Life-Song Part 1: BLESSED BE THE NAME

Have you ever been listening to the radio while driving in the car and just feel the overwhelming need to pull over to the curb and weep?

I have.

Many times.

I’m a big lover and believer in the power of words and story to HEAL and RESTORE and ENCOURAGE and even CONVICT.

But I’m also a big believer in the power of music, of song. Now, I’m not the greatest singer in the world. But the Bible is full of songs (the book of Psalms, anyone?) and examples of the great importance of singing and music. Goodness, HEAVEN is gonna be FULL of it!!!

One day in Spring 2003 was one of the first times I remember God using a song to totally and completely speak to me. Christian Radio started playing “Blessed Be Your Name” by Matt Redman. In February, my heart had been torn out of my chest when I found out that the sweet little tiny baby that had been growing in my belly for 8 very short weeks was gone to be with Jesus. Miscarriage? What? That happens to other people.

While wrestling with my grief at the young age of 21, I was driving to work one day and that song came on.

It was toward the end of the song that I started to weep.

Lord, you give and you take away. 
But my heart will choose to say, 
Lord BLESSED be your name.

I had no clue why God chose to take my sweet Abigail home. (Yes, we had no clue her gender, but we prayed about it and chose a name.) But I know deep in my heart that God was asking me to CHOOSE to bless his name even through our pain. That He was the giver of life, and at times, he chooses to take away, even though we on earth are left that resounding question of, “Why.”

He is God. Choosing to bless God’s name is not for his benefit. But it’s for OURS. God can bring healing… but only when we choose to bless HIM instead of hold onto bitterness.

It was a mighty lesson for me. One I’d come to need more than I ever realized in years to come.

Fast forward 7 years—

(To be continued next Thursday….)