Worship Leader Laura Hackett Park and the worship team at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, Missouri have breathed several new worship anthems into the Church from their annual Onething Live conferences. "You Won't Relent," "You Satisfy My Soul," "New Jerusalem," "Baptize My Heart," "Arms Wide Open" and "Pour My Love on You" consistently bless me as a worshiper. I was excited to hear Laura Hackett Park's sophomore album Love Will Have Its Day, available everywhere October 21.

What's especially cool about this album is how Laura invites listeners into her life by sharing what's on her heart. She dwells on social issues, lays out spiritual truths and worships God all at the same time. Settle in and really allow yourself to experience these songs, especially "Lift Up Your Head." It is the source of the album title as Laura proclaims "Love will have its day." The song is such a joyful and hopeful prayer. I had the chance to speak with Laura about the song.

Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

This song came from a mixture of about three different things. First, I'm about to be married, and we've been dating for about three years. It's been an interesting dating process. In the Christian world, you want to meet someone and just know. As soon as we started, we both faced some inner wounds and counseling and it was a longer process.

During that time I was praying to God about the situation, and I felt the Lord telling me, "Breathe, darling breathe, it's not yet time for you to leave this place." I felt so much more encouraged to keep going, and that started the flow of writing this song. I started humming that phrase and putting a melody to it.

That night I was praying for a friend who suffers chronic pain from a degenerative joint issue and has needed many surgeries. She's a vibrant young mom of two, and the way she keeps so much joy in so much pain was inspiring. The third thing is that I was thinking about the Nation of Israel, being in this time of great testing. I was thinking about how the Lord said He would give that land forever to them, and all the controversy and wondering how long until the Lord declares His name in that land again.

All of those things together gave me this picture of a person in suffering and a company of angels coming to them. We wrote the orchestrations and textures to have flutters and quick movements like angel wings, as though a company of angels came bringing a message from the Lord saying "your redemption is drawing near, don't give up."

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

Psalm 121:1-2 (NKJV): "I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth."

Isaiah 51:6 (NKJV): "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished."

John 16:20-22 (VOICE): "I tell you the truth, a time is approaching when you will weep and mourn while the world is celebrating. You will grieve, but that grief will give birth to great joy. In the same way that a woman labors in great pain during childbirth only to forget the intensity of the pain when she holds her child, when I return, your labored grief will also change into a joy that cannot be stolen."

What is the takeaway message?

For the song, I was pulling from the Scriptures where in John 16 Jesus talks about our sorrow turning to joy. Jesus talked about how in childbirth you forget about the pain because of the joy that is coming. I took my own personal feelings, what I would want to say to my friend, and tried to have it sound like a company of angels singing the message. Don't lose hope, lift up your head. Look up again, the sun rises every morning. It is a sign that prophesies that the Lord will return.

There will be a day that all pain and suffering won't even compare to the glory that is coming. Lifting up our heads and our eyes to Him is something that we only get to do on this side of eternity where we don't see Him yet. That John 16 passage is exactly what I was picturing when I wrote this song. These songs on this album are all the lessons I've been learning from the Lord over the past five years.

I'm like the disciples who needed to be told by the Lord the same thing over and over. "Love will have its day" is really the theme of the whole album, because even when things look dark and there's pain and suffering in the world and we are praying to the Lord about what to do, at the end of the day, love wins. It wins when Jesus returns and establishes His Kingdom on earth, and love wins in relationships.

Our ministry at the House of Prayer has taken on praying about the issue of human trafficking, and once you open yourself up to the plight of major suffering, we think about what can be done. There are so many people who need rescuing, and I realized that we have an audience with the King of Kings, and we can pray to Him that by faith He will judge unrighteous systems in our world and He will bring an end to them. He will come back to bring forth justice, as I sing in the song "King Jesus."

I want people to talk with God and know that everything in life can be talked about with Him. There's no amount of anger, bitterness or pain that scares Him. He wants to be in the mess with us, speak hope to us and teach us how to look up to Him. Jesus had radical open-heartedness.

Lyrics:
Breathe, darling, breathe
It's not yet time for you to leave
Don't lose hope
Let your heart believe and hold out faith
Sunrise rays
Shining down upon your face
Prophesy
An appointed end to suffering

Love will have its day
Keep on in the way
Lift up your head, lift up your head
Your sorrow, you'll forget when the joy comes quickly
Crying will end, wounds He will mend
And stories be penned of the faithful

Turn your face to the rising sun
While you wait, while you wait
For redemption to come
Lift up your head 

Every song on Love Will Have its Day will have you hanging on each word that Laura tenderly sings. Her vocals will soothe your soul, and the vertical lyrics will direct your attention to our King Jesus. This is a completely worshipful album. There are several personal songs that melt my heart, including "The Love Inside," "Beautiful Heart," "He Shall Reign," "I Feel His Love," "Brilliant Light" and "Cover Me." Laura has blessed listeners by writing such piercing, relevant and moving songs. If you are looking for an entire album of songs like Invisible Empires by Sara Groves, look no further than Laura Hackett Park.

She writes and sings songs with an amazing passion and with unashamed praise and gratitude to our Savior that is very inspiring, with reminders to "lift up your head" to the Lord of Lords. The eternal Love of Jesus is beautifully expressed in these compelling songs that seep into your heart, soul and mind. This album takes me to a heavenly realm as I celebrate these truths along with Laura. The Lord has been showing me His "love wins" message throughout this year in writing about the songs "Let it Be Love" by Family Force 5 and "When We Come Alive" by Switchfoot.
 
"Lift Up Your Head" is about submitting to the Lordship of Jesus over our lives and acknowledging that "Love will have its day. Lift up your head. Turn your face to the rising sun while you wait, while you wait for redemption to come." The Lord tells us all throughout Scripture to "lift up our eyes" to Him and this song celebrates that Truth. As Laura said, Jesus showed "radical open-heartedness" towards the "least of these."

The song reminds us not to lose heart. It encourages us to make Him the Lord of our lives and believe in His promise of a new day, when there will be no more pain, sorrow or tears, and all things will be made new. What a wonderful, loving and gracious God that we serve. I am so thankful to Jesus for saving me and showing us how to live. Remember and celebrate that "love will have its day." Amen to that!

(Listen to the song here.)