I’m standing under the waterfall of Your approval And I find that I don’t need anything else or anyone else but you
When I was a kid there was nothing I wanted more than my father's approval. At the time I didn't think he approved of me, much. Turns out I was very wrong, which I learned (much) later. But. At the time what I wanted more than anything was to stand in the waterfall of approval. What I didn't know what that I was standing in the wrong waterfall. The approval that was showered on me - even in the best of days - was just a trickle compared to the waterfall of love and approval that God wanted to pour down on me.
Speak over me
Tell me again
That I’m someone you love
Let it sink in
Tell me a million times
Who I am in heaven’s eyes
Have you found that what sticks with you is the negative? That anything less than perfect feedback means that you are a failure? This is something that I deal with a lot. I can play bass for a worship service and everyone tells me "that was great" and what I remember isn't even what someone else said - it's the one wrong note that I know that I played. Sing harmony and know that I messed up on one note, and I feel like a failure.
Let the truth sink in deeper than the lies. You are someone that He loves.
So I’m letting go
Of all other names
That I gave myself
When I heard you say
Come and find yourself in heaven’s eyes
Heaven’s eyes
What names have you given yourself? Let go of those names. Hear the truth of who He sees:
A child you chose before I took a breath
Every last detail like the back of your hand
Nobody knows, nobody knows me like you
I am always seen
I am always known
Always understood
You call me your own
We are called his own. Fully known, like the back of His hand - and yet we are called his own. Ownership that is proclaimed from the mountain tops - not sheepishly admitted to. We are His.
Where do you need to hear His truth today? Listen. Listen as He tells you a million times who you are in His eyes.
Speak over me
Tell me again
that I’m someone you love
Let it sink in
Tell me a million times
Who I am in your eyes
I’m standing under the waterfall of Your approval
And I find that I don’t need anything else or anyone else but you
I knew going into this school year that burn out was going to be something I would have to actively work to avoid, and I was fairly certain it was going to come earlier than "normal" (for reference, March is a really long month... so is May... in the best of times). There's nothing normal about this school year as a teacher, or really any profession I'm told. School is just what I know. Teachers had a rough spring. And then for many of us we didn't really take a "summer break" - we went to trainings, we read blogs, we spent hours making bitmoji virtual classrooms (because they're cute, fun, give you more personality to the kids, and a stress reliever...but they're still work). Maybe we spent hours recording video to help get "ahead" before the school year started this fall. Whatever we did - many of us lost ourselves.
Ransom me from my captive, I’m all but gone
So stuck. So held hostage. The constant bings and pings and beeps that mean you have a new email. A new assignment to grade. A new parent to help. A new student with a question. And when everything is online, those bings and pings come at odd hours, and it is so easy to think that you should answer them right now because why not - the computer is here, and the student needs me. The expectation is that I help when they need help. The client comes first.
Ransom me from my captive, I’m all but gone And I don’t know where I came from
So lost. Where did I come from? Where are you God?
Ransom me from my captive, I’m all but gone And I don’t know where I came from I’ve forgotten my home
As I get caught up in the negative emotions around me, the storyline of conflict, tensions, fear, the emotional climate of distrust, I find myself thirsty; I've forgotten my home. I've forgotten where the water comes from, who brings it, where to find it. I look for it on social media (newsflash: I haven't found it there), I look for it in the news. Lost, I forget where to turn to find living water.
I don’t want to fall and
I would give it all just to know You again
Oh, just to know You again
'Cause my heart burns out for You, oh
And the darkness has no hand on me now
Protected by Your blood
And called as Your own
I will find my way home
The burning yearning thirst inside me craves knowing the one who will fill that hole. The one who will ease all the tensions, gives light to my feet and my path. The one who has called me His own. He is the only one who can bring that.
Protected by Your blood
And called as Your own
You will guide me home
You will guide me home
Protected by His blood He will guide me home.
Burn out is real. But. It's not forever. Our hearts burn out, yes, but in that we can find the reset button. Let your burn out drive you to realizing your need for Him. Rest in the protection of His blood. He will guide you home!
Ever felt like everything you do is a lie? Like it's all a big farce? That "fake it 'til you make it" just means that you have done a lot of faking it?
Friend, I feel you! Imposter syndrome... I'm not who they think I am, and if they really knew who I was, would they still like me? Would they think I'm worth being in their life?
And you thought you knew all there was to know Then a spirit wakes to rattle your window
We can't know all there is to know. And maybe that realization is as freeing to you as it was to me. That my job is simply to know what I do know. To testify to that.
So testify
Like a prophet with a vision
See through the world you're in
You testify
And tell the modern jury
Don’t lose the truth again
Our job is to tell our story and nobody else's. Our story of how we met Jesus. And the truth of Jesus is all that is needed to carry through. Because that is the truth. The person of Jesus Christ and what He has done in our life. Testify to that.
There’s a rending of the air
That always goes unnoticed
And fluorescence holds your stare
The wind will break your motives
When the city’s in a slumber
It’s sailing down the highway
You hear a sudden mutter
Roaring up a Sunday
So testify
Like a prophet with a vision
See through the world you're in
You testify
And tell the modern jury
Don’t lose the truth again
You say you live a simple life
As if nothing’s significant
If you just stay inside the pain will never mobilize
And when they open up their eyes
Watching every nightfall
You’re wrapped up in the sight of a thousand little white lies
And you thought you knew all there was to know
Then a spirit wakes to rattle your window
So testify
Like a prophet with a vision
See through the world you're in
You testify
And tell the modern jury
Don’t lose the truth again
You say that nothing’s going on
That every lie is normal
You said that all along it’s nothing that you did wrong
But the temple’s tearing down again
To shake around the shadows
Your heart begins to bend with the sound of every amen
I have days where my alarm goes off, and all I want to do is roll over and go back to sleep, sleep until 2021 or Jesus comes back. Where I just want to close my eyes to everything. Sleep feels like the right way to avoid the tension, avoid the pain. Avoid sickness, confusion, chaos, politics.
Don’t close your eyes to a tomb that’s broken wide
But here's the thing. If I do that. If I roll over and go back to sleep (figuratively or literally), in doing that, I'm also avoiding the tomb that has been broken wide. The gift that God has given.
Every moment you take is a void in a grave
Oh, it’s time to wake
Friends, it's time to wake up. It's time to put aside our differences, and to unite around the truth of an empty tomb.
So how did I get here
In a vision of embrace
I thought that I forgot, but I know this place
How did we get here? Remember that we know the place of Jesus. That the truth is Jesus. That He is the one that we cling to - that He is the one we invite people into relationship with. That it is HIM and HIM alone that brings the embrace that we need.
And we need to wake up and share that truth with the world.
Wherever you are - home with family, out in an essential job, serving people in a restaurant, teaching people over video call. Wherever you find yourself. That is your mission field. Wake up the the truth of an empty tomb, broken wide. Love those around you so well that they can't help but see Jesus in you. Engage in the conflict and the messiness that is building trust and raising yourself to commitment.
And while you're at it - check out this awesome new band @wakelowmusic streaming now with their first two songs wherever you get your music (and yes - that definitely means another Wake Low blog is coming)! These "youngsters" have a whole lot of wisdom and talent. I'm excited to see where their musical journey takes them!
How did we get here
It’s easy to forget
On the field that I knew lies cheap cement
How did we get here
We’re running out of time
The river was rushing, now it’s bone dry
Don’t close your eyes to a tomb that’s broken wide
Every moment you take is a void in a grave
Oh, it’s time to wake
I took the long way to George Town
There cast a winter glow
Dressed in a ballgown of paper white snow
Now the sun is an ember
Fiery colors collide
But every cinder I left behind
Don’t close your eyes to a tomb that’s broken wide
Every moment you take is a void in a grave
Oh, it’s time to wake
Edges blurred, it’s a muted word, I’m so close to seeing
Truth lies low behind the veil, this hazy view is fleeting
Is everything on Stephens’s Street an arrow to the sun
Or does this age sink to the ground, with nothing new begun
So how did I get here
In a vision of embrace
I thought that I forgot, but I know this place
Don’t close your eyes to a tomb that’s broken wide
