I remember the first time I heard this song. It was on the bus coming back from Windy Gap after my junior year of high school. I was coming back to Chesapeake a new person with a new heart from my freshly realized Savior. Eric said I had to listen to this and sing it. I fell in love with it- the lyrics, the passion and depth in the music. The opening chord always makes my heart skip a little beat.
Beloved, these are dangerous times because you are weightless like a leaf from the vine, and the wind has blown you all over town because there is nothing holding you to the ground. So now you would rather be a slave again than free from the law?
Beloved, listen to me, don’t believe all that you see. And don’t you ever let anyone tell you that there’s anything that you need but me...
Beloved, these are perilous days when your culture is so set in it’s ways that you will listen to salesmen and thieves preaching other than the truth you’ve received.
Beloved there is nothing more; no more blessings and no more rewards than the treasure of my body and blood given freely to all daughters and sons.
This is my go-to song. More often then not, when I feel empty and alone and exhausted on life, I go to scripture, prayer, and then this song. I've been there a lot in the past few months. Looking back on April and May, I think that was the most I have ever been stretched. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Recital, exams, weakness, traveling, Mimi passing away, waiting, new job, decisions, discipleship, break up. Seeing it listed like that is humbling...the wind has indeed blown me all over town. And I do not think it's nearly over...only a fresh starting point. A tense one, yes, but nothing less than a new opportunity to live into and further discover the God who loves me and is infinitely rich in grace. I genuinely, sadly wonder how people do it without Jesus. Life, I suppose. I will give mine to letting people know that they don't have to...also that they can't.
I read a letter Libby wrote to new mothers for Mother's Day and have been captivated and so refreshed by this one line: "...do not miss the joy in being pressed to the core of who you are." The core of who I am...do I really want to know? We all are fairly good at living in that facade that we so carefully manicure so that everyone will think we're fine and everything is good and dandy. No one buys it anyway. I am no different, on either end. The masking or the seeing right through it, I shamefully do both. I am prideful, weak, stubborn, and selfish inside; until I remember...although my flesh might drive some of those attributes and attitudes, that is not who I am anymore. My core is both who I am and whose I am. I am the Beloved daughter of the Creator and Sustainer and Propeller of all things for His glory and my good. Gosh, it feels good when I just let that sink in for a minute.
This song is life-giving. It so sweetly strips everything down to what matters, let's us see our distractions and what we give ourselves to. Either Jesus or everything else. It gently but sternly brings to mind the thieves and salesmen that we attempt to buy joy from, and the fact that we act like we are under the Law when really we are under grace, the Law of Freedom. The last stanza is the best. To people who do not believe on Jesus, it sounds like a let down. "The body and blood of Jesus? But I want wealth and health and life." But to those whose hearts have been gracefully transformed by the Gospel, it is the most freeing and life-giving treasure we can know. In the midst of struggling and suffering, joy and laughter, do I cherish Him? Do I acknowledge Him Lord of my life, sovereign over the good and the bad? Do I live into my Chosenness (as Nouwen calls it) and give thanks in all circumstances? I long for this sanctification, the further knowledge of the purity which has already been washed over me in the blood of Christ. He gives and He takes away, He does whatever pleases Him, everything is by Him, through Him, and for Him...and He loves us. Beloved, listen to me...
Beloved, listen to me, don’t believe all that you see. And don’t you ever let anyone tell you that there’s anything that you need but me...
Beloved, these are perilous days when your culture is so set in it’s ways that you will listen to salesmen and thieves preaching other than the truth you’ve received.
Because they are telling lies for they cannot circumcise your hearts.
Beloved, listen to me, don’t believe all that you see. And don’t you ever let anyone tell you that there’s anything that you need but me...
Beloved there is nothing more; no more blessings and no more rewards than the treasure of my body and blood given freely to all daughters and sons.
I read a letter Libby wrote to new mothers for Mother's Day and have been captivated and so refreshed by this one line: "...do not miss the joy in being pressed to the core of who you are." The core of who I am...do I really want to know? We all are fairly good at living in that facade that we so carefully manicure so that everyone will think we're fine and everything is good and dandy. No one buys it anyway. I am no different, on either end. The masking or the seeing right through it, I shamefully do both. I am prideful, weak, stubborn, and selfish inside; until I remember...although my flesh might drive some of those attributes and attitudes, that is not who I am anymore. My core is both who I am and whose I am. I am the Beloved daughter of the Creator and Sustainer and Propeller of all things for His glory and my good. Gosh, it feels good when I just let that sink in for a minute.
Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.That is the only reason there is any joy in being pressed. Because at my core, by grace, there is glory. Not because of anything right or wrong I do, but because "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine," and I believe that all that He asks, His grace will provide. Still. Is it hard to get out of bed? Yes. Is it exhausting trying to do everything and love everyone? Yes. Do I fail? YES. But I refuse to miss that joy or the hope I have in the One who loves me and lives in me, who meets me where I am and walks through the valleys and the mountain tops propelling me and encouraging me to be awake and know the joy and suffering with Him. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed," because of the Cross and because the Holy Spirit is in us and because we have a Father who loves us enough to grow us and discipline us as His beloved children.
This song is life-giving. It so sweetly strips everything down to what matters, let's us see our distractions and what we give ourselves to. Either Jesus or everything else. It gently but sternly brings to mind the thieves and salesmen that we attempt to buy joy from, and the fact that we act like we are under the Law when really we are under grace, the Law of Freedom. The last stanza is the best. To people who do not believe on Jesus, it sounds like a let down. "The body and blood of Jesus? But I want wealth and health and life." But to those whose hearts have been gracefully transformed by the Gospel, it is the most freeing and life-giving treasure we can know. In the midst of struggling and suffering, joy and laughter, do I cherish Him? Do I acknowledge Him Lord of my life, sovereign over the good and the bad? Do I live into my Chosenness (as Nouwen calls it) and give thanks in all circumstances? I long for this sanctification, the further knowledge of the purity which has already been washed over me in the blood of Christ. He gives and He takes away, He does whatever pleases Him, everything is by Him, through Him, and for Him...and He loves us. Beloved, listen to me...
