The Way

It's been a hard week- not depressingly hard, just not a week that I got to walk through without a care in the world. It was one of those weeks where I was faced with moment after moment and question after question: what do I say? what do I think? how do I respond? how do I love? how do I let people love me? who and what is worth my time? and what just isn't? when should I stick around? and when do I need to walk away?

My heart has been broken several times in the past week but it has been a gift to see 1. my heart break for what I know breaks God's heart (this has been a constant prayer for my life) and 2. what (and who) God uses to mend it. Some things really are too incredible to be called coincidence and can only be called the choreography of a loving God. One of those (many, many) things in my life tends to be music- and lately has been this song. At work we have Christian XM radio playing on a circuit all the time so I really do think I've heard every single contemporary (and not so contemporary) Christian song that has ever come out. We hear them so often that Katherine and I know them by the intro. We have the ones that we can not stand, the ones that make us chuckle, and I have the ones that I say, "Oh, I LOVE this song" every single time I hear them begin. This one makes me close my eyes at certain parts because bits of it are such intimate and personal prayers.

All creation cries out with longing

With groans only you can comprehend

And with wisdom, you always answer

And give the words of life so unfailing

And your glory shines all around us

Your faithfulness shown for all to see

When we think of all of your wonders

The beauty of your plan that's been revealed

When we walk in your light, we walk in it

Shine, bright

Let your glory fill this land

Lift high, the King of Kings and great I am

Jesus, you are the way

We can see the works of your loving hands

With a hope and peace not made by man

When you poured out your grace and your mercy

And you held out your arms so we could see

You bled for all mankind and set the captives free

Shine, bright

Let your glory fill this land

Lift high, the King of Kings and great I am

Jesus, you are the way

Na na na na na na, Jesus

You are the way

...

-The Way by Jeremy Camp

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it,

in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay

and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly

as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.

Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

Romans 8:18-27

(Please read until the end of the chapter- vs. 39- it's beautiful.)

Our world is not as it should be. My life is not as it should be. And something deep in each of us knows this unfailingly (even if we are too broken to admit it out loud). I am constantly reminded that my surroundings are creations and not accidents and that even they bow down to the creator (and often times, they do a better job than I do). The world knows that is is not as it was created to be, and yet all it can do is groan with longing and continue to worship while it waits. I do not always know what to pray for (vs. 8:26), nor do I always know what to write about (so forgive the jumble if you would...) but I will continue nonetheless to remain on my knees and wait in patient submission until I understand my role in making this world more as it was created to be, or until Jesus comes back to do it himself.

Hey now, this is my desire

Consume me like a fire, 'cause I just want something beautiful to touch me,

I know that I'm in reach 'cause I am down on my knees

I'm waiting for something beautiful...

-'Something Beautiful,' by Needtobreathe

"'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'"

Luke 19:40

...and all of creation sing with me now

fill up the heavens let his glory resound...

-'All Of Creation,' by Mercy Me

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me.'"

John 14:6

Jesus is the way.

He is the only way that those groanings will be quieted and the longings of our hearts will be satisfied.

He is the only way that MY groanings will be quieted and the longings of MY heart will be satisfied.

Waiting for something beautiful,

B