2 Blocks Through Harlem

I just had a 2 hours and 5 minutes long phone conversation with Gigi Erneta and Mark DeAlessandro. Mark told us the story about walking through two blocks of Harlem I think in the 70's. We were discussing David Wilkerson, Times Square Church, and when Rabbi Jonathan Cahn told Gigi to go meet David Wilkerson ("Run Baby Run" Nicki Cruz and "The Cross and the Switchblade" with Pat Boone). Mark works with David Wilkerson's Adult Teen Challenge and he was telling us that his friend, Ty, had grown up with David. Somehow the story was weaved in about one of them bravely walking through 2 blocks of Harlem back in the time period when that was a foolish to the extreme thing to do because it was territory you just didn't cross in to. The story was about someone who did cross into it simply because it was the shortest path. We began joking that when Mark or Gigi or I do apparently foolish things for the expediency of it, following God, we would call it "Walking Two Blocks Through Harlem." When we finally hung up the phone I picked up my keyboard and wrote, "Walking Two Blocks Through Harlem."

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"Walking Two Blocks Through Harlem"

Angel Isaacs

Jerusalem

Fear attach Peace

Dwelling

In the boat

With our master

Waves

Tempest tossed

Be still, peace

At his command, mastered

And as my soul longs for you with the burning of the flame

And I hear blocks away you calling out my name

I will walk, no, I will run! I will leap the shortest way

Through the darkest, through the darkness

And as my soul burns and flames with longing in your name

I will walk where angels fear, tread, through dread, even here