Behind The Song: Fields Of Evermore (Birth Through the Broken Body… And Of Course Johnny Cash)

I remember being taken back by Johnny Cash’s description of his childhood in his autobiography, Cash.  He spoke about the hardships of moving to government subsidized land in Arkansas with his family and having to work the land with his father.  The land was littered with stone and needed to be cleared in order to field a potential harvest.  Even then their efforts would be at the mercy of nature’s elements.

Early on in his story, I was mesmerized by the amount of faith, hope, and perseverance needed to obtain their dream, to provide and survive.  Cash spoke of the grueling labor he and his father had to endure removing the fields of stone and working the earth to suitable soil.  Once cleared, they began tilling and caring for what they hoped would be a profitable cotton harvest, which was never guaranteed.  At stake was everything but beyond it lie nothing.  During harvest time their hands would bleed, scab, and bleed again from the hostile cotton harvest.  That which gave life broke their bodies.
Life comes through labor, grows through pain, and blooms from the agony – this song rests in that thought.  Separate from Mercy, Grace, and faith we are mere broken bodies; conjoined with these we are thriving farmers, reaping a bountiful harvest though our bodies, sustaining and truly living in the field with our Father.  Put your hand to the plow and work for the harvest that lasts forever.

This Blog was written to the sweet sounds of… ahem… my own music Fields Of Evermore

Fields of Evermore