We've been admittedly less active in the worlds of updates, so these 20-some photos should catch you up perfectly with the last 6 weeks of our time in (and out!) of Guatemala. It's a slideshow, you see. There's captions to explain things if you float your mouse overtop of photos that peak your interest, my dear.
I'm pretty fickle when it comes to the art of meditating. Perhaps that obvious if I'm choosing to "meditate" by a blog post. By nature, I don't meditate on most things very long. So I don't hold grudges well, but I also scoot through a lot of life completely oblivious to things, and missing the meaning of so much. My working definition for "meditation" is to "pause and soak the meaning out of whatever it is." Well this song has been marinating in my being for a good couple months, and I absolutely love it. It's one of the truest songs I've ever sung. Like an arrow from the quiver of Robin Hood. As it's crawled so deeply into my being, I had to meditate on why it rings so true in me, and I post this in hopes that it might do its own work in you. "Hidden" by United Pursuit There was one when I was young Who knew my heart, He knew my sorrow He held my hand And he lead me to trust him Now I am hidden In the safety of your love I trust your heart and your intentions Trust you completely I’m listening intently You’ll guide me through these many shadows As I grow and as I change May I love you more deeply I will lean upon your grace I will reap because your goodness is unending You are my vision, my reason for living Your kindness leads me to repentance I can’t explain it This sweet assurance But I’ve never known this kind of friend The sun, moon, and stars Shout your name, they give you reverence And I will do the same With all my heart I give you glory I want to seek you first I want to love you more I want to give you the honor you deserve So I bow before you, I am overcome by the beauty of this perfect love Now I am hidden In the safety of your love I trust your heart and your intentions Trust you completely I’m listening intently You’ll guide me through these many shadows I love this song. It makes me adore God more, it makes me embrace my journey with Him more. It makes me cherish God's word more. It makes me more open to God's will. It puts me in a better posture to worship in all forms. I hope it might do the same for you. That would be a win. "There was one when I was young, He knew my heart, He knew my sorrow." I grew up rather free of crisis. I had a loving family, a warm extended family, a happy neighborhood, a caring church, a Bible-founded school. It wasn't a perfect situation, cause I grew up selfish, over-competitive, lying, and angry. But I'm reminded that through all that, God knew my gifts, my faults, and was walking with me, shaping me. Working all that together for His glory. He did "lead me to trust Him," not in any one moment, but step by step, through people, Scripture, convictions, experiences. I love looking back and saying, "Yes, God led me to trust Him. It was and is His doing." "Now I am hidden in the safety of your love. I trust your heart and your intentions." This is a comfort and a conviction, two in one. It's comforting and warm to be hidden in God's love, His wings. But to get there, to be sitting in the Father's lap, requires complete trust, complete surrender to His good will; to what He wants, not me. Colossians 3 says, "Since you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above...set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for your life is now HIDDEN with Christ in God." Being hidden, put away, set apart, means I am required/challenged daily to set my heart/mind there in God, in who I am in Christ, in what the world means in light of Christ. I'm not a slave to sin! And having been freed, I can't resist God's initiative to hide me in His arms, and I am a slave now to His will, to trusting that (Romans 6:20). Hidden is a nice word, and slave is a hard word, but they go together. If God led me to trust him as I grew up, I need to keep trusting, keep believing errday. It's a comfort and a conviction! I often find myself biking to Bethania reciting these lines to God, "I trust your heart and your intentions; trust you completely, listening intently, you'll guide me through these many shadows." I never know what I'll find or encounter there, what will or won't develop, what I'll have the courage to do or how cowardice will attack me. But I remember that God's heart is good; I remember His intentions for redemption, renewal, justice and it makes me push through the figurative "thick brush" that clouds my view of what's to come. It makes my burden light and my purpose more sure to say re-put my trust in God before I start, and to remember I need to be "listening intently" to the one who's orchestrating everything. "As I grow and as I change, may I love you more deeply..." This is sanctification in the form of an earnest prayer. I try to look at life through the lens of "How can I be made more Christ-like through this?" Getting pushed to the back of the depth chart at Central Michigan made me able to be more humble. Looking at my shortcomings as a brother has made me concern myself more with others' stories than with my own definite stance on issues. I'm a different person than I was in 2000, or 2010, or 2014, and I want to understand and process that change as a weaving journey towards Christlike-ness and God-glorification. How are your life circumstances pushing you to Christ-likeness? And then I'm reminded "I will lean upon your grace..." because anyone who is being moved towards holiness needs to start on their knees asking for mercy. Over and over. And that's a freeing thing, knowing that God's "goodness is unending" and there will be great reward in God's glorious and mysterious riches. "You are my vision, my reason for living" I'm hearkened to the heart of the hymn I love so much. And I'm centered in my purpose for living: glorifying God. And what glorifies God like His "kindness bringing people to repentance" (Romans 2:4), to changed lives that are like lights in darkness, like green sprouting of the soil? It makes we want to find things to repent about instead of avoid things to confess honestly. "I've never known this kind of friend." I don't like the song "I Am a Friend of God." It seems shallow, and almost irreverent for me. It doesn't feel like worship for some reason. But this line, strangely, rings completely different. God stepping down, saving me, walking with me, gives me an inexplicable assurance, a confidence in my purpose, a freedom to confess, repent, be honest about who I am, how I feel, how I want to change, how I don't want to change, how I love Him and how I'm frustrated with Him. These lines move me to praise God wholeheartedly because I remember how awe-some is the relationship He has entered into with me. "The sun, moon, and stars..." This hearkens another favorite hymn, "All Creatures of Our God and King," and I'm reminded me of my purpose again, for like the 5th time in this song: to shout His name, to not be silent about the truest love I've ever found, to give Him reverence and honor and glory. It makes me look around at creation and see trees and dirt and birds and junebugs in a different context...these things are praising God in living how they were created to, now what about me? LETS GO! Wake up soul! Be not hard and stale! "I want to seek you first! I want to love you more! I want to give you the honor you deserve!" Having been reminded of my purpose, I come to the crux of the song: "I want to! I want to! I want to!" But we know that "I want to" is different than "I will." "I want to" makes me aware that I'm not going to do that perfectly today. But it brings me again to a place of earnest prayer (like Psalm 63); I place that I don't get to everyday. This earnest prayer says, "God, I know my purpose. I really want to do that, to seek, to live, to glorify. I want to do that but I'm a busted up human. Help me to do that. Work in me to will and to act according to your purpose (Phil. 2:13) because I can't do that alone. I'm messed up. So help me." After that, I feel more ready for the day. I'm in a better posture as a man and a husband and as a talmid (disciple) of Jesus. And then to finish, the comfort and the conviction of this yet again: Now I am hidden In the safety of your love I trust your heart and your intentions Trust you completely I’m listening intently You’ll guide me through these many shadows. Thank you for this song. It points me to my purpose: to put my trust in God, to bask in His Father-friend love, to seek who He is, to be honest with my Dad in prayer, to be shaped towards Christ-likeness, to act in deeds of love rooted in that love and trust, to shout and rejoice in worship, and ALL these things that GOD IS GLORIFIED. I love this song because it frames the beauty and art of sanctification in a song. I love this song because it makes me see my story and life more fully. I love this song because it calibrates me. I love this song because it echoes scriptures and hyms of old (I'm a sucker for the hymns, man. Always). I love this song because I want to sing it to my children, so they can see faith as this song puts it. Thank you to all the people who I think about as the words of this song echo about my brain, you who have made my journey more meaningful. You are many. Thank you, my God, for being the object of all of this. You make me want to keep writing about all of this. You are so good. |
AuthorAJ & Alaina Westendorp Archives
July 2017
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