‘Reach Out’ is a song my wife and I have written together. We’ve both been playing music for years, and while we’ve been involved in writing music before with bands, this is the first song we’ve written as a couple. I primarily play guitar, and Cara sings. We started writing this song years ago, and both liked where the song was going, but it remained unfinished until recently when things started moving with 20schemes Music.

We got married in 2009, and we’ve now got three boys, Callan (4) and twin boys, Lewis & Joel (2). We’ve both been involved in a few Christian bands, leading worship at churches and events. I also used to enjoy playing guitar for pantomimes (“Oh yes I did!”) and amateur theatre. We were both part of ‘The Illuminate Band’ up until 2013 when Callan was born, but now when a guitar is lifted at home, it’s usually to accompany three little boys shouting along to Our God is a Great Big God! We are both excited to have the opportunity to play and enjoy music again, seeking to glorify God with the gifts he has entrusted to us. We’re part of a team planting a church in Barlanark, and see all this as very much part of our ministry and vision, to ‘Make Jesus Known: in Barlanark and beyond.’

Here’s a bit of background to the lyrics from Cara:

Reach Out was written in response to bit of a low-ebb spiritually. I felt caught between knowing and believing in the reality of Christ, yet also feeling a disconnect on an emotional level.

“Don’t know what I’ve been waiting for, seems I’m never going to move” expresses this frustration, a bit like Romans 7:15 in a sense.

“For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

We live in this tension of ‘already and not yet’ as we have begun to see and live in the light of the cross, but still look forward (with groaning!) to Christ’s return where all will be crystal clear.

I was having a phone conversation with my Dad in Inverness about my struggle. He told me that as Christians, we can become overwhelmed or consumed by theology, philosophy, and doctrine. All these are good things, but they can remain abstract. Christ isn’t abstract but actual; so we need an actual living relationship.

So Christians need to daily seek God the way a toddler reaches up to take their parent’s hand, with humility and childlikeness, acknowledging his authority, wisdom and sovereignty.

It is God’s fatherly grace which prompts us to ‘reach out’. God is the one who saves, who sustains, us and will raise us up to be with him forever, all because Christ has taken our sin upon himself.

I am slowly learning to rest on God’s grace and the fact that he has a grip on my life, and I don’t need to have everything figured out. I love the simplicity yet profound mystery of James 4:8:

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

We reach out to the living God in the name and power of Christ, because he has already reached out to us and intimately invited us to be with him now and forevermore.”

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The band for this video features: Vocals – Cara Mairi Bell, Piano – Carlie Fenne, Guitar – Pete Bell, Bass – David Biddulph, Drums – Sol Fenne.

VERSE 1

Don’t know what I’ve been waiting for,
Seems I’m never going to move,
Lord, take my endless wandering,
'Til I find rest in you.

CHORUS

I reach out
for your hand.
You reach out
And take my life.

VERSE 2

God above, below, beyond me
I’m surrounded by your light
How can a sinful wanderer
Stand blameless in your sight?

CHORUS

I reach out
for your hand,
You reach out
And take my life.

BRIDGE

I trust that the cross is the only way
I could look on your face on that final day
You rose from death, to rescue life
Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world.

CHORUS

I reach out
for your hand,
You reach out
And take my life.