All Sons and Daughters has a song called ‘Great Are You Lord’ —
You give life, You are love You bring light to the darkness You give hope, You restore Every heart that is broken Great are You, Lord
It’s Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise We pour out our praise It’s Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise to You only
You give life, You are love You bring light to the darkness You give hope, You restore Every heart that is broken Great are You, Lord
All the earth will shout Your praise Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing Great are You, Lord
So many of the lines I could expound upon…so many mean much to me. But what I really love is ‘You bring light to the darkness.’ I don’t know about you but I’ve had plenty of darkness in my life. I am a few months removed from a season of brokenness. Doesn’t get much darker than that….broken, looking for some glue…and getting trampled on in the process.
I am thinking about this in particular because tonight (it’s Thursday, so I missed the Wednesday night target….Oh well…I was in the darkness of my room….sleeping….healing….so there! LOL — but as I was saying before I was so rudely sidetracked by my own thoughts….tonight I get to record a radio interview with Final Flight Ministry here in central Ohio. I get to talk about Brennan and being a Ragamuffin and what God has done and is doing. The opportunity is HUGE! I’ve been on their website the last couple days and there have been listeners online from Canada, Australia, Russian Federation, Norway, Netherlands, Bolivia, Brazil, Sweden, UK….and all over the US. In short, I get to share my story and give God the glory.
My story is certainly one of darkness to light. Most are. And it’s only been the last 18 months that the light has shined brighter and bigger than any other time I can remember. I am not the person I was 18 months ago. I’m not the person I was 12 months ago! It’s all changed. I have changed! LIFE has changed! God has not….He has always been faithful. I’m just learning to walk in and apply that faithfulness. And a large part of that process has been learning to accept my story (how many of us try to downplay parts of our past…our stories), embrace grace, let Him heal the wounds and turn them into scar tissue that has a story. And now I’m moving into the realm of sharing that story. And I have that opportunity tonight.
So I am, as Celine Dion would say, ‘coming out of the dark.’ Sometimes I still need sunglasses for the glare of grace is seemingly too bright for these eyes. But somehow I manage to adjust my vision and enjoy this newfound freedom. And it totally blows me away. ALL the weight of life from the past 4 decades that I thought I’d have to drag around until we fell into the grave together…..is gone. I can’t explain it. I can’t explain how God ‘waves His magic wand’ and brings healing. I can’t tell you how He carried me through everything I’ve gone through. Or why. But I know He has. And the super cool part is that now….the how’s and the why’s don’t matter. All that matters is BECAUSE. It’s in THAT answer that all else is covered. And the answer? BECAUSE Jesus Christ is ABSOLUTELY crazy about me! I’m not being egotistical. It’s Biblical. I’m just learning to apply that to my life and walk in that. And THAT is the story I get to tell!
My other favorite line from the All Sons and Daughters song is ‘You give hope / You restore / Every heart that is broken.’
Did you catch the coolest word ever in that line? Read it again. It’s there. EVERY. E-V-E-R-Y! THAT MEANS YOU! And it means me. It means YOU CAN’T GO TOO FAR FROM GOD’S REACH. It means there is hope for YOU! And there is mercy and grace at the cross. That all sounds religious and pious so let me break it down. In the words of Brennan Manning, ‘God loves you as you are, not as you should be. For none of us are as we should be.’
SOOOO….stop. STOP. JUST STOP! STOP trying to be ‘good enough’ for God. You never will be. But Jesus is. STOP listening to the lies that tell you that you’re too screwed up for God to care. Because He does….because He loves you….and because He just wants you to call His name and He’ll be there. He is waiting. STOP telling yourself you have to ‘clean up your life’ before you’ll let God in. It will never happen. Not because you don’t have great intentions….but BECAUSE you only have great intentions. ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ as they say. YOU, in your own strength, will NEVER be able to clean yourself up so God thinks you’re acceptable. Here’s the great news: God will do the clean up in a most loving way, and in Christ you are acceptable in God’s eyes.
So what are you waiting for? You’re welcome to listen to the radio show to hear more of my story….of how God has brought light to my darkness. Tune in to http://www.finalflightministry.com Saturday night from 8-10 EST or download the app. And if you’re in the central Ohio area – or like to drive – join us April 30th at 6p for a special screening of the movie BRENNAN, at Trinity Family Life Center in Pickerington, OH. Tickets are available at http://www.itickets.com/brennan. Hope to see you there! (or listen to the radio show Saturday night for you chance to win tickets!).
More thoughts on light and darkness and such things from my friends Jennifer at http://jennfreeatlast.com and Leisa at http://life4inga.blogspot.com