Oh, How He Loves Us

A few months ago, I found a video on youtube of my favorite band, Flyleaf, playing a song called How He Loves. I had never heard the song before but really liked it so I did a little research and discovered that it was written by an independant musician named John Mark McMillan. I found a video of him talking about why he wrote the song and also playing it, found here.

This video is powerful. Several times throughout the video, John is so filled with emotion that he begins to cry. The short story of how this song came about is that John's best friend Stephen prayed one morning during a prayer meeting that he would give his life if it would move the youth of the nation. That same day, Stephen was killed in a car crash. John wrote the song the following day just out of grief and didn't do anything with it for a while. After some time dealing with his loss and wondering how it was possible that everyone forgot about Stephen and his promise to God, John was performing and felt God telling him to play the song. Powerful, powerful stuff.

The incredible thing is how God is absolutely using this song to move the youth of the nation. I was at Creation West a couple of months ago and that song was probably played 5 different times by five different artists throughout the weekend. It is on David Crowder's new CD as well as The Glorious Unseen's new album. Flyleaf, Barlowgirl, Jeremy Riddle, Hillsong, Kim Walker and countless others have covered this song. It is actually a regular part of Flyleaf's set.

This success and reach of this song, I believe, is due to the fact that it was born out of a time of greif. John didn't sit down and decide to write an incredible worship song. He poured his heart out and let his greif form words, what few words it could, and this was the result. This is worship at its root--bearing your heart to God and holding nothing back.

If you haven't heard it yet, go listen to How He Loves. Let it move you.