By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Tarrian LaShun Pace was the founding member of The Anointed Pace Sisters, known the world over – gospel royalty. Born in Atlanta, she left this earthly world in 2022, having been an evangelist, singer, songwriter, and author. She released twelve albums between 1988 and 2021. Her debut album in 1990 was titled, “He Lives,” and hit #2 on the Billboard Gospel chart. Her autobiography was released in 2003, titled “For My Good But For His Glory,” in which she discussed the death of her firstborn daughter, Xenia.
In 1992, she won Best New Artist at The Stellar Awards. In 1997, she won the Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for Best Gospel Album, “A Wealthy Place.” In 1999, she won Traditional Female Vocalist of the Year at The Stellar Awards for her album, “Just Because God Said It.” She was nominated numerous times for Dove, Stellar, and Soul Train awards. In 2007 she was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.
Hundreds of amazing spirit-filled songs, but it is Track 6 on her 2001 album, “God is Faithful, that she gave us “There’s a Leak in This Old Building.” The songwriting credits go to Claude Daniel Ely, yet some sources say A.C. Littlefield, lead singer for the gospel group Bells of Joy wrote the song. It’s arresting to listen. Stops you dead in your tracks, almost trancelike. It makes life’s burdens just run away. Hope is reaffirmed, and we are reminded, like a tattoo seared into our souls, of the promise of eternal life.
“There’s……….
There’s a leak in this old building and my soul
(Has got to move)
My soul
(Has got to move)
Ooh, my soul
(Has got to move)
There’s a leak in this old building, y’all and my soul
(Has got to move)
I’ve got another building
(A building not made by man’s hands.)”
Treat yourself to a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oh7conr8h0 .
The joy I feel when listening brings me to tears, and my belief-system somehow gets a little bit stronger each time. Thank you, Lord, for the amazing life of LaShun Pace, who just with this one song alone, touched millions upon millions of lives that need it the most, like mine.
Eventually, the song ends, and earthly concerns return. It happens just that way. Some days in the world we live in today, it’s just so much. The people at the Pew Research Center report a survey that says that the United States can be as much as 69 percent Christian. When we look at what’s going on in this country, does that even seem possible? How many of these Christians have ceded their Christian faith to power, control, and selfishness.
Last week, the Vice President of the United States of America, during his closing speech at Turning Point USA’s America Fest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, spoke shamelessly.
“We don’t treat anybody differently because of their race or their sex. We have relegated DEI to the dustbin of history which is exactly where it belongs. In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore…the only thing we demand is that you be a great American patriot and if you are that you are very much on our team…”
Dear Lord, there’s a leak in this old building. As a nation we’ve never been cured of our original sin – slavery. Certainly progress, yet today these white Christian nationalists don’t even wear hoods. A small percentage of them do the actions of ripping apart this nation’s progress, while the vast majority sit back and watch – silently. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” There is no justice in what we are watching unfold today. Travel bans and a false narrative that immigrants are criminals, all designed to make America as white as possible. Federal Judges are openly threatened when they don’t rule in Trump’s favor. The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in less than a year has caused the death of 600,000 (400,000 children), per a Boston University study. Who was benefitting most from USAID funding? Countries of the African continent. Which white Christian’s do you hear speaking out against this Trump-made death, or against his hatred and vengeance, or against his sabotage of the Affordable Care Act?
There’s a leak in this old building alright. Would it be foolish to imagine that in 2026 real leaders will immerge? We need people with integrity, people that know exactly who built the United States, people that will tell the truth, and people that will unite not divide. Let’s hope that 2026 is the year we begin to stop the leak in this old building and get back to bending toward justice for all.
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