I get haunted by songs. I pity those who don’t. I have no idea how they make it through the day. The songs that stay with me, the earworms every morning, these get me through life.

Recently, I’ve been haunted by a song from my friend, Steve Fisher.

One night when I was at Kerrville this year, I journeyed up the hill with the express intent of finding Steve to say “hi.” I found him about where I thought….sitting outside with a few friends, in the middle of the RV row.

We got to hang out for a bit and sing some songs.

Along with everybody else in the Kerrville world, Steve knows I’m a minister. And so, at a certain point, he said, “Oh! I’ve got a song for you…”

And he played me his song, “Just As I Am.”

It’s an amazing song. Steve just might be our greatest living Texas songwriter. At least that’s my view.

And one of the things that makes his songs so great is that they’re deceptively simple. He doesn’t get too cute with the rhymes…just the right words, just the right amount of syllables, in just the right places.

This song, for example, is amazingly simple yet complex. It’s really an incredibly deep theological song, for those with the ears to hear.

At the risk of being overly simplistic and dualistic, there are two major kinds of theological views out there in the world today.

Fear based.
Love/Grace based.

This song is a powerful expression of the latter. When he got done playing it for me, in his baritone voice, he asked me what I thought.

So, I showed him my tattoo. My tattoo which reads “Fear Not.”

Love/Grace based theology is right there within all of the great religious traditions, and most certainly within mine. It just gets drowned out in our culture by the loud, fearful voices.

But love and grace don’t generally shout.

They will whisper to your soul, though. And they inspire some beautiful songs.

Thanks to Steve for allowing me to record this one, and for writing a song I wish I’d written…EF