Taking it back to almost a decade ago to Josh Garrels song, “At the Table” that was released in 2015 on the Album, “Home”. This is one of my favorite songs of all time and often recirculates from time to time in my life. This week was the week for it to resurface and catch a round with me. Josh Garrels has long been one of my favorite artist. He frequently gets time on the speaker of my massage room where his healing, unique sound often begs the question: “who is this?”
Somehow, not surprisingly, Josh Garrels grew up in a hippie commune and in his time on this earth has been a skater boy, a suburban drug dealer, a music/design student, a coffee roaster, an urban shepherd, and now a nation- and globe-trotting minstrel of hope and healing.
His music is a mix of confidence and vulnerability, with soulful vocals and great lyrics. He’s all about flying high and rising above tough situations. He creates music that speaks to people and helps them see things from a fresh prospective.
His inspirations include, but are not limited to the likes of Cat Stevens, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Ben Harper, and Bob Dylan. He seeks to help people connect with their humanity through deep thought, faith, and a love for the beauty of the world. Take a journey through his heart and soul and enjoy the visceral story telling that has a way of sticking with you.
At the Table has a special place in my heart as a song that found me while I was going through a heart-wrenching divorce in 2019. As I lost my home, a child, a family, my gardens, my animals, and an entire life’s worth of hopes and dreams, this song found me and served as a reminder that even if earthly beings destroy my place setting, even if I destroy my own chair, my seat at the heavenly table is always secure. I was simultaneously finding my way back to that table in a way that this song describes; the prodigal son story - it was that catalyst for that to happen. My life to that point had included lots of pain; mostly self-inflicted by my choices to take life into my own hands and onto my own shoulders. My anger for the things that had happened burned ravenously yet somehow hidden and cloaked from my own ability to perceive it. It was the breaking point for me in which my anger was realized; I had spent most of my twenties destroying myself with drugs and the better part of the next decade destroying myself with societally acceptable alcohol in an unwittingly attempt to stick in to God himself for allowing such atrocities. It’s a strange thing the way we destroy ourselves to destroy our Creator and begs the acknowledgment of His existence at all. (You can read more about that story in my Monday Memoirs section here on Substack)
Ironically, it was my now ex-husband who first introduced me to Josh Garrels through his song, Farther Along, a song about understanding and accepting the unfair and unwanted things that happen in life. I tell you, if life made much sense I'd certainly share if with you, but it just does not. The only secret, I think, is to try to keep on, keepin’ on.
As the Father does, He reached me and compassionately applied oil to the wounds as His love began to heal. As the Psalm reads,
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
This song is about a promise made on your behalf, our behalf, that no matter how far we’ve strayed, how much we’ve fallen and cut ourselves, no matter the amount of bruises and bad decisions seem to make up the story of us, there is a table we belong to with a seat prepared and saved just for us that we always have the choice to walk up to and take. And, that when we do we are met with joyful rejoicing and loving embraces. The story of the prodigal son can be found in Luke chapter 15 if you would like to read it for yourself.
At the Table
I went the ways of wayward winds
In a world of trouble and sin
Walked a long and crooked mile
Behind a million rank and file
Forgot where I came from
Somewhere back when I was young
I was a good man’s child
‘Cause I lost some nameless things
My innocence flew away from me
She had to hide her face from my desire
To embrace forbidden fire
But at night I dream
She’s singing over me
Oh, oh, my child
Come on home, home to me
And I will hold you in my arms
And joyful be
There will always, always be
A place for you at my table
Return to me
Wondering where I might begin
Hear a voice upon the wind
She’s singing faint but singing true
Son, there ain’t nothing you can do
But listen close and follow me
I’ll take you where you’re meant to be
Just don’t lose faith
So I put my hand upon the plow
Wipe the sweat up from my brow
Plant the good seed along the way
As I look forward to the day
When at last I see
My Father run to me
Singing oh, my child
Come on home, home to me
And I will hold you in my arms
And joyful be
There will always, always be
A place for you at my table
Return to me
My child
Come on home, home to me
And I will hold you in my arms
And joyful be
There will always, always be
A place for you at my table
At my table
At my table
Return to me
Here’s the entire song here:
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Please leave me comment if you do and let me know how it spoke to you or share it with a friend and, as always, like and subscribe so you never miss a beat!