Give Me Words...

It's no secret that we have a little Aaron Shust obsession in our house.  In our defense we do have a little bit of a personal connection.  He's an old high school friend of mine.  If you haven't heard his music do yourself a favor and go ahead now and buy every album he has ever made.  Because they are awesome and God-glorifying and you won't regret it.

Anyway.  He released his first album in 2007 and one of the tracks is just a few short chords as an intro to another song.  It says,

Give me words to speak,
Don't let my spirit sleep
Cause I can't think of anything worth saying

He developed that chorus into a song for a later album but it's those words just keep rolling through my head today.

I can't think of anything worth saying.

It's the easy way out for me.  Not that the easy way is really easy.  Life hurts right now.  It's painful to be a part of.  It's even more painful to watch.  And the thing about it, is what is going on in our family is just a glimpse of the pain that this world is filled with.  And it's just overwhelming to me.  I want to crawl in a hole.  I want to pretend that the hurt isn't there.  The lost children.  The miscarriages.  The broken homes.  The cancer.  The loneliness.  The hunger.  The hurt.  The darkness that threatens to consume us if we don't speak.  If we let our spirits sleep.

So I won't take the easy way out.

I choose to praise Him today.  To believe that He IS who He says He is.  Because if He isn't, what in the world am I living for?

I choose life today.  I choose light.  I choose Jesus.  Because when I don't have anything worth saying HE does.  When I don't understand life, He says trust me.

I've always loved these verses in Isaiah 55..

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Right now life doesn't make sense.  But knowing that I can't know the mind of God is a comfort. Somehow over the years I missed verse 2 and it's speaking for me.

Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.

God is saying to us here...you can try what you want....your way...the way of the world...whatever makes you feel better or happy.  But it won't satisfy.  Don't waste your time trying to make sense of life without me in it.  It's won't make sense.  It's won't satisfy.  It's a waste.

So today I will listen to him.  I will eat what is good.  I will delight in him.  Even when it's hard.  Even when I don't have the words.

Give me words to speak Lord.