSE:
I want to know You, Lord. I want to see You, Lord. I want to love You, Lord. Help me to know You, Lord. Help me to see You, Lord. Help me to love You, Lord. I humbly seek Your mercy and grace Until the day we meet face to face. REFRAIN: With reckless abandon, I give You my all. I know I am not worthy, and I know sometimes I fall. But despite my imperfections, You love me anyway. So, Lord, I surrender and I give it all away with reckless abandon, with reckless abandon. BRIDGE: Though I'm simple human flesh, and You're the highest King Divine, You came down to earth to save me, broke the Bread and shared the WIne. And You said, "This is my Body. Take and drink, this is my Blood." You entered into Your Passion for all those sinners You love. And they nailed You to a Cross, and You hung bleeding on a tree, and You suffered, died, and rose just to show how much You love me, so I am free! REFRAIN: So with reckless abandon, I give You my all. I know I am not worthy, and I know sometimes I fall. But despite my imperfections, You love me anyway. So, Lord, I surrender and I give it all away with reckless abandon, with reckless abandon. |
Behind the Song:This was the second Catholic song that I wrote. I wrote this song shortly after Easter of 2012.
In the second semester of my Freshman year at Hofstra, I took the opportunity to go on a mission trip during my spring break with the Catholic Campus Ministry at Hofstra. This was the first time I went on a mission trip, and a few students from the Catholic Campus Ministry, along with the new campus minister, travelled to Joplin, Missouri to do some recovery work after the devastating tornado that hit the city just a few months prior. We joined up with a few missionaries from Family Missions Company for the week and did several projects, from recovering a beloved little league baseball field, to building new houses, to hauling garbage to a dumpster, to visiting the terminally ill in the hospital. The trip was a phenomenal opportunity and it allowed me to grow so much as a person and as a Catholic. We prayed and did meditations on Bible passages every day while in Joplin, but one particular day, we went to a beautiful park that had winding paths, a flowing stream, and a lot of beautiful nature. We spent an hour or two there as a part of our "desert day" which was named after the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert in solitude, praying and fasting. For our time there, we split up and spent some time alone, praying and reflecting on our experience in Joplin and on what was going on in our lives at that time. For the whole week, I had been reflecting a lot on how much I had grown in my faith in the one year that I had been a part of the Catholic Campus Ministry and Newman Club at Hofstra. I had also been reflecting on how I need to stop trying so hard to take control of my life and where I'm going and just give it to God. Seeing the faith of the people we were serving and serving with in Joplin inspired me to try to change my heart and let God take control of my life the way these people had. Hearing these people's witness stories gave me confidence that my life would take a turn for the better if I let myself trust in God more. During my time alone on Desert Day towards the end of our time in Joplin, I was reflecting on all this, and this song came to me. At first, it was just a prayer: simple words I wrote in my journal to remind myself of what I had witnessed in Joplin. But, before I knew it was happening, the words were becoming a melody in my head. As I sat next to the stream and wrote the words in my journal, the song came together in my head. I finished writing it just as I had to head back to the group, so I quickly made a sound recording on my phone. When I returned home, I took some time at the piano in a practice room at Hofstra to write the accompaniment and finish the song! |