Paradox. It is not an easily definable concept. It is suffering mingled with joy; sorrow clasping hands with celebration; brokenness enveloped by unity. It is a bright sadness. It is a concept that is frequently embraced by those contemporary psalmists who march boldly on the cutting edge of change while holding tenaciously to the secure tether of tradition. Though it is the preferred weapon of warriors of worship, for Charlie Hall the paradox of pain and praise is neither a recent phenomenon nor a carefully orchestrated career choice. It is a compulsion driven by a hunger and thirst for the presence of God.
“The human condition may be frail, but God is bursting with life,” Charlie insists. “There is a massive sunrise full of dreams and hopes right beside the obscenity of the cross, and those two things don’t have to be exclusive. There was a time when I felt so human that I didn’t feel like I could belong to God. I didn’t feel like His greatness and my difficulties could fit together. Then He began to show me that my brokenness and messiness fit perfectly with what He came here to do. I was the perfect candidate for mercy and grace and life and hope. In my broken state, He is the Bright inside my Sadness.”
It’s been two years since Charlie’s watershed release, Flying Into Daybreak. It was two years Charlie insists he needed in order to process a faith that has been filtered through the ever-emerging human experience.
“The human experience can be really beautiful or really messy, sometimes at the same time,” Charlie muses. “I try to take those experiences and put them into prayers or statements of faith in terms that don’t deny the experience, but views them through the constant reality of Jesus. This takes time because I am waiting to see what God is showing me about who He is, and those are the things I want to say to Him in a song.”
After two years of documenting his faith and prayers during a period of his life that involved plenty or pain and trials, Charlie Hall is set to burst forth with The Bright Sadness, a thirteen-song retrospective of life as it is and life as it should be.
“I feel like I am merely a symbol of what is happening throughout the Church,” Charlie says. “Through lots of pain and trials over the past two years, God has showed me how to let go of control, to quit trying to always stop the pain, and to let Him work in the middle of it all. Even though I’ve experienced a lot of pain, it doesn’t leave me sad. I’ve learned that it is possible to feel the harshness of life and the brightness of Jesus simultaneously. This is a message that I’ve lived, that I am still living, and I have still been able to cling to Jesus and to write prayers to him.”
Charlie points to the song “Mystery” as a quintessential expression of that revelation.
“I was taking noontime Communion in this Episcopal Church that was around the corner from my office,” he recalls. “We were using the Book of Common Prayer, and it’s got this statement in it regarding the mystery of faith. It says, ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen (present tense), and Christ will come again.’ Amazing! From that came two lines - ‘Sweet Jesus Christ, my sanity,’ which would imply that sometimes I feel a little crazy; and ‘Sweet Jesus Christ, my clarity,’ which would imply that sometimes I don’t feel all that clear. That’s what Jesus is. He is my sanity. He is my clarity. And that is the hope and mystery of the faith. There is a Christ and a Savior who came to this earth, and died in our place, and He is risen now. But that’s not the end of the story. He is coming back to make everything new again, to redeem it, to make it all fresh and clear again.”
“The Second Alive” is another musical statement of faith that embraces the mysterious leap of faith. “It was written as an invitation to people at the beginning of their faith,” Charlie explains, “but it was birthed out of God speaking to me in the now saying, ‘Here are the things I’m asking you to let go of. These are the things I am asking you to no longer try to control.’ There is a line in the song that says, ‘Take a walk in the burning heart of God,’ because there is so much life and depth and hope in His heart that it is worth letting everything that comforts you go, and jumping into it.”
Charlie uses the graphically titled “Hookers and Robbers” to illustrate the transformative power of Christ. The song tells a tale of a gathering of the vilest offenders imaginable and an encounter with unconditional love. “The song is very descriptive,” he admits. “Crack heads, hookers, robbers, people with smoking guns in their hands – they are all present. And then there is this Savior who comes with an invitation for each one to be renovated and redeemed by the only One who sees them in their most naked state and embraces them just as they are.”
But it is not just those who appear corrupt on the outside that need redemption, Charlie says. Sometimes the outer veneer we create in our own minds requires a wrecking ball.
“There are so many false realms you can live in,” he says. “The Church is real and alive. It is the Bride of Christ. But there is also a form of it that is very plastic, that is just something that is being created out of man’s mind. You can create a false reality of yourself for other people to see and for you to live out of. Those two things, which are built around pleasing the people around you, tear down the reality of living out your faith in light of the reality of Jesus Christ. Those are the two biggest obstacles for me, the biggest difficulties for me.”
Charlie points to the huge rock anthem, “Chain Breaker,” as an invitation and exhortation to both the people of God and to those who are outside of God to allow Him to break off those chains of false reality. “It is something that I keep asking of Him, to loosen me, to take the chains off of me,” Charlie says. “The chorus goes through a list of His attributes. He is heart savior; He is a chain-breaker; He is a renovator; He is a redeemer. His cross literally split history. Because of that we should stand up and applaud.”
While Charlie Hall and his band spend a third of each month playing colleges, churches, theaters, and conferences, he insists his most important time is spent at home, focusing on his family, and embracing the art of living.
“We use music to connect people to God, to give them prayers to sing, and words to use in adoration,” he says. “But my biggest responsibility is to my family. I’m intensely focused on my kids; loving them, growing them, walking life with them, teaching them. Secondarily, I am also trying to cut into the art world in Oklahoma City by growing relationships and helping people grow their art.”
Musically mature and a spiritually sensitive, The Bright Sadness confirms Charlie Hall’s reputation for writing prayer-songs, worship-songs, and musical statements of faith that are intimate, passionate and above all, real.
