“Turn It Over”

Tom Barnard

 

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.”

(Psalm 103:8)

 

“Turn it over—to the Father

Turn it over—to the Son

Turn it over—to the Spirit,

Until the Kingdom come.”

Noel (Paul) Stookey

 

Noel Stookey is a singer-songwriter-guitarist who became famous in the 1960s (and beyond) as a member of the folk-music trio, “Peter, Paul, and Mary.” Noel assumed the stage name “Paul” because it had a better ring than “Peter, Noel, and Mary.” An alumnus of Michigan State University, Noel composed and sang close to a hundred original folk songs, including his most famous composition, “Wedding Song.”

 

I helped promote a college concert featuring Noel in the late 1970s when I was dean of students at Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma. Noel entertained a packed-auditorium of students and fans from Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. It was a tremendous event.

 

During the concert he introduced one of his songs, “Turn It Over,” by telling about his farm in Blue Hill, Maine, that he and his wife Betty own and where he built a state-of-the-art recording studio in a building that had once been a chicken coop. He told about how farmers prepare the soil for planting, and the importance of “turning over the soil” as part of the process. Then he sang his song, the lyrics of which are as follows:

 

“Deep in the woods the sound of an axe

Clearing a field by the sweat of his back

A man of the soil plants his seeds

And prays that the earth will provide what he needs. (chorus)

 

And out on the street there’s a kid left for dead

From playing with things that put holes in his head

A visiting minister in from the sticks reads from the Bible

And here’s what he picks….(chorus above)

 

In the front seat of a bus from Birmingham

A man with a smile reads that letter again

Come home, Pop, the struggle is through

When we heard you found Jesus, well, we decided to.…”(chorus)

 

Are you troubled by things that seem impossible to correct; by setbacks in your family or business; by disappointments connected with your church? Maybe it’s time to “turn it over” to the Lord. As the psalmist said, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

 

Heavenly Father, I bring my problems and concerns to you today. I don’t know where else I can leave them. Your word teaches me to cast my burdens on you, for you care for me. Help me do that now, I earnestly pray in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. Amen.