Find You - Audrey Assad

"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...ready or not here I come!!!"

Hide and go seek. It's a pretty universal game. In one way or another, as a kid or a parent, we've all probably played this game. We've found the perfect hiding place, knowing that we will never be found. We've laughed as others look for us, inches away, but unable to see us.

But. Have you ever actually quit playing?

Or, do you find yourself hiding behind layers of false front, hidden, in plain sight - inches away from the person in front of you. Maybe you call it something different from hide and go seek now. Maybe you call it perfecting your image. Maybe it's a "good poker face". It's your "performance face" - it's the character you are playing in this game we call life.

But are you actually happy in your hiding?? Or do you really want to be found?

I think God has made us wonderfully - to need to be found. With a need to be known. To be seen, for who we are, and loved perfectly, accepted no matter what. With no excuses. With no doubts. With no nagging "but if they really knew me...." thoughts.

As far as nowhere
As far as eye can see
From east to west there is no place you don't breath
When all is laid bare at the bottom of my grief
I will find you

At the bottom of my grief I will find you. What power there is. When we have hit the bottom of the pain, of the grief. It is there where we can find God. You see - we both need to be found, and we need to be the seeker. In finding God, we find ourselves. We find someone who knows us beyond all concepts and movements of the mind. When we make our bed below the earth, there we will find Him.

What are you grieving? Where are you hiding? What are you hiding from? What are you afraid of? What will it cost you if you come out of your hiding spot? Who will you be real with? Who will you allow to find you? Are you willing to sink to the bottom of your grief, lay it out and find Him?

Friends, you aren't doing this alone. Reach out. We'll pitch our tent with you.

"I see you!!! I found you!!!"


Beyond ideas
Beyond the veil of time
Beyond all color and bending of the light
Beyond all concepts and movements of the mind
I will find you

As far as nowhere
As far as eye can see
From east to west there is no place you don't breath
When all is laid bare at the bottom of my grief
I will find you

If I make my bed below the earth
If I make my bed below the earth
If I make my bed below the earth
I will find you

If I make my bed below the earth
If I make my bed below the earth
If I make my bed below the earth
I will find you

Speak - Bethany Music

Silence. Pain. Loneliness. Asleep. Numb. Distant.

Wherever you go when the light is off. When the darkness closes in. When you come to the end of the day and your to do list isn't done. The project you were working on is unfinished. Or "as finished as it's going to get" but you aren't satisfied. When the worst case scenario runs through your head and you don't know how to fix it. When relationships are broken and you don't know how to fix them. When your perfectionism streak has left you unsatisfied or prickly. When you have given everything you have to care for someone else and you find yourself left empty.

When, in the end, you find yourself feeling unloved.

I wanna hear you, 
louder than the noise
I wanna feel you, 
closer than the air I breathe
Deep within my soul burning

What noise do you find ringing in your ears even in the silence? What voice are you listening to? Is it a voice of truth? Because, friends, the enemy wants to scream so loud that you can't hear God's whisper. The whisper of His love for you.

Speak to me let my heart
Be awakened by the whispering of love
Pull me close to your heart
Let the silence now be filled with Your voice

What are you allowing to fill your silence? Whose voice are you listening to? The lies that you are not good enough? The lie that you need to self medicate to get through the day? Or the promises of Jesus:

You're with me
You're for me
You have a plan for me
And I will never walk alone

I will never walk alone. Sit. Rest. Enjoy the Father's love that pours out on you and says you will never walk alone. That He is with you and He is for you.


I wanna hear you,
louder than the noise
I wanna feel you,
closer than the air I breathe
Deep within my soul burning

Speak to me let my heart
Be awakened by the whispering of love
Pull me close to your heart
Let the silence now be filled with Your voice

Found in surrender,
my heart is fully Yours
Caught in the moment,
captivated by the unseen
Your loving heart for me revealed

Speak to me let my heart
Be awakened by the whispering of love
Pull me close to your heart
Let the silence now be filled with Your voice

The words I hear you say
You've been speaking now for all of time
All of time

The words I hear you say
You've been speaking now for all of time
All of time

The words I hear you say
You've been speaking now for all of time
All of time

You're with me
You're for me
You have a plan for me
And I will never walk alone

You're with me
You're for me
You have a plan for me
And I will never walk alone

Speak to me let my heart
Be awakened by the whispering of love
Pull me close to your heart
Let the silence now be filled with Your voice

Speak to me let my heart
Be awakened by the whispering of love
Pull me close to your heart
Let the silence now be filled with Your voice
Filled with Your voice

Source: Musixmatch

Fall Afresh - Jeremy Riddle

Do you remember what it felt like when you first met Jesus? That initial insatiability to get enough of Jesus? The desire to just sit in His love? Or maybe that wasn't how it was when you came to Jesus. Maybe your first encounters with Jesus didn't involve a realization of how much you were loved, without any strings attached. Maybe your experiences with love always involved recognition for things you did, but shame when you did something wrong, and you brought that into your relationship with Jesus.

Awaken my soul, come awake
To hunger, to seek, to thirst
Awaken first love, come awake
And do as you did, at first!

Can I invite you into a place where you sit and know that Jesus loves you, as you are, flaws, amazing-ness, everything about you? Sit and be loved by Him in a way that doesn't depend on what you have done, what you will do. He loves you perfectly. Completely. As humans, we are born craving that love. That acceptance. The gaze of a parent upon us that tells us we are full and complete.

Spirit of the living God
Come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow!
To overflow

God wants to blow through the caverns - the darkest deepest pain filled places of your life - to fill you with love to overflowing!

Take the time today to just sit and be loved by Jesus.

Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade


 Awaken my soul, come awake
To hunger, to seek, to thirst
Awaken first love, come awake
And do as You did, at first!

Spirit of the living God
Come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow!
To overflow

Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
Spirit come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade

Spirit of the living God
Come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow!

©℗ 2012 Bethel Music / Distributed in the USA by EMI Christian Music Group / Marketed by Kingsway

(the original Jeremy Riddle version can be found here)
 

You Will Remain - Jesse Jorgensen

The other day I woke up early. Like really early. Way before I would even normally get out of bed on a work from work day. And I was awake. Really really awake. So, I did my devotional, I prayed. And eventually I turned to music to try to go back to sleep. And instead I lay in bed and found myself contemplating everything that the last month has been. (Sound familiar? I think this is part of the "new normal")

2020 has been a year filled with directions that feel like they are constantly changing. Even before COVID-19 got ahold of our schedules I have felt like I was hearing one thing and maybe a day later hearing something different. Recently, as an educator, it has felt like we hear one thing and then an hour later we hear that we were wrong and really yesterday we should have been told something completely different. Please don't get me wrong - I am not at all blaming my administration for this - it is not their fault. There was no "Pandemic 101" class in their Admin certification, and certainly no "Time Travelling 401" to be able to fix decisions that were made the week prior on the current information and are now completely wrong.

As I was lying in bed this song came on.

Though the sun cease to shine giving life to day
You will remain
Though the earth give way, the mountains fall into the sea
You will remain
While the plans of men are prone to disappoint
You will remain
If the steps I'll walk come with trial or pain
You will remain
You will remain

What a reminder that when everything else seems to be falling apart, HE is the one thing that will remain. While these steps we are walking are coming with trial and pain (at least for most of us) HE will remain.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.

The One. Is He the one your soul desires? Friends, lean into Him. Seek Him. In the seeking, we find the desire of our soul.

This weekend is Easter. And it's going to look a lot different in our house than normal. But the truth is, the tomb was empty, and really, that's all that is important. He will remain... alive!



Though the sun cease to shine giving life to day
You will remain
Though the earth give way, the mountains fall into the sea
You will remain
While the plans of men are prone to disappoint
You will remain
If the steps I'll walk come with trial or pain
You will remain
You will remain

Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.

Though the nations rage, kingdoms stumble and sway
You will remain
Though the heavens wear out, a garment torn and stained
You will remain
The grass may wither and the flowers fade but
You will remain
My flesh and heart may fail but God my strength
You will remain
You will remain

Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
You're the one my soul desires.

You're the one my soul desires
You're the one my soul desires

Words and music: Jesse Jorgensen

It Is Well - Kristene DiMarco

I don't want to write this blog post. I have fought it all week. Because I know what God wants me to share, but that's a hard message. Because it's not where I've been living. And delivering a message you know is meant to convict yourself. Well, that's tough.

This is hard. What we are doing is hard. And scary. And overwhelming. And, really, it is not what we were made to do. A friend this morning was telling me about how she heard a podcast that talks about how as humans we were made for community - for our own little community. Our family. Our church. That community. The community under our feet. That we were made to live with them, to do life with them. To love and to grieve with them. To celebrate, to rejoice. To cry, to weep.

And yet. Right now it is so easy to get caught up in the greater community. To get onto "social media" thinking that it is to reach out to our "own community". But, really, what social media gives us is a community so much bigger than what we were made for. It gives us the news in far away places. It gives us more than we can bear. And I think as Christians it is really easy to think that the self-sacrificial thing to do is to try to love and care for the whole world all at once. Don't get me wrong, ya'll - I do love and support many missionaries globally (financially and in prayer). I love their letters, to hear what they are doing. But. What God has called me personally to is to love those around me.

And I think that's the sticking point. Right now, we're being called to "social distancing" - so loving those around us... those on our own block... in our church. That's hard, y'all! When you can't reach out and give someone a hug. When you can't just walk up and ask someone how they're doing. When you don't see the look on their face on Sunday morning and know that something isn't right.

Which I think then tends to make me feel even more isolated. What I can see as far as community is far far bigger than what I should be seeing. What I can't see is those close to me that I was made to be in community with. And yet. In this time. God calls us to Him.

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And through it all, through it all
It is well
And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And it is well with me

Through it all. My eyes are on you. That's where our focus should be. Lord, take my eyes off of the wind and waves, and let me focus my eyes on you. Only on you, Lord. It is well with me.

So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
The waves and wind still know His name


Grander earth has quaked before
Moved by the sound of His voice
Seas that are shaken and stirred
Can be calmed and broken for my regard

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And through it all, through it all
It is well
And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And it is well with me

And far be it from me to not believe
Even when my eyes can't see

And this mountain that's in front of me
Will be thrown into the midst of the sea

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And through it all, through it all
It is well

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And it is well
It is well

So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
So let go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name
The waves and wind still know His name

And it is well with my soul (sing it everybody)
It is well with my soul
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
Oh it is well with my soul ('cause of who you are)
Oh it is well with my soul
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And through it all, through it all
It is well Lord

And through it all, through it all
My eyes are on You
And it is well with me

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Kristene Elizabeth Dimarco / Horatio Gates Spafford / Phil Paul Bliss
It Is Well lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Bethel Music Publishing