Longtime readers, you may remember this story-behind-the-song from a few months ago, but we wanted to post it again for those who missed it the first time. Enjoy reading the story behind how Carl Cartee wrote “The Lion And The Lamb,” and the accompanying teaching video. Thanks for reading!
THE LION AND THE LAMB – Carl Cartee
I am unashamed to say that I am a truly blessed man. My wife and my boys are crown jewels in a life crowded with the goodness of God. Aside from my family, one of the great blessings of my life is the people that surround me. I have a way of stumbling into the most amazing and generous people. My life is built on the shoulders of remarkable men and women who let me hang out with them. Writing this song reminds me of the blessing of community and friendship.
The day we wrote “Lion and The Lamb” started out incredibly average. A weekday with a typical writing session booked with Tony Wood and Ronnie Freeman. I had written with these guys before and looked forward to the time we would spend together. Other than just showing up to work, I had no inspiring story or unusual experience from which to gather song material. We began with some casual pleasantries and opened up the laptops. As the session started, Ronnie said that he wanted to write an idea that explored the dual nature of Christ, exploring how He was one-hundred percent God and one-hundred percent man. At first, it seemed like that was a lot to fit into a corporate worship song, but the idea was compelling enough to get us talking about Jesus.
Now, understand that both of these men are really good writers…solid and reliable craftsmen, who know what it takes to write a good song and execute ideas. More importantly, both of these men are also serious followers of Jesus. I know that their lives are lived in service to Christ and to the glory of God. When an ordinary moment collides into extraordinary people, the day tends to start filling up with the beauty and glory of God. I am not sure how we got to the contrast of lions and lambs (I think Revelation 5), but once we landed there, we just started talking the song out, remarking about Jesus’ might in view of His humility, His universal kingdom and our friendship to Him and the agony and beauty of His cross carried for our sin. Pretty soon, a guitar groove materialized around a melody, a chorus started to emerge and I could sense myself move from songwriting session to worship service. Through conversation and imagination about the amazing identity of Christ, a song of praise began to rise. The thing I love most about the experience was that it came from the personal and tangible experience each of us had with the Savior. It was an overflow of God’s work inside each of us and now that work was being synthesized into something that had the potential to bless the world. I love the community of faith. When we come together and start telling of the great and complex beauty of Christ, His glory makes us grow and produce fruit; eternal fruit. The better thing is that it happened in the middle of what could have been average. When the choice was made to explore the greatness of Jesus, the atmosphere changed into something beautiful. We finished up the song and headed home, excited about what happened and hopeful that God would use it to bless others.
About three months later, Ronnie and I had taught the song to the church where we lead worship (Fellowship Bible in Brentwood, TN) and people were singing it with great response. One Sunday, I was in the back of the church during a testimony time where people shared how God brought them through adversity. A woman came to the microphone and described how she’d had shoulder pain for months because she needed a surgery she could not afford. She described a recent experience in worship where she wanted to raise her hands, but her shoulder injury had kept her from being able to do that. Compelled by the song being sung, she decided to push through the pain and lift her hands in response to the work of Christ. She told everyone that “it was during that moment, during that ‘Lion and Lamb’ song” that God healed her shoulder! I was thrilled to think about how something that began so normally became such an incredible stage for the glory of God. It’s beautiful to think that when a few men committed to worship, raising their voices to the glory of God, it keeps repeating, echoing the goodness and power of Jesus.
-Carl Cartee
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