I like music. Love it, in fact. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m easily distracted (mainly when doing homework), I would listen to it or play it or sing it 24/7. The melodies and lyrics touch a special part of my heart and emotions and help me to calm down, focus, get excited, etc. I tend to get attached to one song for a while and then another. These songs are my life’s “soundtrack” and they range from a cheesy country song to something I wrote to a favorite worship song. Its fun to look back and see what songs I identified with and why. I really think God has used different songs or random choruses to encourage me and show me different truths.
A year or so ago, I heard "The Beauty of Grace" by Krystal Meyers. Now I know that it isn’t the most musically “correct” song or anything like that, but the chorus is what spoke to me.
“Anywhere you are, it’s never too far away. There’s freedom from your scars, the mistakes that you’ve made – forgiven. The memories erased. Baby, that’s the beauty of grace.”
You see, after moving to Fiji, God started to open my heart and walk me through who I really was inside. I was broken and it was hard to come to grips with. I had always been the person who had it all together – the girl who knew what she was doing and where she was going. But going to Fiji showed me how broken and in need of a Savior I really was. Seeing the brokenness around me hurt as well. I remember talking with a friend after a youth meeting about all that he had been through. As he described the pain and sin he had dealt with I thought more about this chorus and how important grace really is. It’s the difference between life and death and nothing we do can change it. I’ve been reading in Romans 8 and I love these verses:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:38-39
God’s grace is enough for me - what a miracle that is! I started to grasp this concept in Fiji and (as Jessi can attest) played this song over and over and over again until it became real to me. Nothing can separate me from his love and grace.
The next song that spoke to me was "Forgiven" by Sanctus Real. At the time, I was living with my aunt in Georgia and I had the chance to go to a Sanctus Real concert. I got the CD and listened to “Forgiven” a million times. I love the line that says:
“In this life, I know what I’ve been, but here in your arms I know what I am – I’m forgiven! And I don’t have to carry the weight of who I’ve been ‘cause I’m forgiven.”
I started to realize that because I have God’s grace and because nothing can separate me from that, I can move on and leave sin behind. I’m forgiven and I don’t have to live under the slavery of sin. In Christ I am a new creation.
“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” - Romans 8:12-14
Fast forward to today. Through reading my Bible and prayer, I’ve been realizing how personal God is. He loves me. Wow. Its hard to imagine and even harder to process. He looks down and, despite the bad things I’ve done, sees a clean heart. A heart that has been washed in his blood and made white as snow. Even when I’m struggling with what I’ve done or what others have done to me, I can have confidence knowing that his love and faithfulness doesn’t change. And (feel free to laugh) the song (or mainly, the chorus) that has applied here is from a Taylor Swift song. Yes, you can laugh. The chorus says:
“It’s all right, just wait and see. Your string of lights is still bright to me. Who you are is not what you did. You’re still an innocent.” – Taylor Swift “Innocent”
When I feel down, God sees his light in my life. When I feel like a failure, God tells me that my sin doesn’t define me, He does. In his eyes, I am innocent and pure. This doesn’t excuse my sin, but it does tell me that I don’t have to “prove” myself to him – I am already justified. What a beautiful concept.
So there’s a little snapshot of my life’s “soundtrack”. What song is on your life’s playlist right now?
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