About this episode
A song about nothin’ from the anonymous confessions project
Get every episode summarized
Each time Nutshell Sermons publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
Transcript ready
170 searchable segments. Every word is indexed and playable.
Full transcript
Nutshell Sermons — Aint No Stoppin Lyrics. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
It's Brian, your lunatic friend. You ever wonder why I never claim to be a preacher or a music minister? I'm a believer in those things are kinda true. But I've often referred to myself as a pragmatic fundamentalist. Because of the back of my mind, I'm aware that I could always be wrong. And it's one of the reasons that I follow Jesus. Cause I don't think he ever was. And if I think he is, then I probably am. Somebody asked me just the other day why I refer to myself as your friend on the back row. And I tell him because I like to hide the chip on my shoulder on my blind side. So I tell him this because this episode of Jesus and music is a pragmatic look at my theology. The song Ain't No Stop and Now is on the anonymous confessions of a lunatic friend. And I'll tell you that I did this record in the middle of my Christian career right when I felt like I needed therapy or counseling or something. And I kinda wondered where Christian gets counseling. Cause I'd started to discover that I couldn't even admit that I had any faults. But then I had an ongoing struggle with a lot of my own sins.
I mean, I didn't ask forgiveness and then quit. The trouble with sin isn't right when you think you're done with it, you're forsaking at all and following Jesus, it comes back to you. That's right, sin has a boomerang capability. When they told me to be honest and transparent in my songs, I thought that meant that it would make me a bigger artist. And I would discover that that wasn't true in Christian circles, they wanted something specific and they didn't want to know a bunch of stuff. Yeah, they call it corporate worship now. And maybe the idea is if we focus on God all the time and only him we won't have time to sin. And in our new relationship with Jesus, we won't have that honeymoon experience that kind of wears off in the daily routine of things. So in my suicidal tendency, I wrote a song called, I've got this lunatic friend. Cause I noticed that people in church wouldn't say they had a problem. They would say they had a friend who had a problem. And I'll just admit that in the middle of recording this album, I was getting kind of depressed because I couldn't say the happy things that people wanted to hear. At least not with any conviction.
And that's when Dan Postman, when my producer said, you should just go home and write a song about nothing. Cause I think you're thinking too hard. And that brings us to this song that I wrote called, there ain't no stopping now. It was born out of the fact that I was recording an album and I was right in the middle of it. And I was arguing in my own head between the things I wanted to say and the things they wanted me to say. And now that pressure wasn't coming from my producer, he was a godly man who believed in the strength of the truth that it would stand up no matter what else happened. And it's amazing as a producer that he trusted God with my life and the things I had to say. And so with that in mind, I'll give you the lyrics to the song, ain't no stopping now. And first of all, this song came to me because my wife was quoting some of the lyrics from it yesterday. And when I get to those lyrics, I will mention again that it was a ministry to her. And the first line of this song is so conveniently current that it could almost be a prophecy. I wrote it 36 years ago and it's still true today. And I opened with the first line
and a frantic, exasperated sort of way. Well, the world's full of crazy people haven't got a clue to who they are. And I was mostly thinking of myself on this second line where I say, in a corner standing face down, hands in your pockets all the time because that's what depression looks like to me. Standing in line at the carnival, waiting on a plane or the bus station. And the third line is always worried, busy shouting, carrying on about the way things ought to be. And I swear that sounds like social media to me nowadays. And here's the perfect time for the lyrics to say, let's forsake it, break it up, take it easy, make it light for a while. And I interject at a little lick between every line so that you'd have time to think about it. Whoa. And an answer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of a little rock and roll version of a man, brother, preach it. And that little no lyric, call and response thing got popular years later.
And here's just a chance for the horn section to kick in and the band can start grooving. Well, I had a few free interjections about what life can be like. It'd be like a roller coaster ride or a flash flood on the inside or maybe an avalanche of snowfall coming down or like no breaks on a race car. But in every scenario, there ain't no stop it now. And now comes the words that were encouraging to my wife in the last couple of weeks. We're in the second verse I sing. Now God wouldn't tell you what to do if he knew you couldn't make it y'all. And here you interject, yes, a man, brother, preach it. And then I add, life is good news and it's bad. You can laugh or just get mad, it's still the same. And again, something my wife understands. Get acquainted with your pain, but it won't make it easier. And then comes my favorite line for myself. There's a time to be happy, there's a time to be said. Let's take the first one. And we're back to the chorus, yeah, preach it y'all. There ain't no stop it now.
And here's where we go back to more free word associations. Starts with a free fall from an airplane or maybe a silver bullet fired from a gun or a step beyond the point of no return. And here in this song is where we take a break, even in a song that's about taking a break. In the musical bridge, Bob Carlisle joins me on this song, find a safety belt, hook it up, pull it tight cause there won't be no stoppin' in this place tonight. And then I add in the bridge by myself, count down to ignition, take me worlds away. Ain't no hangin' round till your heaven bound cause that ain't the way to live your life today. And then I go out after a long groove with the band and a solo by the bass player, lyrically back to where we started in a corner stand and face down hands in your pockets all the time. Let's forsake it, break it up, take it easy, make it light for a while. And here's where I go out with all of the free word associations that I came up with.
And I think I added one or two. Be like a roller coaster ride or a flash flood on the inside or an avalanche of snowfall comin' down. Like no breaks on a race car or like a rocket launched. A free fall from an airplane. We're silver bullet fired from a gun or a step beyond the point of no return. And that my friends is a song about nothin'. And I was just thinkin' that once you're born there ain't no stoppin' now. But here's one last reason that I will leave you with about why I follow Jesus because life does come with term limits. And if you walk with him Jesus says he promises you eternal life after this. And the Bible says it comes with a new heavens and a new earth. And personally I'm counting on less irritations. Because otherwise it wouldn't really be heaven, would it? And this has been Jesus of music lyrics from your friend on the back row. Thanks for lessonin' and refusing to be dismissed.
More episodes
