I have been thinking recently about resurrection songs: songs that have helped to re-create life in me, songs that woke me up after a long period of blah, songs that were a catalyst for transformation. Resurrection songs bring not just a spring to my step, but a Spring to my life.
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I love Spring. It is such a time of beauty and renewal, like waking up after a just-right sleep. The rains refresh and wash clean. Spring, with all its scents and sounds, is a herald of hope.
Not all Springs look the same, though, especially in my beloved Colorado. Some Springs skip in wearing a garland of warm, sunny days. Other Springs blow in with an impatient huff. Some Springs come as you'd expect, with bright blooms and cheery songbirds. Other Springs are what you least expect, piling 3 feet of snow on top of your daffodils.
One thing is certain in springtime: change.
The changes may be as bold and stirring as the riot of color in a bed of tulips or the heady fragrance of a fruit tree in full bloom. Or, the changes may be as quiet and unobtrusive as the unfurling of a leaf or blade of grass poking up through the dirt. Spring might announce its presence with a cacophony of chirping or sneak in behind the drip, drip of melting ice. Loud or soundless, obvious or not, the changes of Spring are nevertheless dramatic...just like the Springs in us.
We tend to look forward to Spring and the changes is brings. Winter has its place and is a beautiful season in its own right, but I've never heard someone say, "Man! I wish the winter would never end. I just can't get enough of the biting wind and gray skies." Even if we're a fan of winter--snow and skiing and hot chocolate, there comes a point when we're ready for change. Though we feel this way about the weather, can we say the same about change in ourselves? We welcome the season of growth in nature...why do we sometimes dread it in ourselves? Granted, it can be more comfortable to sleep and it's definitely warmer under the covers. Staying still and curled up uses much less energy than breaking through the crust or bursting the seed pod. But why do we fear the change and burrow deeper, preferring to stay in our own personal winter?
I recently added several songs to my 2014 Playlist.
It may not be immediately obvious why a couple of them made the cut.
Faithful by Hawk Nelson: This song made the list because one line stuck out when I heard it on the radio. "No matter how many times I break, you promise always to keep me safe." No one, least of all God, ever promised that life would be trouble-free. In fact, Jesus promises his disciples the exact opposite in John: "In this world you will have trouble." I may fall apart or be broken more times than I care to count, but I will always be held and put back together by expert hands. In the ways that really count, I am made whole. (Check out Col 1:18-20 in the Message)
Touch This Light by House of Heroes: When I've mentioned the open hands theme to people, one of the first images that comes to their minds is hands lifted in praise or surrender. The first image that comes to my mind is of hands cupped, holding something. This song brings to mind an entirely different picture of open hands, hands that are not passive, but rather active. Reaching. Seeking. Embracing. I also love the line that describes Jesus as a rebel king. At every turn, he challenged the social and religious mores and the staid traditions of his time. Yet even in this, Jesus is the example of living with open hands, toward God and others. "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
With the majority of the other songs, you can see by the titles alone why they made the list.
Surrender by Tina Jenkins Crawley: This is the one and only song suggested by someone else (so far), but definitely one of my favorites! The first time I heard it, it was like a good friend sitting down to share her heart with me and speaking the very thoughts and feelings on my heart. I will be coming back to this song in a later post...
Sanctus Real has been a go-to band for me the past year. I included two of their songs, Closer and Pray, on the list. Closer is a song I have listened to countless times because it reminds me to live in gratitude, in the wide open space of grace--a slave set free. This song also challenges me to direct my thoughts and feelings in such a way that God is "the only tie that binds my heart." This is most definitely an aspect of "open hands" because what holds our hearts is also what we cling to the most tightly. "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it." (Matt 10:39) Pray very simply describes those times that I have to acknowledge that I have no control over a particular situation or person and that...I'm gonna "lift my hands and pray."
Release the Panic by Red: No playlist is complete without at least one Red or Skillet song and besides, I had to have a counterpoint to all the softer, mellower, more reflective stuff on the list. Sometimes ya just gotta scream and release the panic--this song lets me do that.
Let It Go by the Neighborhood: I loved the sound of this song the first time I heard it and the title made it a shoe-in. There are things you just have to choose to let go. Regrets. Control of the future. How others feel about you. Failures. Pre-conceived notions that only "Christian" music can point you toward God. =D (I am definitely not advocating that you listen to something crazy and claim you hear God's voice in it, but if a song inspires you or motivates you to positive change, who cares whether it has a Christian label or not.)
I'll use these songs and the others on my list as jumping points, inspiration and prayers throughout the year.
If you have a focus, goal or theme for 2014, I would love to hear about it! Tell me which songs are part of your soundtrack for 2014.
I'm not big on New Year's resolutions--I always feel like I'm setting myself up to fail. And before you think it...yes, I know that our greatest lessons are often learned from falling flat on our faces and that simply moving in the direction of a goal (even if we don't reach it) means that we're farther along than when we started. I don't dispute those things and it's not that I don't want to grow and change...I do!
Part of my aversion to resolutions and personal goals is that I have to admit to myself and to everyone else that I'm not perfect. Though this is blaringly obvious to anyone who knows me for more than 2 seconds, and was obvious to me before the count even started, I hate the fact that I make mistakes, that I don't get everything right the first time and that the whole growth and change thing involves pain. Another reason I avoid resolutions is because making them is kind of what everyone else is doing at this time of year and though I'm a rule-follower of the greatest magnitude, I am also contrary to the core.
So, rather than set goals, I make a playlist, choose Scriptures and find maybe a quote or two that focus on an area I want to grow in. (Sounds suspiciously like personal goals and resolutions, but I won't tell me if you won't.)
The idea of open hands has popped up again and again over the last year and a half in conversations, in books and in songs. I am very much like the young man described in the gospels who told Jesus, hey, I've kept all these commandments since I was young (I've always thought he was a bit self-deceived, by the way.)...what else do I need to do to follow you? When Jesus answered, telling him to go sell all he owned and give to the poor, his "face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go."
When I think of open hands, words like trust, surrender, sacrifice and offering come to mind. The phrase "content to let God..." could be a caption beneath an image of open hands. I think how hard it is sometimes to hold whatever is dear to me, whether people or things, causes or talents--even fears and faults--in those open hands.
Being open-handed does not mean having a spirit of disregard or lack of care. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It is handling everything and everyone like a treasure entrusted to my care, a treasure that is mine on loan for an undetermined amount of time, a treasure that I am responsible for keeping in mint condition until the owner is ready to have it back. Throughout 2014, I will be asking myself what having open hands means in every relationship and area of my life. How does it change my marriage, my parenting, my friendships? What does it mean for my hopes and passions? What are the ties that bind my heart? What do I treasure most? What if I have everything I want, or nothing?
Looking from a different angle, I see the open hands not as my own, but as God's. All he offers, all he gives, the way he holds us and never lets go, the fact that we can never be stolen from his grip, yet he never forces us to stay. This is what I want to learn, or maybe already know to some extent, but lack the fortitude to live consistently...and that is to love like God loves--with open hands.
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I have a good start to my 2014 song list, but want to add a few more to the mix. I would love your suggestions and am open to any genre! Some of my favorite songs each year have been recommended by others. Any books or quotes or Scriptures you could point me toward related to the concept of open hands would be much appreciated as well.
Current 2014 Mix:
My One Comfort--Dustin Kensrue
Open Hands--Matt Papa
Let Go--The Neighbourhood
Hello My Old Heart--The Oh Hellos
Closer--Sanctus Real
Never Let Go--Seventh Day Slumber
Cast My Cares--Tim Timmons
In Your Hands--Unspoken
Where My Heart Goes--Colton Dixon
You Save Me--Kutless
Release the Panic--Red
I Surrender All--Clay Crosse
Freedom is often equated with independence--the ability to do what you want, when you want, how you want. Isn’t this exactly what the declaration, “It’s a free country!,” conveys? (If you have a teen or have been one yourself, you know the tone with which this kind of statement is made!)
Dustin Kensrue’s song flips that notion of freedom on it’s head.
His one comfort, he says, is that he belongs to someone else--namely Christ. Wait. Isn’t belonging to someone the opposite of freedom? If you equate freedom with independence, then the answer to that is yes. But what if freedom is something else entirely?
The kind of freedom that is about getting and doing whatever you want, the freedom that is often touted as our American birthright, leads to bondage of the most deceptive sort. (See 1 Peter 4:1-2; James 4:1-2; and Romans 6:15-18 in the Message)
True freedom is not something you search and fight and scrape for. It cannot be won by force. True freedom is a gift. It is something you have the power to bestow. It is something bestowed upon you. Think of forgiveness and acceptance. When you can be yourself (or let others be themselves) without fear of judgment--that’s freedom. (Romans 8:15) When a wrong you’ve committed (or that has been committed against you) is forever forgotten--that’s freedom.
True freedom is not without cost. It is the result of one sacrificing for another. It’s surrendering your own wants for the sake of someone else.
I’ve wrestled with this concept of freedom!
Dustin Kensrue sums up beautifully in one line all I’m trying to say : “Jesus, you have taken hold of me/And in your grip of grace I’m finally free.”
More:
Check out Dustin Kensrue's most recent album The Water & The Blood
Read another take on freedom at http://tylerhuckabee.com/
Is that possible? Can we go back to a time with no worries and no fear, no doubts and no loneliness? A time before expectation and disappointment, before failure and falling short? Can we return to a time before we realized that the world was not safe, to a time when nothing had happened to mar our faith in humanity or in God?
We can't time travel and we can't go back into our mother's womb to be reborn--all mothers everywhere thank God for that!
But...rewind to innocence...
Can we be, once again, like a newborn baby turning her head toward her mother's breast to nurse for the first time? With no instruction, she knows what she needs and how to get it. She is safe in her mother's arms, not the least concerned by the whirlwind all around her.
A small child just learning to walk tries and tries and tries again, determined to master this new skill. But why? No one told him he had to...it's simply something he was created to do. Is it possible to live as if we can do amazing and unimaginable things simply because we exist?
The world around us is in a constant state of renewal, regeneration, rebirth. Why should we, as part of that creation, be any different? Like the changing seasons, we experience at different times colorful metamorphosis, inner transformation, invigorating breakthrough and full-bloom growth.
1 Peter 5, from the Message version of the Bible, says, "Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you."
This verse conjures the very picture of innocence to me: a child dancing with abandon, basking in the smile on her Father's face. She is confident in his love and approval. She is safe and secure in his presence.
Rewind to innocence.
Is that possible? No. And yes. We can never go back to the innocence we had before, but we can experience innocence anew as we are continually made new.
I keep coming back to this song again and again this week. When life hits fast and hard, I don't turn to lofty philosophies or intellectual arguments. When I'm overwhelmed and can't think clearly, I cling to solid, simple truths.
The truth is, there is power in the name of Jesus. It is a name that signals hope and embodies love. It is a name that means "God saves" and is synonymous with "good news." It is a name that heals, strengthens and creates life. It is a name that protects. It is a name that sacrifices. At the sound of this name, demons flee and knees bow.
The truth is, when we cry out to God, he hears.
Psalm 18:5-6
(The Message)
4-5 The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat; devil waters rushed over me. Hell’s ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit.
6 A hostile world! I call to God, I cry to God to help me. From his palace he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence— a private audience!
I come back to this song again and again. Sometimes as I sing along to it in the car, I grin and go all out with the hand motions (grabbing the promises out of the air and pulling them to me). Cheesy? Maybe. But sometimes ya just gotta. At least when life is going along in such a way that a fist-pumping celebration is in order.
Life is not always so easy going, though. It can punch you in the gut, then have the nerve to kick you when you’re down. At those times, I listen to the song and lift empty hands, longing for reassurance, and hard-pressed to see God’s promises through tears and running mascara.
I read Hebrews 6 recently and was reminded that God is faithful. It is impossible for him to break his word. And he does not lie.
“And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:18-20, MSG)
Hope. It is an unbreakable spiritual lifeline. Another version of the Bible calls it an anchor for the soul.
Life’s circumstances toss us around. Unexpected twists and turns or inevitable life
changes leave us stranded, lost or lonely. We’re overwhelmed by finances or emotions or relationships. Our choices or the choices of others leave us bruised and broken. The waves keep coming and so often we’re left gasping for air.
But...
Hope. If we cling to it, we have a sure and steady promise to keep us afloat. We have an unshakable, steady link to the other side of it, whatever it is at any given moment. And hope brings us right into the very presence of God, to the starting point of all his other great and precious promises.
Check out these other songs by Sanctus Real:
Song Title--Album Title
Run--Run
Pray--Run
Nothing Between--Run
Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly)--We Need Each Other
We Need Each Other--We Need Each Other
Closer--Fight the Tide
I'm Not Alright--The Face of Love
Forgiven--Pieces of a Real Heart
Everything About You--Pieces of Our Past-The Santus Real Anthology
