when You hear our cries...sing through the night

--personal thoughts--

i'm not completely sure my last post made a lot of sense. i just reread it and am moved again by how God was speaking to me, but i definitely want to communicate it well (better?) so that i'm not the only one benefitting from these thoughts. :) the song again...if you want to keep it open in another window (with lyrics accessible)...www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXOAA0dNjPk.

i just want to share my heart with you. i have been grieving for a couple years. because of life circumstances and loss...i've felt quite sorrowful...i guess actually more than a couple of years. and of course...it has been off and on. i am sooooo blessed and have soooooo much to be thankful for...but have seen a lot of heartache and have had my eyes opened to a lot of pain. and...there is a season for grief...which i think i'm coming out of now (it's time). but...the emotions that i've experienced have felt overwhelming at times. paralyzing at times. confusing. unbearable at times. i just want to share how the old testament has been healing to me.... during this season, i have felt tempted to let my sorrow make me feel distanced from God. i've had questions. though i never questioned the goodness of God, my heart just didn't understand a lot. this is the thing...the thing that i've learned...through christy's song and through this epic story of God's faithfulness to lead the israelites.... His heart aches for the pain in the world. when we ache...He does. and when we grieve, His heart grieves with us. and i think sometimes, He opens our eyes so that we will grieve with Him.

when christy introduced the song at passion in january, she said it started out as a lullaby...just as she would grieve in her heart...and she was just asking God to comfort. all the things our hands cannot touch/our arms/hugs cannot reach. wrap Your arms around the world tonight. look at the words for a second..."when You hear our cries...sing through the night so we can join in Your song and sing along...." when we were reading about sodom and gomorrah, the word outcry just stood out to me (genesis 19:13). wickedness and evil lead to pain. hurting people crying out for mercy.... so, through this song, christy is asking God to sing so we can hear it and sing along.

and i realized as i was reading about the conquests as they came into their promised land, that pain and devastation were being dealt with as in sodom and gomorrah. remember deuteronomy 12:31...they burned "their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." when there was only evil all the time in noah's day, there was a flood. when the outcry of sodom and gomorrah became great, there was fire from heaven. and in response to the "abominable acts" which the nations that the israelites dispossessed engaged in, God sent in His people to conquer. to wipe them out. to end the grievousness and devastation. and this time, His people were seeing face to face and sword to sword the results of sin in these cultures. it must have been horrific. seeing the altars where children were sacrificed and being responsible to destroy them.

i can speculate concerning the israelites' grief for all of this. and i can relate. and...i can relate to their sharing with God...the grief that He had for the devastation of fallen/broken man. but there was also hope that in that culture, in that place, the pain would cease. idolatry that bred wickedness was being quenched as they conquered the land.

so...let's look at the hope in christy's song.

From the farthest corners of the earth

Still His mercy reaches
Even to the pain we cannot see
And even through the darkness
There's a promise that will keep us
There is One who came to set us free...

So let Your song rise
And fill up the earth
Let Your hope ring out
Let Your heart be heard

hope came to rescue fallen/broken man. Christ came...and sin and death and hell and the grave have been conquered. and there is a way out of the devastation and brokenness through Jesus.

so, as i run out of this season of grief...i know that He has cried with me. but/and...the song that He sings over me/over us...is not a ballad of sadness or heartache. but a song of hope. because Jesus is remedy to the broken. praise the Lord...praise God who hears the outcry and sings over us...hope.