This
song story features Laura Story’s INDESCRIBABLE, one of my favorite worship
songs since 2011. I first heard this song by Chris Tomlin from the album
‘ARRIVED. Later in 2012/2013, I fell in love with kierra Sheard’s version of
the song which made the song really popular around this side of the world. The
vocal delivery was flawless.
Asides
the music and vocal delivery was the deep, captivating and well-crafted lyrics.
I like to sing and write songs birthed from moments of awesome wonder that
talks about God’s aesthetic prowess shown in creation. I like them written
poetically.
LAURA
STORY
Indescribable was originally written by Laura Story, an American contemporary
Christian music singer-songwriter from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Most of
us know her from her single off the album BLESSINGS which became her first to
reach No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, also winning the 2012
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song
SONG STORY
In 2002 while driving her car through a mountain range just outside of
Nashville, Laura Story was overwhelmed with the beauty of God’s artistic
display that was set before her in a fall mountain scene.
“It was one of those moments where the sun was setting and the leaves were
falling,” explains Story.
“It was gorgeous, and I just began to think about creation. I think it’s
Psalm 19 that says, ‘The heavens are declaring the glory of God.’ It was like
that-as if the rocks were crying out. It was this glorious moment of looking at
creation and thinking ‘Wow, there are still people in this world that don’t
believe in God, people that think this was an accident.’ I didn’t have any
words to describe God’s splendor at that moment; I was just thinking, ‘You
truly are indescribable.'”
Story says that she had to drive around without a car stereo for about a
year, but it became quite a blessing because she occupied her time by singing.
Out of that singing, many songs were written. “It was one of the best things
that happened to me. I need to break it again so I can write some more songs.
I just began singing the song ‘Indescribable’ because of the colors of fall.
The first verse and the chorus came as a very spontaneous thing right there in
the car, but the second verse, I had to sit down and work with.”
When she had a moment to get away, Story opened the Bible to the book of
Job. At the time she was attending a Bible college (Columbia International
University) so it only made sense that her writing would be seeped in the Word.
“There is a part where Job starts complaining about his life.”
Story explains. “God stops him in his tracks and says, ‘I’m sorry, where
were you when I told the lightning bolts where they should go?’-that’s the
Laura Story translation. I read that and saw how it continued the theme about
His greatness and how we should just be awestruck by it.”
If you can’t tell from the crafted lyrics, Story puts high importance in the
theology of worship songs. “It is scary to think of worship songwriters not
being determined to use the Word,” she says
.
“When you put biblical truth to the songs used in churches, you’ll have the
congregation leave singing the sermon. You’ll have God’s thoughts, things
that are God-breathed, stuck in their heads. It’s sad to think about a really
catchy tune paired up with bad theology because that could, honestly, do a lot
of damage in church.”
“Indescribable” was birthed in Scripture, so it had that going for it, but as
many worship leaders can attest, at first blush, it doesn’t jump out as a
slam-dunk congregational tune. Story broke one or two worship songwriting rules
when she penned the song-starting with the amounts of syllables she chose for
her lyrics. “I remember, there was a guy at school who told me they were
thinking of doing ‘Indescribable’ as a corporate worship song for chapel,”
Story recounts. “And I was like, ‘um I guess.’ I was kind of nervous about it,
thinking the song was so un-singable. I thought it would never go over well. I
was even embarrassed, thinking no one was going to like it.”
But people did. The song was able to break through many barriers because it
contained weightier lyrics that were also tied to a powerful melody people
could grab on to. It had the best of both worlds. That was likely what Ed Cash
(producer of Bebo Norman, Caedmon’s Call and Bethany Dillon) heard when he paid
the expenses for Laura Story to make an “Indescribable” demo for Essential
Records. In Nashville, Story and Cash recorded the song, and it seemed that God
was going to use “Indescribable” in a very real way. However, even though Cash
believed in the song, Essential decided to pass on it. Story remembers, “I came
home from Nashville thinking, ‘God I really thought you were going to do
something with this song. I’m sure you have a purpose for all this.'”
About a year after Story made the demo, Chris Tomlin was working on his new
album with Cash. It was when they were putting some finishing touches on the
CD, Arriving, which they felt was very strong, that they felt they were missing
an element. Still believing in the song he and Story recorded, Cash told Tomlin
about “Indescribable.” After listening, it wasn’t long before they decided to
record it. They even used the actual track that that Story and Cash laid a year
before, with the only modification being lowering the key. “If you listen to
our albums, it’s pretty much the same identical song except for they changed a
word,” says Story. “On my CD I sing ‘You’re a very big God,’ and they sing,
‘You are amazing God.’ I was like, ‘yeah, I like that.’ And so I’ve started singing
it that way. Also because I don’t want people in church to say, ‘Hey, you’re
messing up Chris Tomlin’s song!’
When Laura Story went in to record her song for Essential Records, she may
have had her own idea of how God was going to use her offering. However, our
plans are not God’s. In the case of “Indescribable” that became quite evident
for Story. “We need to always see ourselves as servants. We see people like
Chris Tomlin up on stage, but they are just servants, too. And our songs are
all just offerings. It’s cool that so many people have been able to hear the
song ‘Indescribable.’ But if I had played it for no one but the Lord, it still
would have been just as sweet to Him.”
culled from worshipleader.com.
