As I sat listening to this lovely song being sang from the heart by Joshua Ledet at the White house in 2013, I could not help but find the origins of this song. This song written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright was recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966 at Norala Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama. Find the lyrics here:
When a man loves a woman, Can’t keep his mind on nothing else
He’ll trade the world For the good thing he’s found
If she’s bad he can’t see it She can do no wrong
Turn his back on his best friend If he put her down
When a man loves a woman Spend his very last dime
Trying to hold on to what he needs He’d give up all his comfort
Sleep out in the rain If she said that’s the way it ought to be
Well, this man loves a woman I gave you everything I had Trying to hold on to your precious love Baby, please don’t treat me bad
When a man loves a woman Down deep in his soul
She can bring him such misery If she plays him for a fool
He’s the last one to know Loving eyes can’t ever see
When a man loves a woman
He can do no wrong He can never own some other girl
Yes when a man loves a woman I know exactly how he feels
‘Cause baby, baby, baby, you’re my world
These beautiful words may or may not hold true for most people. However, when one listens to the song, for that 3-4 minutes, one is caught in this sweet place of believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all thing. In that moment, I could not doubt what the good old book said a long time ago in 1 Chorinthians 13 (nkjv);
“4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”
Oh by the way, Joshua, you nailed it! Yes! When a man loves a woman, the world is a better place. 🙂
