Stories behind the songs.....Your love is amazing

Sometimes a moment of inspiration can come when it is least expected. That's what Canadian worship leader Brian Doerksen has come to know as an all-too-frequent truth in his own songwriting career. Having penned some of the last decade's best-loved worship songs such as "Faithful One," "Refiner's Fire," "Come, Now is the time to Worship" and "More," Doerksen is quite successful at crafting an inspired chorus, even when the circumstances or surrounding environment make for a far-from-perfect setting. Such was the case when the inspiration came for "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)," a worship favorite Doerksen co-wrote with U.K. worship leader Brenton Brown.
Doerksen and his wife, Joyce, have six children and live in Abbotsford, British Columbia, where they raise their family in the same farmhouse he spent his childhood. Brown, an accomplished songwriter who wrote "Refuge in You, "Lord Reign in Me" and "All Who are Thirsty," among others, was visiting Doerksen's family in Canada a few years ago when he came up with the original concept for "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)."
"Brenton was in one of those songwriting modes one day," Doerksen recalls, "and I was in the 'caring-for-a-fussing-kid' mode. He walked into the room as I was trying to calm down our one-year-old, and said, 'What do you think of this song idea? Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging... etc.' When the verse ended he said, 'I need your help for the chorus.' In the spur of the moment, I sang out 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, your love makes me sing,' and it stuck."
Your love is amazingSteady and unchangingYour love is a mountainFirm beneath my feetYour love is a mysteryHow You gently lift meWhen I am surroundedYour love carries meHallelujahHallelujahHallelujahYour love makes me sing
"This song really just makes me smile," Doerksen adds. "It's probably one of the most singable choruses I have written. My wife likes to remind me that sometimes songs come in the middle of crazy family life, and she is absolutely right!"
Doerksen says songwriting is a natural outlet that comes from his genuine love of music. He grew up watching his father, Harry Doerksen, sing in a quartet and lead the congregational singing at their church. His love for stringed instruments was inspired by his grandfather, Peter Doerksen, who played the mandolin and was a band leader.
After marrying and serving in Southeast Asia with Youth With a Mission in the early 1980s, Doerksen joined the staff of the Langley Vineyard Christian Fellowship as a 22-year-old worship pastor and began to write some of his first published songs during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"When I began to lead worship, I never used any of my own songs for years because I didn't have any, and because I found other people's songs that said what my heart wanted to say to God," Doerksen says. "Several years into leading worship, I began to reach for songs that weren't always there. When I wanted to say, 'Father, I want you to hold me,' I couldn't find any song written that said that, so I wrote one. I thought no one else would ever hear it, let alone record it."
Writing songs for worship, Doerksen says, is not necessarily for those who want to "make it" as a songwriter in the music industry. "I think the writing is secondary, and the worship is primary. I believe that's one of the ways God purifies us in the process. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to be a songwriter, either of secular or Christian music. I just don't think that is the way 'in' to writing worship songs."
So where does the inspiration come from in those unexpected moments like those that produced "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)?" Is it always such a swift and painless process? "Well, the inspiration comes quickly and quite naturally," Doerksen explains, "but actually working the songs out, researching and re-writing takes lots of hard work and time. But it's important to remember that God is fully capable of arranging things without a huge amount of help from us. The best songs find their way out without a lot of effort by the songwriter."


taken from the website 'Integrity resources'