Behind the Songs

Human Struggle Inspires a Song

Song: Learning to Lean

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

John Stallings, a Georgia native from the small town of Griffin, near Atlanta, was only sixteen years of age when he began his songwriting career. He has had fifty of his more than 180 songs published. He is a self-taught musician who travels as a singing evangelist. His songs have been recorded and sung by such notables as Bill Gaither, Kenneth Copeland, George Bevery Shea, the Billy Graham Crusade Choir, and Jeannie C. Riley, just to name a few. Scores of Southern Gospel singing groups have recorded or used his songs.

At age thirty-four, while pastoring a church in Montgomery, Alabama, Stallings’s serene little world began to tumble down around him. One of his three daughters nearly died with a serious illness, another was almost killed in an automobile accident. During this time, he felt the need to resign from his Alabama pastorate, and he moved to Florida. His furniture had to be stored in three different places. Stallings was trying to construct a home, but things were not going well at all. He knew he was going to have to learn to live by the faith about which he has preached for many years. In the midst of all these struggles, a song title began rolling around in his mind.

One day he sat down in the living room of the place where he lived at the time, and wrote the now-familiar chorus to his famed song, "Learning to Lean." The chorus was an expression of his heart -- a testimony of learning to depend on the only One who has the power to give strength to overcome any and all difficulties -- more power than Stallings every dreamed possible. The song is written in a present tense -- indicating that he is still learning every day.

Stallings began to sing the chorus in some of his services, as an “altar service” song. Much to his surprise, while in a church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the pastor, after hearing the chorus, published it in his church bulletin. People began to sing the chorus and to ask about it.

After writing the chorus, Stallings thought very little about it because, in his words, “It came so easily.” Now, he thought, “Well, if they like the chorus so much, then I’ll try to write some verses to go with it.” And he did so, about six or eight months following the writing of the chorus. That was in 1975, and the rest is history. The song began to sweep the country and has been a perennial favorite for all these years since.

Stallings tells of one lady who was so bent on destroying herself that she actually held a gun to her head. Suddenly from another room she heard the heartwarming strains of “Learning to Lean.” She put the gun aside and now credits this song with saving her from suicide.

A man who is now pastoring a church in Louisiana became a Christian because he heard a traveling musical group sing the song. And a number of pastors have testified that the hearing of that song helped them through low valleys in their ministries, causing them to keep on for the Lord. It is the only song that has ever won all three of the major sacred-song awards in the same year (1977): The Dove Award, The Singing News Award, and The Quartet Convention Award.

Blessings on John Stallings, for allowing the Lord to use him in giving "Learning to Lean" to all of us. The "joy I can't explain," the "glorious victory each day," and the "peace so serene," spoken about in the verses seem to add tremendously to the effectiveness of the total song.

Reflection:
When we have come to the end of our endurance, the Lord’s strength in us has only begun. We need only to lean on Him to be empowered in the midst of our weaknesses.