A Reason to Sing

"I have so much pain inside of me. I need you to heal me, because sometimes I can’t even feel the pain, but I know its there. I’ve become numb to it. And that almost scares me more than anything. I don’t want to be numb to it. I want to feel it, because then I know I can feel. Then I know that I have a hope of curing it. I have a hope of knowing it’ll be gone someday..." (Journal entry. May 25, 2011)


When I wrote these words almost a year ago, my heart was so confused and in such a place of hurt that I couldn't even begin to explain what I was feeling. I was not capable of the full range of human emotions--I had blocked them out in attempt to shut out the pain. And it didn't work.


As I sit here writing this right now, and reading back over this excerpt, I cannot believe that I am the same girl who wrote this tortured journal entry almost a year ago. Over the past six months my life has been completely changed. I went on a YWAM DTS in Belize, and my heart finally met my Maker.


Standing before God on the end of a dock in paradise, looking out over the blue water of the Caribbean, is one of the most terrifying, beautiful experiences I have had. His raw power was so reflected in the tides, in the way the wind moved the palms on the beach, in the swirling of the ocean, that all I could do was stand and stare. I remember staying up until 3am one night, confusion swirling inside of me as I sat on the beach under the stars and talked to God. My heart was in a place of frustration, and that night He met me in an intimate and beautiful way. My healing process has not been an easy one, but that night I felt His love and His acceptance so clearly that my breathing quickened, my hands shook. 


God is so good. Cliche, I know, but it is so incredibly true. I give every moment of every day to Him, because I know that He is the only one who is able to handle all of me. He is the only one who is capable of taking all that I am, and molding me into something perfect, rather than my poorly shaped self. 


The beauty of God's love for me--for you--is truly magnificent. I can't explain His healing power, except to say that all that I have been in the past, all that I was and all the pain I carried, it is no longer there. He has shaped me into something entirely different, and His love has captured me so completely that sometimes I think I can taste it.


Thank you Jesus for healing. Thank you for freedom. Thank you for LIFE.

Breathe. Today is New.

Sometimes I am so blown away by God, by how incredibly passionate He is about me, by how intense His heart is for me, that all I can do is sit and breathe. Every breath, every time I am aware of Him, every time I take a step...it speaks of HIS beauty. It speaks of HIS glory. His heart absolutely thrives when I take the time to look Him in the eye and say, "Hey... I love you Dad."

Each breath of mine whispers a heartbeat of His. I long for my step to fall in with His path. My eyes to be full of His love. My hands to cradle the ones He loves, to hold them and to cherish them as if they were royalty. When I look at others, I don't want to see their faces. I want to see their hearts, their spirits as God created them to be.

I desire to be so in tune with Him and His presence that my confidence in Him doesn't stand on circumstance. It doesn't waver when people look me in the eye and tell me to prove His existence. It doesn't falter when my future is unclear.

I long to be so caught up in Him that there is hardly a distinction between where He begins and I end. No distinction at all, if possible. And the day when I get to run to His arms and have him swing me around, the day I get to sit in His presence and laugh with Him... that will be a sweet, sweet day.