Author Archives: sunsettide

“Wake Up”

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sunset tide - _Wake Up_ S.O.S. post image

“Wake up” is a song that speaks to the transition of seasons in one’s life from that of brokenness to one of healing. The band, All Sons & Daughters, wrote the song about that season, where people find themselves asking, “This is where my brokenness and how my brokenness play into my story. Now how does my story play into the greater story of the church?”*

It is so easy to want to forget those seasons of brokenness and shame. And yet we are called to remember that period of life and how it blessed us. To say, “I remember that season of my life. Without that season I wouldn’t be in this season.”* And then to ask, “Now what?”

We don’t want to forget about the painful seasons of life. The Bible says that we need to place these ebenezers or monuments in remembrance of where we have been–to remind us that we wouldn’t be in the place that we are without that places where we’ve been.

What are your ebenezers?

To listen to “Wake Up” click here.

Wake Up
By: All Sons and Daughters

We have seen the pain
that shaped our hearts
And in our shame
We’re still breathing, ’cause

We have seen the hope
of your healing
Rising from our souls
is the feeling
We are drawing close
Your light is shining through
Your light is shining through

Wake up, wake up, wake up
Wake up all you sleepers
Stand up, stand up
Stand up all you dreamers
Hands up, hands up
Hands up all believers
Take up your cross, carry it on

All that you reveal
with light in us
will come to life
and start breathing, ’cause

Here we stand our hearts are yours, Lord
Not our will but yours be done, Lord

Don Chaffer, Leslie Jordan, David Leonard © 2011 Integrity’s Praise! Music/BMI and Integrity’s Alleluia! Music/SESAC (both adm at EMICMGPublishing.com), Simple Tense Songs/ASCAP and Gentleman Adventurer’s Songs/ASCAP CCLI # 6092272

*Taken from an interview with band, All Sons and Daughters, titled “Wake Up (Song Story)” which can be found on iTunes.

You Are Not an Orphan

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“God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons”
Galatians 4:4-5

In the article “No Longer an Orphan (But Tempted to Live Like It),”  Christine Hoover lists the following as behavioral tendencies of an orphan:

  • Orphans have to take care of themselves.
  • Orphans must be strong.
  • Orphans must protect themselves from being taken advantage of.
  • Orphans cannot depend on anyone.
  • Orphans cannot be weak.
  • Orphans crave to be taken in and loved but doubt they ever will.
  • Orphans want to be accepted, to belong.
  • Orphans only trust themselves.
  • Orphans cannot get too close.
  • Orphans are on the outside looking in.

Does this sound familiar? With Christ, we are not orphans.  And yet as Christians, we often still live as orphans. We live with guilt and fear when we can’t live up to our own legalistic standards. Instead of running to Him with our failures and needs we pull away from him and hide. We try to live a Christian life without opening up and trusting God and then wonder why we feel so alone with our failures.

Being open to Christ’s love doesn’t mean we won’t fail. But if we believe the love, the protection of our patient Father, our need for self-reliance and self-justification disappears. He opens his arms to us, his children, so that we may erase and leave behind our orphan ways. He frees us.

Hooper ends with the beautiful gospel truth that,

“[...] we don’t have to be perfect because Another is perfect for us. When perfect is taken care of – when we’re declared righteousness by the blood of Christ – we are finally free to love, to accept our weaknesses because God is strong in them, and to believe that God is for us.”

Sisters, we are no longer orphans.

Hands and Feet

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Three of the many things that God has given me a love for in life are music, mission, and adoption.  So when I learned that the members of one of my favorite rock bands from back in the day had founded a Christ-centered orphanage in Haiti, it was Christmas come early.  Here it is:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
- James 1:27

In 2004, the members of the music group Audio Adrenaline founded the Hands and Feet Project.  The project, inspired by fan reaction to their song “Hands and Feet,” is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing long-term, family style care for orphaned and abandoned children.  Their mission is “to care for the orphaned and abandoned children of the world with the love of Christ.”  They started with one children’s village in Cyvadier and now have multiple locations across the southern peninsula.

When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, both project sites, Jacmel and Grand-Goâve, were severely damaged, many parts beyond repair.  Yet none of the children or staff was injured.

While Audio Adrenaline officially disbanded as a group in 2006, the Hands and Feet Project continues to grow and hopes to be caring for one thousand orphans by 2016.

“Our vision is two fold.  First, we will strive to raise a generation of orphaned children who will grow up to reach their God-given potential.  Second, we will empower first world citizens to partner with us in service at home and abroad.”
- Hands and Feet Project Vision

For more information on the Hands and Feet Project, please visit here.

I want to be your hands
I want to be your feet
I’ll go where you send me
I’II go where you send me
And l try, yeah I try
To touch the world like
You touched my life
And I find my way
To be your hands
- “Hands and Feet,” Audio Adrenaline

Blessings

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This song from Laura Story was released towards the tail end of a rough three-year period in my life.  The lyrics hit home.  In those three years, God bestowed so many blessings through hardships.  It was humbling beyond anything I had ever experienced and a reinforcement of what continues to be a mind-blowing truth for me:  God can take our worst pain and suffering and turn it into something beautiful.  You can listen to the song here.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if the thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if the thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if the thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

When the Waters Rise

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…though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
- Lamentations 3:23-33

In late March, the western part of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu was afflicted by massive flooding.  Roads, bridges, and homes were destroyed, displacing thousands.  With little or no access to radio and television during the storms, many turned to the internet. Prayers filled the message boards.  They ranged from simply “God help us!” to prayers asking God to let the waters to recede and ease pain and suffering.  There were even reminders of the promise that, no matter how bad the flood was, it would never reach that of the days of Noah.

The most humbling to me was the prayers of praise.  People were giving prayers of thanks for God’s love, saying that even though they did not understand why this was happening to them, they knew that it was part of God’s master plan for the people of Fiji and that his plan was one for good, and not harm.

When your waters rise, whatever they may be, will you trust God and his plans for you?  Will you run to him with praise in the face of suffering?

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
- Jeremiah 29:11

The Language of Song

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There is something about hearing a song you are very familiar with, sung in a language in which you are not.

The first time I heard “Amazing Grace” sung in Cherokee/Tsalagi, it brought me back to my childhood. My maternal grandfather knew every song in the Baptist hymnal, and would proudly and loudly sing them at will, whether those around wanted to hear them or not (he believed being in tune was optional).

Grandpa was also Eastern Cherokee. He was, through no fault of his own, not raised in the culture, but he never shied away from that nor any other part of his heritage.

He taught me to never be ashamed of where I come from and to love music as if both could be stripped away at any given moment… and that God hears songs as they come out of our hearts rather than from our lips.

Over the years this version of “Amazing Grace” has gone from being unfamiliar to comforting. It’s the first song that comes to mind on the rare, precious occasions when I get to sing a little one to sleep. If God chooses to bless me with my own children someday, I hope that they grow up knowing this as a familiar way to sing “Amazing Grace”… and that they know God loves and hears their song in every language.

The Cherokee-English translation of the lyrics is different from the traditional “Amazing Grace”:

God’s son
paid for us.
Now to Heaven He went
after paying for us.
Then He spoke
when He rose.
I’ll come a second time
He said when He spoke.
All the world will end
when He returns
We will all see Him
here the world over.
The righteous who live
He will come after
In heaven now always
in peace they will live.

**My pronunciation is not consistent with all Cherokee dialects, nor may it even be completely accurate. This is in no way meant to be disrespectful. This is simply how I learned to sing the song. Click here to listen to my recording of “Amazing Grace” in Tsalagi.