"I Am"

"I Am"
Music & lyrics by Jan Powers

I write lyrics for time’s journey, I am rhythm in life’s song;
I am melody for faint of heart, I am rest when days are long.
And the stirrings before time began I sang into space.
Out of chaos, I make music: anytime, anyplace.

My love flows into a tide like a river that runs to the sea.
So you are fed and watered by me.

I am drink that slakes your thirst for life, I am sustenance you can’t buy.
For the hungry seeking righteousness I am bread that satisfies.
I am good news for the poor; the captive I set free.
In the wilderness I make a way to go: follow me.

I am sculptor of the mountains, I am seamstress of all that is torn.
I am judge who wants to pardon, and I comfort the forlorn.
I am cosmic womb who labors for the fulness of time
When the people of all nations call, "I Am!" That name is mine.

And you know me as a mother who gives milk to her young,
And as father-love that’s prodigal, that waits for your return.
Source of hope, well of blessing, in the face of the sky I smile.
And I’m walking close beside you every mile, after mile.

My love flows into a tide like a rive that runs to the sea.
So you are fed and watered by me.

The Rev Jan Powers is a restless-creative-prophetic -lover of Jesus, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, an out bisexual, partnered with Pam for nearly 20 years, and mother to son Jordan, philosopher and gardener. Jan wrote this song after a short-term mission trip to a two-thirds world country. She was saddened by the patriarchal theology that had been imposed on the people. When she arrived home, these lyrics tumbled out of her as a way to affirm the God she knows and loves, whose facets are far more sparklingly diverse than current and recent church history might indicate. Jan is an ordained United Church of Christ minister in Massachusetts.