This song is autobiographic and is a revamped version of the song I wrote in 2012. For a very long time, I kept my history of heavy drinking secret from nearly everyone, along with the shame I felt for having lost control of who I was and for the way I lived my life back then. I even considered suicide at times. I got over all this when God pushed me to preach a sermon about it in Christ United Methodist Church in Rochester, MN. It was perhaps the most freeing moment of my life. I have been talking about God’s intervention in my life ever since, in the hope that I can and have touched more than the one life I know I helped change that Sunday morning from the pulpit. The knowledge that I helped someone get out of the same alcoholic hole that I put myself into, led me to put the Emerson Drive’s “Moments” onto the SongShare list. Helping that person is truly one of my God-gifted personal “Moments”.
“The Blacksmith”
God, You stand at the forge, crafting my soul,
Repairing what’s broken, making me whole,
With hammer and tongs, with love and with care,
You’ll pound and You’ll polish and lay my soul bare,
Upon life’s anvil, You’ll shape and You’ll mold,
Me into something more precious than gold,
Tempered and sculpted by Your own loving hand,
Help me be your face, to my fellow man
In my darkest hours, times I lost all hope,
I turned to the bottle, when I couldn’t cope,
With the false gods I worshipped, with the fool I’d become
You called, I ignored you, continued to run,
Hell-bound for nowhere, at a drunk’s blinding pace,
All the while knowing I was losing life’s race
I crashed to rock bottom and cried out to You,
You answered and showed me a path that was new
God, was there a plan for me, a long, long time ago
Redemption, Lord, and usefulness, Lord, was it really so?
What single reason could You have to keep this soul alive
I now know your hand took the wheel, each evening when I’d drive
Smashed beyond consciousness, homeward I’d go
How I got there safely, Lord, only You know,
Why did you save me, from my living hell?
I think it’s because I’ve a story to tell
God, You stand at the forge, crafting my soul,
Repairing what’s broken making me whole,
With hammer and tongs, with love and with care,
You’ll pound and You’ll polish and lay my soul bare,
Upon life’s anvil, You’ll shape and You’ll mold,
Me into something more precious than gold,
Tempered and sculpted by Your own loving hand,
Help me be your face, to my fellow man
Help me be your face, to my fellow man!
Copyright 2026 John Lage, Jr. All rights reserved.
