The All Day Song

John Fischer

When you are a guitar player and were in youth ministry as long as I was, there are certain songs that just become a part of your life.  I was at a Young Life club meeting during high school the first time I ever sang John Fischer's The All Day Song.  It was a short, peppy little praise song, and I liked it.  The lyrics were simple, but carried great meaning.  If I had known at the time that I would be playing and singing it literally hundreds of times over the course of my life, I might have run screaming from the building.  But I didn't.  And The All Day Song became a huge part of my ministry.  If you were at Quaker Lake Camp in the 70s and 80s, or around any of my youth groups, then you know this song.  We sang it so often (usually at the request of the campers) during summers at camp that it became known at The EVERY Day Song.  Even after all of that, I still taught it to youth groups, and they loved it too.  When I would go back to QLC as a camp pastor, I would have to teach that song to the current music leaders.  The song became legend; and I had still never actually heard John Fischer sing it!  Here are the lyrics:

The All Day Song

Verse

When you think you've got to worry

Because it seems the thing to do

Remember He ain't in a hurry

He's always got the time for you, so . . .

Chorus

Love Him in the morning when you see the sun arisin’

Love Him in the evening ‘cuz He took you through the day

And in the in between time when you feel the pressure comin’

Remember that He loves you and He promises to stay

© 1973 Bud John Songs, Inc.

The song was (and still is for me) a great reminder that Jesus is with me from sun-up until sundown.  He is with me when things are tough. He is with me today, yesterday and forever.  And as many times as we sang it over the years, I cannot help but believe that it has been an assurance to many of the campers and youth I sang it with as well.  But there is one singing on this sweet little song that will always stand out above all others in my mind.  Several of the male counselors at QLC were returning to our cabins one afternoon and we passed by the bath house and rest rooms.  As we walked by the toilets, we heard the unmistakable voice of Lindley Osborne, one of our favorite campers, coming from the toilet side of the little concrete block building.  As we passed, we heard very clearly that he was singing The All Day Song.  And the line we heard was, "And in the in-between time when you feel the pressure coming..."  I think we laughed for an hour!


Songs can conjur up memories of specific places and times like nothing else.  The All Day Song always takes me back to QLC and the youth rooms at Springfield Friends Meeting and FUMC-Kissimmee.  Thank you, John Fischer, for giving us a song that we can sing every day- and remember the love of God as we do.  If you do not know the song, I have posted a version of John singing it below.  It's a strangely long version, and for those who learned it from Martha Ratledge Farlow or myself it will seem very different.  But the idea is still the same.  Remember Jesus loves you and will never forsake you.  And that deserves an AMEN!