A Song and A Prayer

INTRODUCTION

It was the most natural thing in the world. We were just talking, and then we were praying, and then we were writing a song. It was all the same to us. I didn’t feel time passing during that first impromptu cowrite, but I felt like I’d danced around in eternity with a friend. It felt childlike and free, humble and holy, creative, professional, and… significant. I took the significance to be only for that moment, for that memory, and I was grateful that God had allowed me to become Loretta’s friend and prayer partner. It was a way for her to have church without an awestruck crowd around. Not that she doesn’t know how to embrace an awestruck crowd and make everyone in it feel like they are the only one there and like she loves them the most. It’s because she’s so honest. She can’t hide a thing. She tells it like it is and sets you straight if she sees you’re not doing the same. When you feel her love, it is because she is overflowing with the love she shares with the One who is love. God is love, and Loretta Lynn will tell you so.

Our very first conversation swirled around every topic, from a husband-stealing rodeo hussy, to the sorrow of losing a child, to thieves on the cross talking to Jesus about hope. We read the Bible some, shared Communion with the wafers and Welch’s I’d brought with me, and then I anointed her forehead and hands with some sweet-smelling anointing oil as we prayed. She loved the oil so much she wanted more of it on the backs of her hands. Later she told me she smelled good for days afterward.

Our first cowrite was a sad country song. She asked me how I was, and I blabbed everything. I had a newly broken heart, and I figured there was no use hiding it from the Queen of Country, so I didn’t; and I’m so glad. It was the most healing pity party I’ve ever had, and in a matter of minutes she somehow gave me the courage to move on and we got a great song out of it! After that, we kept writing regularly. We talked about how it is all God’s music and how every song is a gift from Heaven if you know how to listen for them. There was something special about how the prayers themselves started turning into songs, and that’s how we ended up with a few gospel songs. Don’t get me wrong, a sad country song is its own kind of prayer. It tells the truth and cries out for love, and God is love. But a prayer with a melody is another matter, and that is what gave us the idea for this book.

Loretta kept telling me she wished the whole world knew how much God loves them. She said God was always with her. She talked to Him all the time and made sure to talk out loud if anyone was around when she happened to be praying so that they would know they can talk to God, too.

When I was talking, laughing, writing, and praying with Loretta, I would think about how one little coal miner’s daughter wanted to write and sing, and the whole world is better because of it. She owned it! But she owned it as a gift received, not a status. She said everything she had was because of God.

This book is a thirty-day devotional we’ve created so you can be a part of a very special kind of prayer meeting. Loretta’s wit and wisdom and her profound love for God shine through in her songs, so we’ve put together a month’s worth of encouragement you can use for your spiritual practice morning, noon, or night. Each devotion is inspired by one of Loretta’s lyrics that come straight from the heart and real life.

We love you, and we hope this book reminds you that God loves you more than you could even imagine, and He is with you all the time. May your soul sing today.

—Rev. Kim McLean, EdD