Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr., I Resign | Music Lifts 🎶 🏋

In the 23rd edition of Music Lifts (2025), we’re uplifted by Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. performing, “I Resign.”

Welcome to Music Lifts 🎶 🏋, a column highlighting songs that encourage, inspire, and uplift the spirit; songs exuding fortitude, positivity, and resolve, even in the face of adversity.  Featured songs aren’t genre-specific; songs may or may not be faith-based. The goal is for these songs to make you feel better – be LIFTED to new heights!  So, for the 23^rd edition of Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 (2025), we highlight “I Resign” as performed by Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr.

“I can’t bear these burdens alone / I can’t take this pain on my own,” Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. (1950 – ) sings, reverently in the first verse of  “I Resign”.  He continues, “I can’t worry, I resign / Now I put, put it in God’s hands / It’s out of my mine.”  Morton understands he can’t do anything without God. If it were left to him, there would continue to be burdens, pain, and ceaseless worrying. But, on this moving piano ballad from his 1999 album, Crescent City Fire, the bishop resigns and gives his concerns to the Master.

“I Resign” is one of the most unique songs from Crescent City Fire, an album that is, sadly, hard to come by.  This well-written ballad features a great harmonic progression, arrangement (choir enters the mix later), and top-notch vocals by Morton Sr.  As the bishop sings, you feel it – he is authentic, sincere, and vulnerable.  Affected by “the storms in my life,” Morton informs us that the Lord “Tells me not to worry,” and assures him, “Don’t be afraid / The work is already done / The battle is already won.” Amen! The biggest, grandest moments arrive by the middle toward the end of “I Resign.” Morton shows his impressive upper register, belting to the top of his lungs:

“So why do you worry?

Why do you fret?

Lord, I cannot bear

Burdens alone

I can’t take this

Pain on my own

I can’t worry

I resign

Now I put, put it in God’s hands

It’s out of mine.”

Morton does the heavy lifting 🏋️‍♀️ himself.  But, he does get the assist of the choir, which sings the keywords of the refrain (“I resign / Put it in God’s hands, it’s out of mine”) while Morton ad-libs (“Take me, Jesus / Mold me, Jesus”).  If you have never heard the uplifting gospel ballad “I Resign”, you are totally missing out on a musical blessing.  This is among Bishop Paul S. Morton Sr.’s best songs.

Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr. // Crescent City Fire // Gospo Centric // 1999

Bishop Paul S. Morton, Sr., I Resign: Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 No. 23 (2025) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Gospo Centric; BD Jewel, Dave H, Jean-Daniel Francoeur, Joshua Brown, Vansh Mehta from Pexels; AcatXIo, OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay]