BRB & stuff.

I always feel silly quoting lyrics.

Suddenly, I am taken back to AIM away messages when the coolest thing one could possibly write besides the mysterious

 

BrB hMu WiTh My BeSt FrIeNdS fOr LiFe

YoU kNoW tHe DiGiTs :*

 

were lyrics of the latest jam,

**~[We BeLoNg ToGeThEr]~**

 

or

 

I can’t pretend that I’m alright and u can’t change me cuz we lost it all

*~nothing*~ lasts 4ever I’m sorry I can’t b perfect.

 

Somehow teenage hormones deemed these songs the story of my life (pun intended, Simple Plan lovers), & we ran around posting over dramatic lyrics that we were so sure if we could just meet Mariah Carey she would want us in her music video. Some people still have this problem on twitter & facebook. Like subtweeting & cyberbullying. Really, its cowardly. But before we slip down that endless rant, let’s settle with truth. Because we’re all adults here, right?

 

God hid a love letter inside of today.

All it took was obedience & desiring His heart & I had this wild craving to open my Bible. From sitting in the living room watching Love it or List it, one of the only television shows I can manage to sit through, the urge was a tapping on my shoulder, a secret whispered in my ear. So I went to my desk to gather my Bible, flipping open to the pale yellow sticky note with the curled edges, a moving marker for where I last left off in Isaiah. The words stood in a declaration that was more than the white page could hold, like the pledge of allegiance or the vows in a marriage ceremony.

 

The high & lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this:

I live in the high & holy place with those whose spirits are contrite & humble.

I restore the crushed spirit of the humble & revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

 

For I will not fight against you forever; I will not always be angry.

If I were, all people would pass away—all the souls I have made.

I was angry, so I punished these greedy people. I withdrew from them,

But they kept going on their own stubborn way.

I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them.

 

I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips.

May they have abundant peace, both near & far,

says the Lord, who heals them.

 

But those who still reject me are like the restless sea,

which is never still but continually churns up mud & dirt.

ISAIAH 57:15-20 (NLT)

 

I thought about cutting that passage short, knowing how many trains of thought would be running off the track, taking the nearest detour before they finished. Skimming for satisfaction. But skimming won’t prepare you for what I am about to relay. Read Isaiah 57:15-20 one more time, word for word.

 

Now let’s play.

When I read the Lord says, I often skim over it with the equivalent of wah wah wah. That’s so awful that I am not sure I should admit it, but I have a gut feeling most of the people pointing the finger are just as guilty of not taking the words seriously. Think of when your dad says something to you, his voice echoing through your mind through the lingering memory. God has a voice. Ponder that.

 

Onwards.

 

God reveals Himself in this passage, He is speaking, unraveling a new hint of His mystery. He is telling you something about Himself. Listen.

 

I live in the high & holy place with those whose spirits are contrite & humble.

I restore the crushed spirit of the humble & revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

 

The word contrite isn’t that commonly used anymore, but its meaning is the equivalent of being remorseful or apologetic. Contrite is feeling sorry. Humble is taking a position of not clinging to what you deserve or what society owes you. Humble is seeing yourself as not greater than others. Humble is referred to as lowly. Passive.

 

I live with the people who know they are dust from the ground, who are broken for the pain their wandering feet caused my passionate heart.

 

& so we imagine God in heaven with a bunch of sad, sorrowful people who are helplessly caught in the vivid flashbacks of past mistakes, eyes glaring down at our self-inflicted wounds. But God doesn’t end there in a now think about what you’ve done tone. That’s where He meets us, yes, in our broken pieces & our open wounds. But that’s not how He leaves us.

 

They live with me & I comfort them, healing their shattered pieces & reviving their valor.

 

I have made huge mistakes (HUGE), where I become my own worst enemy, holding myself captive to the shame of all I’ve done. Look at yourself. I was disgusted by what I was actually able to do from one moment to the next, unable to move from the walls I had built around myself, creating my own prison.

 

Even after removing myself from the circumstances I had allowed to run rampant through my life, even when my shoes were on the right feet & I felt like I was moving in the ‘right’ direction, I still felt a prisoner to my past. Apologies still slipped through my lips that I had been forgiven from long ago. I had been cleansed, yet I still felt bad about the pre-cleansing grime.

 

They live with me & I comfort them, healing their shattered pieces & reviving their valor.

 

God said He’s not going to stay mad at you forever. Yes, you were selfish in your actions, but He has healed you anyway. He has led you, making home with you in His high & holy place.

 

Now, darling, don’t forget it doesn’t end here for you, either. God wants to heal your shattered pieces & revive your courageous heart.

 

He has forgiven you, & in order for this whole thing to work, you need to forgive yourself.

 

I know the pain of the past, love. I know the scenes & conversations that keep you up at night, the words spoken over you that, all because of a battle, you think you have to identify with. But it’s time to heal the broken. It’s time to heal you.

 

God says those who still reject Him are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud & dirt. Rejecting His healing & revival is, too, rejecting Him. Reliving the past, churning up the mud & dirt, is a restlessness that knows no end. God is extending His arms for an informal, daddy embrace. Are you throwing out your stiff arm?

 

I know this is long.

But here’s the closing. I came to my room to write & turned Pandora on for the process, which I literally have never written in my life listening to music because I need a quiet room to focus. But I did, & the first song that came on was Jonathan David & Melissa Helser’s “On the Shores (extended version)”, & every uncertainty I had was washed away in the presence of God’s self-assuredness. The lyrics are everything He wrote in the love letter I had just read, & if you could just listen, I feel a little better if rather than reading more, all the words are sung to you by the click of the triangle in a neat little rectangle.

 

 

 

..I will comfort those who mourn, bringing words of praise to their lips.

ISAIAH 57:18-19