Kari Jobe - "Steady My Heart"

Just watch...and worship. Thank you, Kari, for using the immense talent God gave you to give it back to Him.



Wish it could be easy
Why is life so messy
Why is pain a part of us
There are days I feel like
Nothing ever goes right
Sometimes it just hurts so much

But You're here
You're real
I know I can trust You

Even when it hurts
Even when it's hard
Even when it all just falls apart
I will run to You
Cause I know that You are
Lover of my soul
Healer of my scars
You steady my heart
You steady my heart

I'm not gonna worry
I know that You got me
Right inside the palm of your hand
Each and every moment
What's good and what gets broken
Happens just the way that You plan

And I will run to You
You're my refuge in Your arms
And I will sing to You
Cause of everything You are

You steady my heart
You steady my heart

Renewed Hope for a New Year

It's been a long while since I've updated, but I had a bit of a moment in the car after work today, and I wanted to share.

New Year's is my second favorite holiday - second only to Christmas. There's something magical about going into a new year - fresh starts, clean slates, big dreams, etc. I love the hopeful feeling that comes with knowing you can make of the year whatever you wish.

However, New Year's can also be a time where it's hard to see the hope. It can be a time when you're reminded that another year has passed and you're still waiting. Waiting for pain to go away, waiting for healing to come, waiting for a blessing, waiting for some guidance, or just waiting. This year I myself had one of those times, but today I was reminded in a big way that I have a hope that truly endures no matter what.

Driving home from work today, I heard Natalie Grant's "Our Hope Endures" on the radio, and it completely overwhelmed me. I'm not a crier, and there were tears. I'll let it speak for itself, but remember that you too can have a relationship with the God of the universe, and He will never ever leave you even if you have to wait out the storm. He'll always be there with you, and He has a perfect plan and perfect timing.

"Our Hope Endures"

You would think only so much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once
And you assume this one has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here
Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged

How do we comprehend peace within pain?
Or joy at a good man's wake?
Walk a mile with the woman whose body is torn
With illness but she marches on
Oh, 'cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged

Emmanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient
We never walk alone
And this is our hope

But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged

The Lifter of My Head

"But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head." -Psalm 3:3

We sang a song at Lawndale this morning that reminded me of this verse, and I had forgotten how much I loved it. The image created here speaks to the tenderness of my Savior. Can't you just picture Him? He sees your head hanging low with the pain, heartaches, and weights of this world, tear-stained, puffy-eyed, and defeated, and he gently takes your chin in his hand and tilts it up so that your eyes meet as if to say, "I'm right here. I see your pain, and I can take your burden. There's no pain I can't handle...no pain that catches me off guard. I know your every day before you live it, and you are never, ever alone. I am here. Always."

Let Him be the lifter of your head today.

Ode to Tiger Stadium

Legendary LSU public announcer Dan Borne wrote a poem about the magic and majesty that is Tiger Stadium on a Louisiana Saturday night that LSU is using on a lot of its football promo material this year. It's too amazing not to share, so I thought I'd post it in honor of season kickoff week. This literally gave me chills. I wish I could make a game in Death Valley this year, but I'll see LSU play Ole Miss in O-Town in November! But without further ado, here's the poem...and Geaux Tigers!

"It is a pantheon of concrete & steel.
It's a city that rises defiantly in the Delta
Alongside the Father of Waters.
It is the humidity of autumn evenings
That drapes stately oaks and broad magnolias.
It is haunted...and it is loud.
It is Halloween night & Cannon blasts.
It is a Louisiana gumbo of humanity
That cheers its Tigers to victory
And destroys the dreams of invading foes.
Chance of rain is...NEVER!
It is the cathedral of college football
And worship happens here.
When the sun finds its home in the western sky,
It is a field of glory for sure...
But much more than that it is a sacred place,
And it is Saturday night in Death Valley!"

-Dan Borne

For the Times when You're Tempted to Whine

My very brief epiphany of the night: there are times when I think to myself that life just isn't fair, and then I remember that the Son of God Almighty being tortured and dying a humiliating death on a tree wasn't exactly fair either. Quite a humbling thought. What we view as temporary unfairness may in actuality be God planning something much bigger, better, and more beautiful in the end. Life may not be fair, but God's plan is always perfect. Lord, please give me the patience to see that. Your ways are truly higher than my ways and Your thoughts higher than my thoughts.

A Lesson in Courage: My Review of The Help

I loved Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help. Loved it. However, I was nervous when I found out they were making it into a movie. Hollywood has this way of screwing things up sometimes especially when it comes to movies set in the Civil Rights era in the South, but when I found out Kathryn Stockett's childhood friend and fellow Mississippi native Tate Taylor was going to be directing it, I eased up slightly. Now that I've seen the movie, I've realized only a Mississippi native could have written that book or directed that movie. See, as someone who was born and raised in Mississippi, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my home state.

Now, before you go berating me for insulting my birthplace, let me explain. I love Mississippi. I love summer nights and the tune of crickets singing and fried chicken and the electricity of football season in the air and strong but delicate magnolia trees and a million other things about Mississippi, but my home state has a dark history that's no fault of its own. The guilt lies solely with its people and the way in which they've treated each other with injustice and allowed hatred over petty differences to engulf our state's history like a disease. Not that any other place doesn't have just as much guilt, but when I think about the horrors inflicted on African Americans and the hatred and fear felt by both races in my beloved Mississippi over the years, it just makes me sick. And it has always left me asking myself a haunting question. Would I have been brave enough? All through school when learning about the Civil Rights movement or even the Civil War, I always had that question in the back of my mind. Would I have been brave enough to do something about it...to stand up for what is right? I hope that I would have been. I hope that I would have been one of those good people who knew that love and respect are neither black nor white who treated all people equally and spoke up when others didn't. I hope I would. Movies and books like this always find me hoping I'd have been one of those people, and I like to think there were more of those people than history lets on. People who fought in quiet ways that wouldn't get them in the textbooks but changed their world in smaller yet still significant ways.

I see a lot of myself in Skeeter Phelan - curly hair, single, writer, sassy, college-educated, career-minded Mississippi girl - and I hope that I'd have been as brave as she. It's a beautiful and moving book and an equally beautiful and moving movie. Read it. See it. Go out and live it...because injustice didn't end with the Civil Rights Act, and there are new injustices to fight everyday. The Lord has called us to stand up against them and to be set apart. Find your cause and fight for it, and He will be there beside you to give you strength and clear your path.

Laura Story - "Blessings"

We've recently been studying this idea of crying out to God in our Life Journey Group at Lawndale, and I came across this song on the radio today that blessed my heart and pretty much sums up what we've been discussing. I hope it touches you today too. :)

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?