God's Love Archives - Stanton Lanier

All Around and Deep Within

March 31, 2021 By Stanton Lanier 4 Comments

The new single All Around and Deep Within released March 23rd and has already been enjoyed in fifty countries, with some of the top listener cities being in Brazil, Australia, Taiwan, Finland, and Spain. You can stream from your favorite music service including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Pandora.

The ethereal piano, harp, and symphony orchestra are rich with emotion, expressing the breadth and depth of God’s great love toward us (1 John 4:14-16). This is the overall idea, and down below are more insights into the meaning behind the music.

There are two themes. At first I thought the opening Theme A was the verse, and Theme B was the chorus. However, during the creative process each section became a chorus of its own. Theme A is the “all around” and Theme B is the “deep within” of God’s love for us.

Theme A symbolizes the time period from eternity past all the way through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. It begins all the way back in the dark void of the universe, before Creation. Musically God begins to paint His creative “brush strokes” across the universe. He ultimately breathes life into Adam and Eve, who live in the midst of His pure love and presence before they disobeyed and sinned against Him. The big, low bass strings are constant like the “all around” of God’s great love, which has existed all the way from eternity past. The melody on the harp and ethereal piano represent the simplicity and purity of God’s love, and the innocence of Adam and Eve receiving it. Theme A is expressing the “all around” breadth of God’s love surrounding Adam and Eve before the Fall, when their original sin separated them from God.

Theme B’s “deep within” takes us on a journey from the Fall to the end of the Old Testament. The melody is more complex to represent the complications Adam and Eve brought to their relationship with God and His simple love after they first sinned against Him. Their original sin was passed down to us as the Scripture says in Romans 3:23-24, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” There is beauty in Theme B, yet there is tension and complexity. God’s perfect holiness encounters our imperfect brokenness. This tension and complexity is a result of my sin and inconsistency in fully trusting God’s unchanging love, grace, and patience toward me. Ecclesiastes 7:29 says, “God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.”

There are three significant musical rests in the piece, with the first one happening after the opening Theme A and Theme B. This long pause symbolizes the four hundred years of God’s silence from the end of the Old Testament (book of Malachi) to the beginning of the New Testament (book of Matthew). Theme A returns with a bigger and more wonderful version of God’s pure love, adding instruments and melodies for the birth of Christ and His gift of salvation through the New Testament up until the book of Revelation. Theme B follows with its grander version, as we receive more of God’s saving and transforming grace during our lives. This carries us from the New Testament until today, with the “all around and deep within” of God’s love through the centuries.

The second rest represents the waiting time between Jesus ascending to heaven (Acts 1:9) and His second coming to take all who have believed and do believe with Him to heaven to be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). In the final, shorter section, Theme A and Theme B interweave and overlap musically to signify our sanctification and unity with God through what Jesus has done for us. The third and final shorter rest happens just before the ending chord of the piece. This symbolizes our waiting for the new heaven and new earth to be fulfilled, and the final chord signifies all who are saved being in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for eternity.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:14-16).

How does “All Around and Deep Within” speak to you?

SO LOVED Track #2 – So Loved

May 10, 2018 By Stanton Lanier 4 Comments

Click above to listen to the title track So Loved as you read. You can also enjoy the CD, MP3 Album, Piano Book and Sheet Music on the So Loved Album Page. And you can stream the music on Spotify, iTunes-Apple Music, Amazon MP3, Pandora, and more.

What does “so loved” bring to mind for you with family, friends, and faith?

As we celebrate Mother’s Day in the U.S. this coming Sunday, I am dedicating this song and this week’s post to my Mom. She has been loving and encouraging me in my life and music since before I started playing piano at age six. In case you haven’t heard the story before…when I was twelve years old and wanted to give up piano lessons to focus on basketball, she wouldn’t let me quit. Mom and Dad both had a bigger, long-term perspective. They said I needed to finish the school year first before we would decide if I should stop piano lessons. By the time my 8th grade school year arrived, playing the piano had become a retreat, a sanctuary where I could relax and unwind. Then the next summer I wrote my first song…

This title track for my just released album is also based on a love story. Since God revealed the idea for So Loved to be an album of life soundtracks inspired by Bible stories, He has been deeply moving me to know how much He loves me. Just as for each of these characters, God sees our lives as priceless works of art, and our stories as epic adventure films. He is forever singing a beautiful song over our life as He does the extraordinary through broken, ordinary people, for His glory. His love never quits, and He transforms our lives when we trust in His bigger, long-term perspective.

Musically So Loved is all original, but as the music emerged I was reminded of my favorite composer J.S. Bach. His timeless melodies from the early to mid 1700s have a simplicity as they sing to our hearts and ears (this does not mean Bach is easy to play, however!). He signed all his compositions “Soli Deo Gloria” — to the Glory of God Alone, and his music is filled with refreshing beauty. The life of the disciple John and the John 3:16 verse quoted at the bottom are the inspiration behind the song and album So Loved.

In the opening and closing sections, if you listen closely, the piano notes are repeating the words “For God so loved, the world, that He gave His only Son.” The boy choir, Gregorian choir, harp, and vibes (vibraphone) join the piano to offer angelic, heavenly harmonies. These parts were not intentionally inspired by Bach, but they could be considered reminiscent of his church music composing and chorales.

How does SO LOVED and its inspiration speak into your life today?

SO LOVED | JOHN
John 3. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We are so loved.

Progress Over Perfection – What's Love Got To Do With It?

June 13, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 4 Comments

Click above to listen to First Love from my third album Draw Near as you read. If you enjoy, consider purchasing the song, album download, or CD from Amazon, iTunes, or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

Is your mindset thankful for progress, or frustrated by a lack of perfection?

The tension in this question is real in my day-to-day life. If you are like me, maybe you have a “performance mentality” that wants to rear its ugly head. When this happens, I am tempted to start striving too hard, and my body language feels more like clinched fists and gritted teeth. I risk my mindset looking like something like this — strive to please others and do my best to perform for God, then maybe others will like me better and God will love me more. Going down this slippery slope leads to frustration that once again, perfection is out of reach.

This is why I wanted you to listen to First Love as you are reading this…

Several years ago a good friend spoke words into my life that began to stick. He said, “Focus on progress, not perfection.” As a “recovering perfectionist” this was huge for me. It was a mindset shift. Focusing on progress rather than perfection helps me be thankful instead of frustrated. Surrendering results and outcomes to God also increases my peace and rest.

About half of my Scripture inspired piano compositions are lyrical, meaning the piano is “singing” some words. First Love is one of these. Here is what the notes are singing: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 John 4:16 is the verse melody) and “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 is the chorus melody). 1 John 4:10 offers a great summary: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

What a gift this is, to be able to receive grace and forgiveness rather than having to strive, please and perform. This is the foundation for my “Progress Over Perfection” mindset. By God’s grace, He loves me even though I am not perfect. As I make progress in surrendering to Him, seeking to listen to Him, to follow Him, He shows the way and I can trust Him with results and outcomes.

How can being thankful for progress inspire your journey today?