Skip to main content

"Till We Meet Again" by Allan Townsend: When Goodbye Is Not the Last Word


What do you leave behind when your time runs short? 

Allan Townsend - Till We Meet AgainTime has a way of making it clear what really matters. Allan Townsend wrote “Till We Meet Again” from a place most of us will know one day — not the abstract awareness of mortality, but the vivid, close reality of it. “The shadows in this room are getting longer now,” he sings. “I’m running out of time.” A moment that Allan chooses to fill with honesty, love, and a faith that refuses to flinch. 

One of the things Allan chooses to leave behind is a song for his wife, one that is also valuable for anyone who has lost a loved one. He doesn’t leave instructions or explanations behind, but a song filled with so much love and faith. Why? Because some things can only be carried in melody. 

The chorus of this song turns the grief of a loss into something luminous: “I’ll be sailing over Jordan, just to wait for you.” That image of waiting reframes the loss and turns it into hope, because death is not a wall, it’s a threshold. It’s a step into the next phase. 

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” The apostle Paul wasn’t writing theory. He was writing comfort, the kind that holds when nothing else does. 

“Your love is my anchor, I’ll take it where I go.” That anchor is not just a person’s love. It’s the love of a God who crossed death to keep His promise. May that be a promise that you carry the rest of your life. Don’t fear the empty chair, but fill it with the time you still have. “The path we walked together doesn’t end at the finish line.”

(Related scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14; John 14:3; Psalm 23:4)

Background:

Backstory for the song is my health is not good and I am no longer in the 4th quarter of my life but have reached the 2 minute warning.

Release date: May 31, 2026

Connect with Allan Townsend



Would you like to hear more CCM music? Check out these playlists:

Popular posts

"King, Lamb, Lion" by Ben Jero & Graham Guy: When the World Runs Dry

What happens when the world just isn’t enough?  In early 2025, Graham Guy was reading Revelation chapter 4. The picture of heaven gathered around the throne — declaring God holy and worthy of praise — planted the seed for this song. Three words surfaced from that moment: “King, Lamb, Lion.” Graham sent them to Ben Jero, and across a string of FaceTime calls between South Carolina and California, the song “King, Lamb, Lion” took shape.  The opening verse doesn’t pretend. “I’ve tried this world, but it won’t fill me,” the lyric admits, before landing at surrender: “My life laid down, at your feet.” That’s honest territory. Most of us have chased something we thought would satisfy, only to find ourselves empty-handed. The song changes our focus to lasting results. “The old is gone, the new has come,” it declares, repeating a promise found in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Notice what that ...

"Paper Lantern Heart" by MK Green: When God Lights a Fire You Can't Contain

What happens when God lights a fire in you?  Some fires refuse to stay hidden. MK Green wrote “Paper Lantern Heart” around that exact truth, inspired by Jeremiah 20:9, where the prophet admits that he tried to stop preaching but simply couldn’t. The Word burned inside him “like a fire shut up in my bones.” Green’s lyrics echo that same struggle: “Behind the bones inside my chest there burns a paper heart.” Cold turns to burning. Silence turns to song. “I was cold as stone until You lit a spark,” the chorus declares, and something about that image sticks with you long after the music fades.  Here’s the question worth pondering: What do you do when God ignites something in you that won’t stay quiet?  Jeremiah tried holding it in, and that exhausted him. “There is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9). That weariness sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Maybe you’ve felt the nudge to speak up, ...

"Stand By Me" by Daniel Aranda: Finding Steadiness in Life's Storms

Who’s standing with you in the storm? “Stand By Me” by Daniel Aranda is an amazing rendition of a hymn written by Charles Albert Tindley in 1905. Tindley was the son of a former slave, a man who knew what it meant to need help that wasn’t guaranteed. He didn’t write from comfort. He wrote from the middle of a fight, and that’s exactly why the song is still so relevant and cherished by many today. Daniel Aranda’s recording brings gospel legends Terry Blackwood and Charlie McCoy into that same lineage, carrying Tindley’s plea forward into a new generation.  The lyrics move through life’s troubles, one verse at a time. “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me”  — that’s not poetic exaggeration. Tindley’s first verse is about a ship tossed on open water, powerless against the waves. Then verses about failing strength, friends who misunderstand your best efforts, persecution, and the song ends with a verse about old age creeping toward “chilly Jordan.” Each of the verses names ...