A Song I Heard Recently...

I was driving heading back to my office as the end of my lunch loomed over me...and I heard it. I heard a song that seriously made time stand still for me. How I heard it, why I heard it can only be attributed to God wanting, needing to get my attention at that moment and gently guide my thoughts away from the mess and muck that has been the theme of the past few months in my life. It's not really fair to say everything has been a mess and mucked up, because that is far from the truth. It's moreso, that's all our minds, my human mind, can rationally cling to in an effort to offer a wounded soul and spirit some level of comfort and solace.

The music in the car had been turned down very low as I left the office and drove to a local store's parking lot to have some peace and quiet to work on another project that couldn't be completed while I was stealing time and moments from my "real" job to attempt to work on it. Somehow, I heard just a few words...very intriguing and soon to be understood by me...that awakened my spirit more than it's been awake in the past few weeks, months even. I quickly fumbled for the volume control to turn it up so I could really hear it. I'd initially mistaken the artist for another artist who recently had a brand new album come out, but at the end of the song the radio station announced who the singer was and I simply smiled.

If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing "Blessings", by Laura Story, open iTunes and search for it. Listen to it for its simplicity, as well as its very revealing phrases of trials that we face day in and day out, of the struggles we have within ourselves and within our circle of friends, and the questions that arise out of those trials. Finally, hear God's reply through the words of the song:

"‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise..."

We all, I most definitely have, will say how we know that the things that we face sometimes that are hard and trying, that if they don't kill us, they'll certainly make us stronger and how God doesn't give us more than we can handle. But do we really, truly, deeply believe the cliched words we've come to know and associate with rough "seasons"? I'd venture to say a vast majority of us do not. We tell ourselves we do, but if we did, the words of songs like Blessings, wouldn't stop us dead in our tracks as if an anvil has magically (and painfully) dropped out of the heavens and whacked us hard on our even harder heads. It's then that we will, hopefully, realize what God has desired for us to know and understand all along; trials on earth will happen, but fear not, because we are just travelers visiting this great big place we call earth. We are wandering around experiencing all that we can (and some that we probably shouldn't) in preparation for the time that we go home, back to the Father that has been patiently awaiting us as He rained down blessings of all kinds, even the hard, tear-filled lessons we needed to learn to better be able to appreciate all that He has done for us.

"When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home
It’s not our home..."