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