Show The Way is a lovely song by American folk singer David Wilcox. It is being sung here by Dean Clark who we introduced last year when he sang the song Holy Now. (He also plays the guitar and bass on this recording). I first heard it many years ago while on tour when a bandmate put it on the van stereo system. After that I became a big fan of David Wilcox and had the opportunity to visit with him and open for one of his Canadian concerts. I often think of Show The Way as a therapy song for dealing with those times of uncertainty and anxiety. When our son was sick with cancer, Tami and I would encourage each other to “take a step back into the cleft of the Rock” – which meant to take a deep breath and try to see the big picture. That’s what this song does. It’s a 3 ½ minute story/meditation that calms the troubled heart.

It reminds me of the quote, ‘Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay - it’s not the end’. This song is a challenge to not give up even in the darkest times. It reminds us that love is stronger than hate. Love is the foundation. ‘There is evil cast around us, but it’s love that wrote the play’. I love the analogy of the ‘play’ and how hate is juxtaposed against the power of love. I think too of Babette’s Feast, which is a great movie, but the first half is so bleak it put me to sleep the first time I saw it (I had to finish it the next day). It showed a life that was so harsh and mundane - but that just made the second half of the movie more glorious, full of joy & love. “... Would they not arrange the stage to make it look as if the hero came too late”?

"Show The Way"
by Dean Clark
words and music David Wilcox
(c) 1994 Universal Music Publishing Group

You say you see no hope; you say you see no reason we should dream
That this world could ever change; you’re saying love is foolish to believe
Because there will always be some crazy with an army or a knife
To wake you from your daydream
And put the fear back in your life

If someone wrote a play just to glorify what’s stronger than hate
Would they not arrange the stage to look as if the hero came too late
Almost in defeat, and it’s looking like the evil side will win
The edge of every seat from the moment that the whole thing begins

It is love that mixed the mortar and it’s love that stacked these stones
It is love who set the stage here and made it look like we’re alone
Within this scene set in shadows like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us, but it’s love that wrote the play
So that in this darkness love can show the way

Now the stage is set; you can feel your own heart beating in your chest
This life’s not over yet, so we get up on our feet and do our best
We play against the fear; we play against the reasons not to try
Playing for the tears burning in the happy angel’s eyes

It is love that mixed the mortar and it’s love that stacked these stones
It is love who set the stage here and made it look like we’re alone
Within this scene set in shadows like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us, but it’s love that wrote the play
So that in this darkness love can show the way,
Show the way