WHEN WE ALL GET TO HEAVEN

Most of my SG friends know that I'm a songwriter. What they don't know is that I'm an all-around writer with one as-yet-unpublished novel just finished, a screenplay,
a few produced stage plays to my credit, and I'm an award-winning journalist and poet. I'm not trying to amaze anybody here, I have a point to make...

I've been researching for a planned novel/stage play/musical called "When We All Get to Heaven." The basic storyline involves two Southern families, one white and one black, who are brought together by the redeeming power of Gospel Music. In doing this research, I learned a few things about the hymn writer Eliza Hewitt.

This, I pass on to you:

ELIZA E. HEWITT (1851-1920)

The writer of over 50 well known hymns, including the classics “When We All Get to Heaven” “More About Jesus” and the incomparable “Will There Be Any Stars in my Crown,” ‘Lidie’ was born on June 28, 1851, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Educated in the local school system, she graduated as valedictorian of the Girl's Normal School. She became a teacher in the tough Philadelphia public schools. But then came misery. Her career ended when she was forced to bed with a painful spinal problem. (it is said that her condition was caused by a student striking her with a piece of slate.)

Bed ridden, she could have been angry or bitter. Instead, she studied English literature and began to write and sing unto the Lord:

"Sing the wondrous love of Jesus; sing his mercy and his grace.
In the mansions bright and blessed he'll prepare for us a place."

Some of her lines came to the attention of writer and publisher John R. Sweney, who co-wrote the classic “Beulah Land” with Eliza’s cousin, hymn writer Edgar Stites.

Sweney wrote her asking for more, and set a few of her songs to music, including one of the better known: "Will there be any Stars in My Crown?" Sweney and William J. Kirkpatrick published her first hymns.

Eliza worked mostly as a lyricist; her co-writers included Sweney (who wrote the music for “Will There Be Any Stars in my Crown,” and “More About Jesus,” and Emily Wilson who wrote the music for “When We All Get to Heaven.”

We remember Eliza Hewitt today because of those hymns. Had she never been bed-ridden, she might not have written them. Among the best known: "Give Me Thy Heart, Says the Father Above," "When We All Get to Heaven," "Sunshine in My Soul," "Will there be any Stars in My Crown?" and "More About Jesus (I Would Know.)”

She partially recovered, and was Sunday School superintendent at the Northern Home for Friendless Children, and later at the Calvin Presbyterian Church.

It is said that she wrote for “When We All Get to Heaven,” for the children in her Sunday School class, which numbered 200 children at one time.

Hewitt died on April 24, 1920, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. and was buried at Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

An amazing story about an unassuming teacher who wrote three of the greatest hymns ever!

MY FIRST HEART ATTACK

Hopefully the qualifier 'First' will be unnescessary. Kinda like saying 'My FIRST ex-wife' or 'my FIRST divorce.' In all of those cases, I hope and pray that there will be only one.

I wrote about my heart attack, last Wednesday April 19, 2006, on my "A Funny Thing Happened" blog at sgblognews.net. You can find that blog at:

http://funnything.sgblognews.net

I just kept thinking, while I was in the hospital, that Jake Hess had his first heart attack in the late 1960s and he lived another 35 to 40 years.

I'd be happy with another 25.

It's time for me to lose about 70 lbs. More walking. No more burgers and fries. How many cheeseburgers can a person eat in one lifetime anyway? I've had more than my share.

I have a lot more Gospel music to write. Hopefully, somebody will record some of my songs before I die. I honestly think that God put me on this earth to write Gospel music. If nothing else I've written, from the novels to the screenplays, ever gets published or produced or otherwise put out there in the public eye... that's okay.
BUT, if no one ever hears these wonderful songs about my Sweet Lord Jesus, that would be a tragedy.

Someone once said that Praise and Worship music is "Singing to the Lord" and that Southern Gospel music is "Singing ABOUT the Lord."

There's nothing wrong with that!

It's an honor to sing ABOUT Jesus!

DISCOURAGEMENT

It seems like everything I do lately falls apart. I know I have lots to be thankful for: my fiancee Cheryl Bloom is doing better in this eye of the storm, the lull between chemo-and-the-mastectomy and radiation. My son is out of jail, has a job, and is working slowly towards self-sufficiency. It's all good.

Still, I'm down.

I started a new blog over at sgblognews.com called "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Gospel Sing" and nobody's read it yet.

I recorded a new song called "Ready Or Not (Here I Come)" and I put it up on my hallelujahstreet.tripod.com site... I sent out e-mails inviting people to listen to it... I posted on the new songwriting boards at sogospelnews.com and nobody's listened to it yet. I mean, the title of my post was "Hey guys, listen to my new song!" and nobody even bothered.

Or else they DID listen and it's so bad that they're all embarrassed to tell me this.

The problem is, I'm not a novice songwriter. I know how to write songs. My demo skills are limited by lack of funds, but anyone with ears should be able to hear a good song through a sparse, even rough, arrangement.

There are other, much rougher demos on the hallelujahstreet.tripod.com site, and listening to ALL of 'em shows that I can write. I think.

Maybe I just suck.

Maybe I should just plain give up.

Cheryl's Operation

Praise God, Cheryl's mastectomy operation went about as well as could be expected. The doctor removed 12 lymph nodes, only 1 of which was cancerous, and Cheryl had no pain in the days right after surgery. They even gave her a morphine drip on her one night in the hospital, which she refused to use.

No pain! She believes that this is due to all the prayers she's gotten.

Tomorrow, Thursday March 8th, we go in to get her post-op "drains" removed. Then starts the healing process.

Next up: six weeks of radiation.

There are a lot of things which are still a bit heartbreaking to her. The aftermath of having had the mastectomy is a hardly a bed of roses.

They left her with numbness in her upper arm, an extra flap of skin dangling under her arm which looks like a small punching bag. She wanted them to remove the other breast, so she would never have to worry about going through this again. The surgeons refused to do this, which gets Cheryl mad enough to spit nails.

Pray for her, and us, as the recovery begins. As she begins to grow back her hair, begins to get feeling back in her hands and feet (numbed by the chemo) and deals with being "lopsided" as she puts it.

God is good. He understands the "whys" when we don't.

Cheryl Update

As many of you know, my fiancee, Cheryl Bloom, has been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer for about six months now. We have earnestly coveted,and thankfully recieved, your prayers for Cheryl and for me.

Yesterday, we learned that the chemo is no longer being effective, so surgery is scheduled for only a few days from now: Tuesday February 28th, at the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, Iowa. She'll be undergoing a modified radical mastectomy of the right breast, with lymphectomy.

Please keep this in your prayers during the surgery and during the month or so of healing.

Thank you.

In Jesus,

Chris Becker

Who am I now?

My friends and fans out there, especially my pals at Southern Gospel News, have had plenty of chance to hear me go on and on about the good old days, when I was a teenaged quartet man on the west coast in the 1970s, when I helped promote shows by legends like the Statesmen and the Blackwood Brothers, etc. Fortunately, the good old days are just that... old. Like Steve Martin once said, "I'm tired of these old cliches... let's make some NEW cliches."

What have I done lately?

As much as I’d love to be out on the road, singing bass or even baritone with a group, right now that’s not possible. My fiancée, Cheryl Bloom, has breast cancer. We’re fighting that battle right now. She’s undergone round after round of chemotherapy. Her mastectomy surgery is probably going to be scheduled for March. We are indeed grateful for all the many prayers we’ve gotten.

Pray, also, for my son Andy Becker, 23, who’s in county jail right now awaiting trial for revocation of probation. He’s now back trying to serve the Lord Jesus, so at least something positive came out of all this. Pray that his relationship with Jesus will go deep… not just be another case of “Jailhouse religion.” Andy is a very talented musician in his own right. Maybe someday you’ll see him on the road with me.

My Music

I’ve been writing a lot of gospel songs in the past couple years. If any of you are interested in hearing them, and I don’t necessarily mean this as a “pitch,” it’s okay to just be casually curious, to listen just as a friend.

They're simple guitar/vocals arrangements. The link for my music website is:

http://hallelujahstreet.tripod.com

Thanks guys, I love you all.

To contact me personally for constructive criticism, prayer requests, or just to say "Hey." It's:

chrisjaybecker@yahoo.com

ASCAP

I try not to publish this fact very often, but I have been both a writer-member and a publisher-member (Hallelujah! Street Music) of ASCAP for a few years now.

In my previous life as an indie recording artist in both the Americana/Alt. Country field (as Chris Jay Becker,) and as a Techno/Trance artist (as DJ Blurry Guy,) this ASCAP membership was used because I wasn’t really pitching to other artists, just recording my own songs myself.

Now that I’ve rededicated my musical talent solely to the Lord Jesus, and am not only writing Southern Gospel songs but am actively pitching them to artists, I may have to dump my ASCAP membership and go with BMI. That way, if I need to split the publishing on a song to get a cut, there aren’t any hang-ups over me being an ASCAP writer.

What do you guys think?