From Reconcile "A" Side - Single Release 01/03/2026
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD (Extended)
If you learn and understand and see
And all the wrongs and rights arrange
Would simply knowing how things should be
Cause your life to really change?
And though you try you can't get by on seeking right
When it's weighed on your own scale
The soul can't rectify its internal plight
A soul alone will simply fail
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
And love your neighbor like yourself
Love the Lord your God with all your soul
And life will take care of itself
By and by you feel like you are chasing plans
Tomorrow's worries find today
And your mental checklist expands
Maps a future like a maze
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
And love your neighbor like it's you
Love the Lord your God with all your soul
And life becomes brand new
If you learn and understand and see
And all the wrongs and rights arrange
Would simply knowing how things should be
Cause your life to really change?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
And love your neighbor is what you'll do
Love the Lord your God with all your soul
And He'll take care of you
THE MUSIC
Love The Lord Your God (Extended) (1988) Am & A [5:06]
Chard Berndt, acoustic guitar, voice, "choir" vocals, acoustic fretless bass, cajon
Notes
I suppose we could thank the Pharisees and Sadducees—the religious powers when Jesus walked the earth—for drawing out one highly-distilled truth: After a day of back-and-forth interrogation of the Christ, with disingenuous flattery and hypothetical traps concerning politics and the resurrection, the Pharisees brought in their lawyer to try and trap Jesus regarding their labyrinthian laws. And from that we learned that everything ever written in the Law or spoken by the Prophets, rests completely upon two commandments: The "first and greatest" one is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." So, the #1 thing is to love God with all that we are. And the #2 thing, the commandment that "is like it", is to "love your neighbor as yourself." (Incidentally, the "Good Samaritan" parable in Luke 10 is Jesus' answer to a lawyer's technicality..."Who is my neighbor?"). So, if these are the most important two things, then this is the foundational recipe for life, for health, for getting back to the basics. The Pharisees and Sadduccess were certainly doing neither, both in their disruption of Jesus—God in the flesh—and in their self-absorbance, putting their positions and procedures ahead of people. But what about me? I sing it here to whoever needs the reveal or the reminder, but how prevalent is my own love for God and others? That re-centering is a huge reason for me to sing my song, and I trust that you'll receive it as well.
I did some minor altering of the lyrics as well as the instrumental bridge guitar jam as compared to my 1988 rendition—small tweaks for what I believe are big improvements. I'm happy to now play the jam section how I have always heard it, and in proper time. It used to sound a bit rushed and desperate, and I think now it's got the bluesy groove I wanted, which breaks out into a happy ascent of chord inversions. The "choir" is a new addition, something I heard in my head when I was mixing down the first attempt at the acoustic guitar recording. I decided to build the cathedral choir effect with my own voice in layered, panned tracks, with the help of pitch shifting. This is the 5:06 "extended version", which is really just the original uncut version (the intro and some bridge sections were cut for the album) with the addition of the "after-ending ending". That little ditty at the end was a fun way to reprise a portion of the chorus' music in a loop and let the bass guitar end the song playfully.
Love The Lord Your God (Extended)
