A few weeks back, I wrote a song — something I haven’t done in quite some time — based on a similar theme coming to me from several angles.
I had been reading “Accidental Saints” by Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor I had seen popping up on my YouTube feed. I don’t agree with everything she has to say, or how she chooses to say it… but when she starts talking about the grace and love of God, she is so on point.
Additionally, I had been playing keys for worship at a few churches, and singing songs like “Who You Say I Am” or listening to songs like Lauren Daigle’s perfect “You Say” which capture the theme of our identity in Christ.
Contrast that with the reality that I know how messed up I am and how often I blow it, how often I miss the mark, how often all my striving or all my lazy giving up just isn’t enough. And yet God’s love is there, even in the midst of my abject failure.
I thought of a great picture I saw where an artist captured the constant sense of “I should be doing X” whenever I am doing Y. I should be blogging, so I blog… but then I think I should be getting my work stuff done, so I get on that… but then I think I should be going outside and getting fit, so I do… but then I realize I should be at home spending time with my family, so I do… but then I remember I meant to write more of my book, so I do… but as I’m writing, I realize I don’t get enough sleep, so I go to bed early, but then I wake up and realize I should have been blogging…
It’s easy to dwell on all the voices in life that whisper ‘should’ and tsk-tsk every time I don’t. It’s easy to constantly reach for the next thing and the seemingly better thing and miss all the good things going on around me. It’s easy to think my worth is found in what I do and what people think or how many likes or shares or retweets I get (and thus it’s easy to despair when I don’t see those).
In those times… heck, at all times, I need Someone to remind me of what’s true.
Remind me of Your mercy, remind me of Your grace
Given to the undeserving, who are welcome in this place.
Remind me of Your patience for the weary and the faint,
Remind me of Your favor toward us sinners You call saints.
Keep me in that place of awe and wonder
Where the power of Your grace still pulls me under
Awash in Your mercy, lost in the thought
That the very One who died for is the One my soul fought
Yet You heal and restore me, the sinner that You sought
And transformed in Your glory, the life that You bought
With the blood You poured out for me, my sins have been washed
And exchanged for Your righteousness there upon the cross…
Remind me of Your promise, and of Your faithfulness.
Remind me that nothing I do will make You love me less.
Remind me of Your calling, and what You called me for.
Remind me that nothing I do will make You love me more.
Remind me of Your favor toward us sinners You adore
Remind me who You are
Remind me who You say I am
Here’s another spoken word style poem I wrote over the last few days… thinking of the tape or the playlist that often goes on in the back of our minds, calling out our failures and playing off our doubts. This one has a decidedly Christian bent — while acknowledging the negative thoughts that sparked the idea for the poem, I didn’t want to wallow in them.