When the Hurt and the Healer Collide

MercyMe have long been one of my favourite Christian bands. With such honesty and hopefulness from songs such as ‘I Can Only Imagine’, ‘Word of God Speak’ and ‘Here With Me’; I was eagerly anticipating their May 22^nd release, ‘The Hurt and the Healer’ (which released on iTunes and Amazonmp3 last week). As you are probably aware from an earlier post, in early April my family and I went to a MercyMe concert in Baulkham Hills (about 2 hours drive from Sydney City) and what met us there was a night of worship and praise, as worship artist Michael W. Smith and gospel quartet Ernie Haase and the Signature Sound joined MercyMe for one of the most memorable concerts that I have ever been to in years. Promoting their new CD, lead singer Bart Millard shared with the audience as he introduced the band’s first radio single and title track.

‘The Hurt and the Healer’ is one of my favourite songs from MercyMe, and as Bart explained during the concert, the song is about the point in our lives during the midst of our hurt when we discover the healer, knowing full well that what He offers is not necessarily the answer that will make everything feel better, but rather, what is offered is solace, hope in the midst of calamity, reassurance in the middle of the storms that surround us. Throughout the build up to this May 22^nd release, MercyMe have been going through some personal issues, starting with keyboardist Jim Bryson taking a leave of absence from the band, as well as Bart’s fire-fighter cousin (who felt to him more like a brother) dying in the line of duty. Through all these tragedies, Bart, Mike, Barry, Robbie and Nathan are standing strong, understanding that despite all of our problems here on Earth, God is still on His throne, still reigning over all of creation. What Bart said on the night struck me as poignant, imparting that even if God told us why, why this happened or this didn’t happen; the things that are hurtful to us still won’t hurt less. What a remarkable observation, that even if we truly understand the reasons why, we’ll still be mad, we’ll still be sad, we’ll still be angry and upset. So God just promises one simple thing, for Him to be the healer to our hurts. As we continue to read and delve into His Word, we will find the remedy to our pain, in the Author and Perfector of our lives. God is with us in the valleys, showing us that He that has fashioned us in the very palm of His hands will be ‘…with you always, even until the end of this age…’ (Matthew 28:20- NCV).

‘The Hurt and the Healer’ has really shown me how much to trust God, even during the times when I don’t really know what is going on. As Bart sings out in the chorus ‘…I'm alive even though a part of me has died, You take my heart and breathe it back to life, I fall into Your arms open wide where the hurt and the healer collide…’ I am amazed at how they have it the nail on the hammer. When something happens to you that is traumatic as someone dying, or finding out you have a terminal illness, or when someone betrays you beyond you can ever imagine; something is taken from you, and like the chorus suggests, sometimes you can recover, but you’ll never fully be like how you were before, there’ll always be a part of you that has ‘died’ when you heard the unfortunate news about something or someone that you have cared about. Regardless of your circumstance, we can all agree that when something tragic happens to you or someone else, nothing is the same. But the Lord gives us a promise that we can take: ‘…Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint…’ This verse above, Isaiah 40:28-31; has given me great comfort through many years, knowing and understanding that the Lord is for us, not against us; loving us through the times when we need Him the most, and reassuring us during the difficult seasons, that even if we may often feel like some part of us has ‘died’ during our season of despair and desolateness; God is promising us that He is making all things new; taking our soft and fragile hearts and breathing new life into them; thereby giving us the resolve and courage to move on, knowing that every situation brings glory to Him.

Sometimes it can be just a song that can change someone’s life, and reading through all of the positive reinforcement that MercyMe have been receiving about their single; the same can be said about their song. ‘The Hurt and the Healer’ has touched lives because it is a real, honest song about the struggles we all face, the pain that we all feel, and the reconciliation between creator and created, God and man, the hurting and the healer. When our limited understanding about how our pain should feel and how the healing should be; collides with the sovereign Almighty who’s showing us to steady our hearts and trust in His ability to give us the healing that we need in the right timing that we need it; we are able to appreciate and trust in the fact that God always keeps His promises, and always hears our cries for help, sometimes choosing to help us during the times of despair, yet other times, choosing to weave and use the circumstances that we face as lessons for us to rely more and more on the healer and maker of our lives; rather than on our own abilities. The beauty of the healer is that God knows that we are wanting, but He will certainly give us when we are all inherently needing.

There are days in our lives when all we can do is just make it through the day. Things are going on at work, our bosses are telling us that these deadlines need to be accomplished, and we are given work from every angle. We are swamped, and together with the hurt that we may sometimes feel, life can sometimes be a little stagnant. But I am certain that as we surrender our lives fully to the One who made it; we will let go of all our worries and fears, doubts and insecurities. God is speaking to us, longing for us to open our hearts to Him as He invades our hearts, breaking our fears and awakening our hearts to His love. ‘The Hurt and the Healer’ is certainly doing it’s part to free lives from the pain that they feel; and I’m sure after you hear the song, it could impact you as well.

Before I end this blog, let me pose a question. What things are you holding onto today, that you’re afraid to give over to God? Why so? Sometimes all we have to do is to come as we are to the Father, without any preconceived ideas as we are transformed by the Father’s love for each of us. When everything has fallen, Jesus Christ remains, and that is the hope that we have; that even during the darkest of our days; He will always pull us through! Think about it, and below is the live video for ‘The Hurt and the Healer’. Listen to it, comment, and just soak in the knowledge that Jesus wants to be the healer if we let Him.

Til next time,

Jon.

Living the Time that is so ever Valuable

Just the other week, I saw the recent film, ‘In Time’. Starring singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, I was impressed with how this film portrayed an image of the future, and definitely made me think about my own life and how I want to spend it. The film portrayed the future like this; that time is the new currency. Everyone lives til they are twenty-five; and then they are given one more year left, unless they can bargain their way for more years, by working or stealing. Items cost ‘time’, and are taken from the clock that’s ticking down on your arm. The rich are able to live as long as they want, thousands or even millions of years. But for this to happen, the poor are to suffer for it. Places are cordoned off into ‘time zones’, the rich living in seclusion and isolation in ‘New Greenwich’ to what is going on in the ‘Ghettos of Dayton’, where murder, theft, and other desperate crimes are committed every day. Time-keepers rule the city and allocate time, giving them to people that are willing and can afford the price that they ultimately pay. Time is the new way of living, and begs the question; if you had enough time (or money in the 21^st century… or maybe even enough time), how would you use it? If you could do anything, spend the money to buy anything or go anywhere, how would you live your life? This got me thinking about what I would do if I had a million dollars, or if I could live to more than 100 years old. If these things in the future are remotely possible, then I really need to start thinking about how I would want to live my life before I am forced into living a certain way.

In the movie, the character that Justin Timberlake plays, Will Salas; comes from the ghettos as he manoeuvres and survives life, one day at a time. When he is given more than 100 years one night by a rich man willing to just die (that he saved at a bar from a time-robbery assault), he is accused of his murder and hunted down by both the time keepers and the local crime mobster. As his mother is ‘timed out’ after failing to have the allotted hours for a bus ride, Will remembers what the rich man told him, about the corruption of the system, and decides to revolt against it, the same system that has been put into place that allows the rich to live forever, yet at the same time raise the costs of living in the poorer ‘time zones’, thus increasing the allotted hours that one needs for daily living at a faster rate than wages. Running from the law, Will Salas crosses paths with Sylvia Weis, a rich daughter of time-loaning businessman Phillip Weis, and together they are able to challenge the system that has never been questioned since its existence. As the film carries on, ethical questions are certainly raised about the issues of the time that we all have, knowing that we have one life that we live, no more. How we use this life is of utter importance. But then there’s always the thought; if you had unlimited resources (including time and money), how would you live your life? What would you do? We certainly need to figure out what our purpose and calling is in our lives, what we enjoy doing; whether other people have spoken encouragements into our lives, telling us, ‘I really see you as this’, or ‘I think you’ve got such a real talent for that’. Because once we discover our passion, and realise that our passion isn’t our purpose (our purpose on this Earth is to further the kingdom of God!), we can be able to live our lives with no regrets, acknowledging that even when things crumble around us, that we can count on God to always stick by us, never leaving us and encouraging us in the moments when we need Him the most.

How I live my life will certainly have ramifications about where I end up. What I choose today will have consequences for tomorrow. But there is a notion in society that speaks about how we should all make good choices because of the time that we have; but also because the choices that we make will define who we are for the rest of our lives. We are fed this thought that if we do screw-up, then it’ll be ‘written on our headstone’ for all eternity, ‘not wiped from the hard drive’, not forgotten by our parents. But then Jesus comes along and turns everything and every thought on their heads. We are told not to screw up, because what we do, we’ll carry for the rest of our lives. Sure that is the case, but God shows us that what we do doesn’t define us. It has consequences to where we end up, but what defines us is Christ’s unending love for us, that while we were still in the sinning mood, Christ came down from Heaven and lived a human life. He suffered and died the death that we knew we deserved, thus empathising with our very pain. It is because of what He did on the cross that we can be called sons and daughters of the Living God and that is who we are. We are heirs of the throne of heaven, part of the never-ending story of God. As we realise our identity in Him, we are filled with overwhelming joy as we live our lives with a Christ-centred focus. How we certainly live today will have consequences for tomorrow. But we must also get this clear; that irregardless of what happens in our lives, whether we screw up today or tomorrow (we’re still gonna make mistakes- it’s part of the learning process as we become more and more grounded in Christ and what He’s encouraging us to undertake), God still loves us and will continue to love us.

What ‘In Time’ has taught me is that all life is valuable. We do not know when we’re going to die. It may be today, tomorrow, next year, or even in 50 years time. Regardless of the date, we’ll know that when it comes, we must have this attitude where we say ‘I know that I’ve done everything that I can to live a fulfilled life! I’ve told my family that I love them, I was able to do the things that really matter!’ We must get our priorities right, because if we cannot say with full confidence that once we go to the grave, we’ll be happy with the life that we’ve lived (if we continue the path that we are on right now), then something inside of us needs to change. We need to see our lives like how God sees them, beautiful and with purpose.

As I finish this blog, let me leave you with Sidewalk Prophet’s song, ‘Live Like That’. As you reflect upon the lyrics, let me remind you, that God treasures us and died for us, that even if we were the only people on the planet, He’d still come and die for us anyway. That is love at its best. Once we appreciate this, we must go and live like Christ, as our time on Earth is only a whisper in the wind, a stone in a quarry of rocks, a sand grain along a shore of beach. Let us make this live count for the only thing that matters!

Til next blog,

Jon.

Blogging: What's Your Motivation?

It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog that I don’t even know where to start. Every time I try to start a blog I procrastinate, or I worry about finding the ‘perfect’ topic to write about. I get so caught up with the appearances of how this elusive blog should look like, that I forget that I can just write, and let God’s Holy Spirit just flow through me, knowing that what I write may help someone else in the future. It has always been a focus of mine that I write about topics that I’m interested in, that I’d like to share to the world, but never have I started a blog with an uncertainty about what to talk about, or how it would flow or how it would even end. A daunting task that even is convincing me now at this very moment to just stop, pack it in, and wait another day (what I have been doing for the past few weeks), I know that it is in these moments when you know you can’t do it on your own, that the Lord comes in and makes the impossible possible.

Not writing has been the hardest. If you know me, and how I’ve written periodically on this blog, going without for a few weeks is bound to raise a few questions. Where is he; and why isn’t he active? There is that unseen pressure, maybe by myself or by other people; that updates need to be given on a regular basis. And if that doesn’t happen, then judgements are passed. By others or by myself, there is that pressure to do more, be seen, because of the notion of ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it’. During my hiatus from my blog, I’ve recently taken up an unpaid position writing Christian music reviews at a website indievisionmusic.com. It has been fun posting the reviews that I love, but trying to introduce CCM into a website flooded with hard rock and metal music is difficult to say the least. Sometimes people read my reviews, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I receive comments, both negative and positive, and sometimes it feels like my reviews are bypassed completely. But I know that even though I shouldn’t get affected by all these things, I am; more than I should be. There have been thoughts in my mind like ‘well, if no one reads this, then why bother doing it in the first place?’ Well, I know who will read it. I will. Sometimes, and more often than not, I have read through my past blogs, and thought, ‘gee, did I even write this, or that?’ And looking back on it, I know I wrote it as in I typed all the words on a word document, but I can’t really remember writing something so rich and full of encouragement. That is certainly the power of Christ, and as He works through each one of us, we can continually be encouraged and spurred on our Christian walk, even if it is by our own words.

I know that these blogs that I write will later on help me through some tough times, and as I continually read through my reviews, I am encouraged to know how much God loves to speak through the music that we listen to. Music brings power along with it; and as we soak in the Lord’s presence, we may even find that the Lord can speak through the typical CCM song, just as much as a hard rock tune, or even a mainstream melody. Music is so powerful that one phrase, stanza or line can change someone’s life forever. It can seep deep down into someone’s soul, and affect their very being, motivating them to love, or to hate. This is particularly crucial to choose what types of music to listen to. Something with a positive message can place someone on the path the Lord has destined for them to go along. But we must remember that these words spoken through song can also hinder as well. Ephesians 4:29 has really struck out to me as something to look at, ‘…Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen…’ This is a very powerful verse. Whatever we say will have consequences, and even through music, as people listen to songs, the lyrics tend to affect someone more than the artist intends.

We all need to be careful and know that whatever we write, sing about, watch on TV or at the cinemas will have an affect on us more than we know. Just because no one comments on my blog or rates or comments on my reviews doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t read it, bought the album, and been blessed by it. I know it in my head, but I also know that we’re all human and we do get affected by these types of things. And so as I finish this blog (that I thought would never be finished), let me pose this question. Are there things that you do that you want people to notice? Why? To promote your fame, or God’s? What is the motivation behind what you do, to further your own kingdom, or to invite people into the never-ending story of God? We must keep our eyes on Christ, He is the reason we do anything at all. He is our mighty fortress, and He is our sacred refuge. As I leave you with a song from worship artist Christy Nockels, let this song soak into your heart, as we realise our purpose on this planet, to exalt the name of Christ, so that others can know the joy and hope we all have.

Til next blog,

Jon.