i can’t even begin to tell you how much the (very newly discovered) music of josh garrels has blessed me this week. take a moment to listen to jacaranda tree.
“Sitting on porches
Since Friday while the sky
Tilts like a watery glass
We wait for downpours
A drenching joy
A carnival sky
But what I don’t say
What I can’t say
Is that with this joy Continue reading ““i pray light will leak from our pockets” -josh garrels [listen!]”
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” -Corrie ten Boom
i needed to hear that word, last night, as i was labeling boxes and stacking them in the living room. we’re only maybe three or four boxes into this process, but the tears did come. the tears and the worry and the sense of displacement. and then in that moment in my mind, i heard the perfectly husky voice of rich mullins, singing with reckless abandon into an old cassette recorder, singing,
“You did not have a home / birds have nests, foxes have dens / but the hope of the whole world rests / on the shoulders of a homeless man.”
and I was reminded that the Son of Man had no place to rest. and then i saw a message from my daddy, and he said, “i am so happy to hear you have a place to rest your head.”
and i have courage and hope to press on.
“for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you.” -deuteronomy 12:9-11
“the Lord takes by it’s corners this ol’ world and shakes us forward and shakes us free to run wild with the hope.” -rich mullins
i am running wild with hope. and the sky is about to rain.
once again, shanley jo inspires me to write. she keeps writing, even when times aren’t exactly the best. times weren’t the best this weekend. i worked and cried and cried and worked some more. i felt further away from my dreams than i ever thought possible. i felt my life was so many leagues away from everything i ever thought it would be. i nursed my disappointments and choked back tears i didn’t even know i had inside of me. i even started crying myself to sleep, but my dear husband bundled me up in blankets and brought me back out to the living room and encouraged me to watch something funny with him, instead of crying alone in the dark.
also, he holds me and tells me its gonna be okay. this is so much better than logical persuasion, so much better than a list of facts of why i shouldn’t be sad.
he writes down verses like romans 5:3 and folds them up and puts them in my lunch, and he reminds of these verses even when, like this weekend, i didn’t feel close to the hope in romans 5:3. i felt like i was still on the perseverance and nowhere near the hope.
“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
God really wants me to “get” the hope thing. i’m a slow learner who doesn’t like to be disappointed. and to me, it just seems like expectations and hope can be dangerous. yet the Lord says that hope doesn’t disappoint. reminders of hope were everywhere this weekend, even though I felt like the darkness would not lift. on Friday night we listened to The Music Room at Bloom Coffee and Tea. the lyrics touched me. i fought back the tears, because the words were piercing my heart and stirring up too much emotion, and i couldn’t stop seeing HOPE literally written on the walls in between the soft babble of tiny children’s voices and laughter.
“I gotta believe that it’s still worth fighting, I need to be told that it works out fine in the end. Loneliness shakes up the pain inside me, within the span of a midnight drive.” -The Music Room
“The road is narrow and I’ve sure it’s not paved, but don’t give up when it gets tough, no you’ve got to stay, ‘cause I know the Giver and He’ll take you away” -The Music Room
i’ll fight on. i know that i know that i know hope does not disappoint. and i know it’s gonna be okay. and hope is written on the walls.
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