Song of Plenty (w/Monologue One)

MONOLOGUE ONE:
GIRL: (reading letter)
Dear Mom and Dad,

It seems an eternity since I left home. How often I’ve wanted to write or call, but I couldn’t. The things that have happened. . .Mom and Dad, I didn’t want to make you cry. I lost so much.

But something else has happened. Something special, something great! It’s strange. I had been feeling especially low: lost, empty, hungry for something I didn’t have and couldn’t find.

Then I went to this place–I guess you’d call it a mission–where there were a lot of other kids. They looked so much like me. You could tell they’d been through a lot. But there was something different about them: a spirit! As they talked and moved and laughed and sang, they seemed, well, alive and happy.

SONG:
Sing a song of plenty to God,
Whose every gift to us is good.
Sing of perfect plenty to God,
Whose gift to us is His presence of love.

Plenty of God’s presence means plenty of His love,
And plenty of God’s love means plenty to sing about.

Sing a song of plenty to God,
Whose every gift is rich and free.
Sing of God’s every blessing to you with
Lives that are full of His presence and peace.

Plenty of God’s love means plenty of His peace,
And plenty of God’s peace means plenty to sing about.

Sing a song of plenty to God,
Whose every gift is good.

About this Song:
This is the first monologue and song in SONG OF PLENTY, a “pop-musical story of a modern day Prodigal Son” I wrote it in 1974 and presented it publicly three times: at the First Baptist Church of Cambridge, Maryland; at an evening worship service at Long Wharf in Cambridge; and once at a Methodist church in Vienna, Maryland. I regret not being able to remember the name of that church.

The singers were Jestine Pryor and Jack Wright, the pianist was Billy Tilghman, and I played bass guitar. Debbie, my wife at that time, did the dramatic reading of the monologues between songs to a flute accompaniment played originally by Janet Carr and later by Connie Anderson.

You can find the songs from this musical (plus the short Prelude) on my website. If you like, you can open that window and listen to the songs while following the words here. Regretfully, the sound quality of the original recording makes it impractical to include the reading of the monologues.

Coming next Wednesday: the second song, “Silver and Gold.”

Look for me again next Wednesday. Better still, subscribe to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

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About Roger E. Bruner

Seventy-four-year-old Roger E. Bruner is the author and publisher of eighteen Christian novels and the writer of more than two hundred Christian songs and choruses, a handful of musical dramas, and a number of shorter works. He sings, plays guitar and bass, and records his original songs in his home studio. He will be active in his church's nursing home ministry again when circumstances permit and in the church choir when it starts up again. In the meantime he'll keep playing bass on the praise team. Married for seventeen years to Kathleen, he has one grown daughter. Kathleen has two. Roger enjoys reading, moderate exercise, photography and book cover design (he's done all of his own except for Rosa No-Name), playing Snood, making walking sticks, and complaining about the state of the nation while continuing to pray for it.

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