Far as the curse is found

 "Far as the curse is found" is a line from Joy to the World.  It has been song over and over. 

Sometimes though, a line in a song jumps out at you. On this night, while sitting with my old friend at a Christmas concert, we sang Joy to the World.  And the words became active imagery, I could see why we sing Joy to the World, 

Far as the curse is found - where is the curse found?

The sadness as Adam and Eve leave paradise.

The hands of Cain after he took his brother's life.

The boy who chose a life of drugs.

The girl who secretly ate all her Halloween candy in a short time.

The couple who has given up on each other.

The woman who abuses with her tongue.

The curse has spread like a broken dam and seeped and spread everywhere.

The curse is found everywhere.

But God.

"He comes to make His blessings flow" - "far as the curse is found". Coving over every spot that sin has stretched and seeped into. He covers us. 

The Bittersweet Week

This is always the bittersweet week. The week when one little one would have been born but was gone months before. But it was also the week when one small red head sparked into being. 

I wonder who you were, what you might have been, to know the unknown - I must continue to wait.

You paved the way,  and made her that much more precious.

I can't imagine a life without the one I am gifted to know and raise.

But to my little one, who would be 11 this week - you are not forgotten.

Musical Monuments

Today it has been 27 years since my younger brother Louis went to be with Jesus. It seems a fitting day to restart my blog. He was always a catalyst for growth for me.

There is power in a song to send you back through a time ...  I heard a particular song this weekend. Suddenly, I am back in college barely 20 years old, still nursing the worst broken heart I had even known. And newly mourning my sweet disabled brother's death. 

This new song was played over and over at the retreat I was on.

I have made You too small in my eyes
O Lord, forgive me
I have believed in a lie
That You were unable to help me
But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong

What else could I do but keep my eyes on him? Because I was shipwrecked. 

The message was the same as it has always been. Seek me, I am here for you. I will see you through this. As impossible as it seemed at the time, a great transformation was taking place....

 

Be magnified, O Lord
You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do
O Lord, my eyes are on You

The ache in my heart was eased and friendship was restored. Sadness began to lift and the knowledge that I wasn't alone carried me through those last semesters of college.  I grew. 

I transformed. This song is a sort of monument of that time. A musical monument of a work done in my heart. And because it is a monument of a transformation, when I heard it again -for the first time in maybe 15 years- I was taken back in time. It certainly didn't take long for the tears to stream down my face just as it had back in 1994.

He that did a great work in me back then, He will do a great work in me now in my current shipwreck. We are always in need of transforming. But sometimes we need to be jolted into remembering when He has already faithfully worked in us. When we confessed, repented and came out praising. And know it will happen again.

I needed to hear that monument again.

"Be Magnified" By Don Moen

I have made You too small in my eyes
O Lord, forgive me
I have believed in a lie
That You were unable to help me
But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong
And in my eyes and with my song
O Lord, be magnified
O Lord, be magnified

Be magnified, O Lord
You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do
O Lord, my eyes are on You
Be magnified
O Lord, be magnified

Be magnified, O Lord
You are highly exalted
And there is nothing You can't do
O Lord, my eyes are on You
Be magnified
O Lord, be magnified

I have leaned on the wisdom of men
O Lord, forgive me
And I have responded to them
Instead of Your light and Your mercy
But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong
And in my eyes and with my song
O Lord, be magnified
O Lord, be magnified