Day 19: Bless This Mess

Описание: Day 19: Bless This Mess (written with Todd Hawkins)

Part of my #songaday writing project for January 2026.
#originalsong #newsong #firstdraft #songadayjanuary

Lyrics:

Bless this mess, aw yeah
Can I get an Amen?

It can be messy sometimes
But Democracy is a beautiful thing
Hit it!

Aw yeah
Bless this mess
Get order from the chaos
Can I get an Amen?

It can be messy sometimes
But life is a beautiful thing
Hit it!

Bless this mess
Democracy means getting your hands dirty
The world means getting your hands dirty
Life means getting your hands dirty
Love means getting your hands dirty
Can I get an Amen?

You know it's messy sometimes
But love is a beautiful thing
Hit it!

Aw yeah
Bless this mess
Can I get an Amen?
Bless this mess
Get order from the chaos
Aw yeah
Can I get an Amen?

***

Details: Todd is one of my earliest co-writers and I look forward to writing a new song with him every year. Todd is a pastor and I was asking him about why the religious right is so prominent without an equally strong religious left. Today being MLK Day, it only highlights how influential a progressive Christian movement can be. Todd suggested that part of it is that progressive Christianity is just more complex-- truly loving and accepting each other is messy. That led us to talking about how Democracy is a pretty messy political system... but that's a feature, not a bug. A dictatorship may look simple and orderly, but if we're to have control over our own lives, there's going to be some messiness. This song is about celebrating the messiness in our lives and the good that comes from it.

We wanted form to equal function with a messy song that comes together periodically to be more orderly. The ideas Todd was describing reminded me of a band called the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, so I started writing lyrics with that kind of delivery in mind. I also thought a bit about Chuck D, and maybe in a revision we'll come up with a Public Enemy-style rap. I had a lot of fun with hand percussion several days ago with "Season of the Sticks", and since Todd was taking guitar duties, I thought it'd be a cool to try it again. Also, it was a breath of fresh air to deviate this much from what I've been doing this month. And it's always fun to write with Todd-- we never know which direction it's going to go.