far away

Description

In the summer of 1975, Dixie and I had just started a new Church in the Golden Triangle when the Lanny Wolfe Trio came to the Beaumont City Auditorium for a concert. We purchased several of his albums that night, and a few days later found ourselves in the Church practicing several of his new songs. I remember sitting at my Hammond Porta-B Organ discussing this song with Dixie. It was such a powerful song, but Dixie and I were somewhat taken back by the intense consecration that it conveyed. "I don't know if I'm ready to sing this song," I told her. I was somewhat reluctant for fear of what a consecration of this intensity might eventually require. But we both knew that it was right. "I'm singing it," she said. So she took the lead, and I backed her up. We could never have imagined the unbelievable trials that we would endure in the next twenty-eight years, before she finally succumbed to cancer in 2003. But the words of this song still ring true. "WHATEVER IT TAKES to be closer to you, Lord... that's what I'll be willing to do." There's a voice calling me From an old rugged tree And He whispers draw closer to Me; Leave this world far behind, There are new heights to climb, And a new place in Me you will find. For whatever it takes to draw closer to You Lord, That's what I'll be willing to do. For whatever it takes to be more like You, That's what I'll be willing to do. Take the dearest things to me, If that's how it must be, To draw me closer to Thee; Let the disappointments come, Lonely days without the sun, If through sorrow more like You I become. Take my houses, my lands, Change my dreams, change my plans For I'm placing my whole life in Your hands; And if You call me today... To a place far away Lord I'll go, and Your will I'll obey. I'll trade sunshine for rain Comfort for pain - That's what I'll be willing to do - For whatever it takes for my will to break, That's what I'll be willing to do. Words and Music by Lanny Wolfe