I find that often there is a specific song that sticks out during various seasons of life. It’s amazing how hearing those songs even 20+ years later can take you back to that season as if it were yesterday. The newest album from Jeremy Camp is a good one entitled Deeper Waters. We listened to it while in Burundi often and one song in particular I simply thought was pretty, but never listened intently until the plane ride.

I was physically and emotionally exhausted from packing up life in Africa and saying goodbyes in a week and heading on a plane from Europe to America. The song “Need To Be Near” played, and I have barely stopped listening to it since. I just need the words over and over in this season. It’s such a good reminder right now that I don’t need to understand the depths of God’s reasoning, I don’t need to hurry through this heart-wrenching pain, I don’t need to get what I don’t have: He will provide for all our needs as He always has and He will not fail our loved ones in Burundi either. These tears and this sadness will pass, and I can embrace it because He’s teaching us through it and there’s a nearness to Him that I don’t want to miss. I want all these things and more, but what my family needs most is to be near the Lord and press into Him. So, I agree wholeheartedly with Jeremy Camp, “Lord, I need to be near You.”

Need To Be Near by Jeremy Camp

[Verse 1]
When no mountaintop gives me a clear view
And there’s noise too loud for me to hear through
Nothing brings You closer than my tears do
Lord, I need to be near You

[Verse 2]
And I don’t need a fix to my problem
And I don’t need an answer when I ask
And I don’t need to know about my future
And I don’t need to understand my past
Lord, I need to be near You

[Verse 3]
When the suffering is on my doorstep
And I’m crippled by all of my regrets
I’m praying that You never let me forget
That Lord, I need to be near You

[Verse 4]
I don’t need my heart to be unbroken
And I don’t need to get what I don’t have
I don’t need the door I want to open
And I don’t need my hurt to hеal fast
Lord, I need to be near You

[Hook]
I need to be nеar You
I need to be near You
I need to be

[Verse 5]
And when I wake up to find a new day
And the sun is shining down on my face
And I start thinking that I’m okay
Lord, I need to be near You

[Verse 6]
And I don’t need applause or approval
And I don’t need the world to know my name
And I don’t need any gold or any silver
And I don’t need to rest in my own strength
Lord, I need to be near You
And Lord, I need to be near You