5.8.2013

when you get to church on Sunday and there are words that you can't sing with the rest of your family..."i don't care what the world throws at me now...it's gonna be alright" because wasn't just hours before that you woke up but couldn't get up, weighed down by what might come, all the expectations and tasks too much to bear, like the world threw too much at you and the safest place you could imagine was right there under the covers. and when you did get up because you have people here who won't let you stay in fear, the mirror judges you and the mess mocks you and the sunday school lesson you're supposed to teach gets blurry but you go slow through the routine, just take the next step.

and when the words to that song dig into your weak heart and you're left with a choice...sing what you know despite the tears falling or be stagnant and songless while you feel beat up. and because, ultimately, the next line of the song is the song of the redeemed, "i know my God saved the day and i know his word never fails, and i know my God made a way for me. salvation is here" and it's a song that is the strength of days overwhelming, that when life is too much, getting out of bed too scary, the to-do list too long, the end-all truth is that salvation is here. all you have to do is believe it and walk one little step at a time in the truth and sing loud enough for your heart to hear.

let love and faithfulness never leave you. bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart