Stepping In – Lyrics

There is a prayer
like a wide river
it never ends
does not begin
around the world
it’s always flowing
and I am stepping in,
we are stepping in.

 We are praying
for those in distant places
different languages and faces
every hour of the day,
and we are praying
with enemies and strangers
in gratitude, in danger
calling God’s ten thousand names

 There is a prayer
like a wide river
it never ends
does not begin
around the world
it’s always flowing
and I am stepping in,
we are stepping in.

 We are praying
with those who’ve gone before us
that great ancestral chorus
we are joining as we sing
and we are praying
with heroines and heroes
Moses, Mary, and Romero
yes, and Martin Luther King

 There is a prayer
like a wide river
it never ends
does not begin
around the world
it’s always flowing
and I am stepping in,
we are stepping in.

We are stepping in…

©Hand and Soil Music

The Russian Orthodox liturgical theologian Alexander Schmemann once pointed out that we never really begin worship. The worship of the church is always going on, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, somewhere in the world. When our local worship services begin, we are simply joining the ongoing worship of the church universal. This idea was the inspiration for the image of the river of prayer.

Bishop Oscar Romero was the bishop of San Salvador, El Salvador during the late 1970’s. He spoke out for the poor, the dispossessed, the tortured, and the disappeared. Eventually, he began preaching that soldiers were morally and spiritually bound to disobey orders that were contrary to the will of God. Soon thereafter he was assassinated, on March 24, 1980, while standing at the communion table in a small hospital chapel.

Has this song connected with your story?  Or has it been a part of a particular season of your life?  You are welcome to weave another thread into the tapestry of this song by leaving comments below.