In 1969, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood released the song “Presence of the Lord” while playing in the band, Blind Faith.  Clapton is one of my all-time favorite artists; I’ve been lucky to see him live in concert several times since 1988 and he always puts on an incredible show. He is so gifted as a singer/songwriter and guitar player.  In my opinion, no one can play the guitar like Clapton – Stevie Ray Vaughan comes in a close second, but to me there is no one like Clapton.

My devotional for Easter this year quoted one of my favorite bible verses 2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV – “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Naturally my wandering mind took me to the band, Blind Faith, and my favorite song by them – “Presence of the Lord”.  I googled the lyrics, as I always do, and then dug a little deeper to learn the story behind the lyrics.

In the magazine Christianity Today, John Powell wrote on April 9, 2008 an article entitled “Eric Clapton, In the Presence of the Lord”. In his article Powell gave a history of Clapton’s life, his musical journey, his faith journey and the impetus for this song. Early in his career, Clapton was recognized for his raw talent and ability to play the guitar; in fact, subway walls around London declared “Clapton is God” because of his ability, and Muddy Waters took him under his wing and urged him to carry forth the legacy of blues music made famous by Waters and those before him.  At times Clapton was almost overwhelmed by the recognition his fans and critics were bestowing on him.

When Clapton was just 9 years old, he discovered that his aunt was in fact his mother and that his father was an unnamed Canadian soldier. It rattled him to know that he was born out-of-wedlock and he struggled with insecurity and feelings of isolation, which was soothed through playing the blues and channeling his despair and loneliness through the traditional blues.  Even as a child, Clapton had a spiritual side to his personality and, at times, that spiritual nature influenced his thoughts and actions as well as the kind of music he wrote and played. In his autobiography, Clapton: The Autobiography, Clapton writes that he never intended to be a model for the Christian Faith but that he did grow up with a fascination about spiritual matters. His faith journey led him away from mainstream church and community worship and into his being, a personal internal faith journey.  He believed that we were to serve God individually, which fit into his working class neighborhood growing up where Clapton found little spiritual encouragement.

When Clapton teamed up with Winwood after leaving his very successful band, Cream,  he was becoming more comfortable with his life. During the 1969 Blind Faith tour, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett’s group, Delaney & Bonnie, opened for the headliners. Eric became drawn to Delaney’s  Southern Baptist preacher’s persona, who moved Clapton through his voice and interpretation of music rather than the typical fire and brimstone message used by many Southern Baptist preachers during that time.  At one point Delaney challenged Clapton to start singing more telling him that “God has given you this gift, and if you don’t use it he will take it away.”, Clapton took his advice to heart; the first song that he wrote in its entirety was “Presence of the Lord”, and he wrote it in a key higher than he could comfortably sing, thus making it a perfect song for Winwood to take the lead vocals.  After writing the lyrics to the song, Clapton called it a “song of gratitude”, stating that the overall message for the song was to “say, ‘thank you’ to God, or whatever you choose to call Him, for whatever happens.”

A few days into the Blind Faith road tour, two Christians came to Clapton’s dressing room after a show as they were drawn to him by the concert’s focal performance of “Presence of the Lord”.  The two men believed that the song was a direct response to 1 Samuel 6:20 –  “Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this Holy God?” As the conversation progressed, the two young men asked Clapton to pray with them. Clapton later said that as they knelt to pray, he saw “a blinding light” and felt the presence of God. From that point forward, Clapton began telling everyone that he was “a born-again Christian” and his testimony about the experience was raw and honest. However, since Clapton’s earlier faith had been fraught with superstition about religion, he found he was still suspect of any kind of systematic theology.

Unfortunately, most of us know the trials and heartbreak that followed Clapton throughout his life as he became more and more famous.  Within a year of becoming a Christian, he became addicted to heroin, kicked it, but turned to alcohol and sexual promiscuity that was followed by a string a failed relationships. He fell in love with his best friend’s wife, Patty Harrison, and married her. He was quoted as saying “Bad choices are my specialty”, and in 1987 he hit rock bottom.  After struggling through a month of rehab to address his addictions, he once again fell to his knees and surrendered his life to God, dedicating his sobriety to his newborn son Conor. Tragically, Conor died four years later from a fall from the balcony of a high-rise apartment in which he was living. Clapton almost gave in to his demons after losing his son so tragically, but instead spoke to his Alcoholics Anonymous group about “handing your will over to the care of God.” Later a woman approached Clapton and told him that his openness about his demons took away any excuse she had to continue drinking.  Clapton realized that the most important thing he could do was “staying sober and helping others to achieve sobriety … the single most important proposition” in his life. In 1997, Clapton founded Crossroads Centre Antigua to provide rehabilitation services to those in the grips of addiction. It is a highly respected and busy program today.

Prayer became central to Clapton’s life during this 1987 stay in rehab when he realized that he had finally found a place where he could turn any time, that he had known was always there, but had never really wanted or needed to believe was there for him.  From that night forward, Clapton has prayed (on his knees to humble himself before the Lord) every morning asking for help that day, and every night thanking God for his life and most of all for his sobriety.  He says the reason he prays is “because it works, simple as that.”

Prayers works – it’s as simple as that! I have experienced two direct answers to prayers in the past two weeks.  I find it reassuring that a man like Eric Clapton prays on his knees twice a day to our Lord. His troubles and tragic life experiences and incredible life experiences are unbelievable to me, but what an awesome God we share across the miles!

Again, I leave you with lyrics to one of my favorite songs, written by Eric Clapton and performed by Steve Winwood of the band, Blind Faith.  I encourage you to google it and listen, and find peace…

Presence of the Lord

I have finally found a way to live
Just like I never could before.
I know that I don’t have much to give,
But I can open any door.

Everybody knows the secret,
Everybody knows the score.
I have finally found a way to live
In the color of the Lord.

I have finally found a place to live
Just like I never could before.
And I know I don’t have much to give,
But soon I’ll open any door.

Everybody knows the secret,
Everybody knows the score.
I have finally found a place to live
In the presence of the Lord.
In the presence of the Lord.

I have finally found a way to live
Just like I never could before.
And I know I don’t have much to give,
But I can open any door.

Everybody knows the secret,
I said everybody knows the score.
I have finally found a way to live
In the color of the Lord.
In the color of the Lord.

Written by Eric Patrick Clapton · Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.