I remembered one more influential song from 2011! I wanted to include it to my song list. It’s Chris Tomlin’s I Will Follow:
Category: Songs
A Year in Song: 2011
The Lord often speaks to me through music. These are a few songs that I want to remember from 2011 that really ministered to me at specific times. Out of context, maybe they seem strange, but they all came at very specific times and helped direct and strengthen me.
Josh Wilson “I Refuse”: Though he wrote this after a natural disaster and his desire to do something, for me, it was a reminder to not refuse what God would ask me to do, to be obedient. It always played at key moments, right on time, right when I needed the encouragement and reminder.
Matthew West “Strong Enough”: These next two songs from Matthew West and Mandisa about strength helped remind me of the Lord’s strength and that the things that seemed hard would in fact bring growth and make me stronger.
Mandisa “Stronger”
David Crowder Band “SMS”: I was listening to this “Show me a sign” and praying for that, for wisdom. I’d wished I had someone to give me counsel. The phone rang during the song as I prayed. My lifelong friend from Arkansas was on the phone, and she and her husband, a pastor, gave me the exact counsel I needed! Praise the Lord!
And one last one about new beginnings, “Listen to the Sound” by Building 429: this also came at an exact moment when I was waiting, thinking, and then listening and heard this.
I’ve never thought to write about my year through music like I do themes, but I think I’ll start doing this. These songs remind me of God’s faithfulness to me, for some of the ways He shepherded me along, and for His continuing love and direction in my life. He provided abundantly well, and I praise Him!
Slow Down
One of the messages of this past year for me has been to “slow down.” I can’t remember how it exactly started, but I believe it was a song:
Teach me to number my days
and count every moment before it slips away
take in all the colors before they fade to gray
I don’t want to miss even just a second more of this
It happens in a blink, it happens in a flash,
It happens in the time it took to look back,
I try to hold on tight, but there’s no stopping time,
What is it I’ve done with my life?
It happens in a blink.
Slow down, slow down, before today becomes our yesterday.
Slow down, slow down, before you turn around and it’s too late.
I remember the words “slow down” speaking so clearly to me. If I’d leave work and have something on my mind, I’d hear the song and realize I needed to let it go and focus on what was in front of me at home.
I was dropping my son off at his piano lessons one afternoon, and as I was walking across the street, I looked up at the store window that sells tea and such, and there in the window were the large words, “SLOW DOWN.” They weren’t there the next week; they were there though the day I needed to see them.
During our pastor’s sermon a week or two ago, I caught it when he clearly mentioned “Slow Down.” I remembered again the message this year that I had kept wanting to overlook. Because sometimes, slowing down means letting go of things we feel better at or things we enjoy doing in order to do the things that don’t come as easy (training children!). But it’s what my children need, and it’s what I need.
I don’t know that I’ve done a great job of assessing what it looks like for me to slow down, but as the year has gone on, it seems to be happening. This week has been our spring break, and I’ve enjoyed the days with my children, doing things we haven’t done together in quite some time, focusing on them, not just being physically present with them, but being there in the moment with them.
One thing I haven’t been able to get off my mind this week: a family we knew from our time in Virginia who were in our Sunday school class lost their son, a freshman at University of VA, in a tragic fall at the university Sunday night. They are now missionaries in Ireland, but the dad was in Charlottesville that weekend. He went to church with his son, they spent the afternoon together, went to dinner and a show with grandparents, and ended the evening around 10 when they dropped off the son at the dorms. His last words to his dad were, “I love you, dad.” Apparently, he went out then with some friends, and less than an hour and a half later, he was dead from a tragic fall. This same family lost another grandson in a drowning accident 2-3 years ago. I have been praying for them all week and trusting this is not in vain, that God knew the days ordained for this young man, and that He has good and perfect purposes. I am praying for their comfort, for his two brothers, for his precious parents and grandparents, that they are able to see even now some of the reasons and ways God is glorified in something that from man’s perspective is so harsh and tragic.
As my son played trick after trick on me today for April Fool’s Day (seems 12-year old boys especially enjoy things like short sheeting the bed, putting salt on toothbrushes, pretending to splash you with water, and such), I was reminded to just enjoy him and enjoy his joy in the fun.
I am excited about the days ahead and learning more what it means to “slow down” and finding the outcomes of what this means for our family.
**UPDATE**
I just finished this blog post and had to take my husband’s car to get a headlight replaced. As I walked to the porch to get my shoes, I found them with shaving cream in them! The jokes continue, and I try to remain glad!
On the way back home, we drove past this sign in a yard and it seemed timely:
Powerful God
Note: I am reposting below a blog entry I did a while back because it’s been on my mind with yesterday being April 19th. I always remember this date because of what happened in 1995, but also because in 2002, on April 19th, my mom and step-dad were in a terrible highway accident. A lady pulled through the median into them in traffic. They were pinned in the car until they could be cut out, and my step-dad was airlifted to a Memphis hospital with a fractured neck and spent 8 weeks with a metal halo drilled in his head! So each year, I have many reasons to praise God for His protection and care for us in these things!
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April 19, 1995. I remember the date clearly because it was the same day as the Oklahoma City bombing. I was working as a legal assistant in Dallas for a small law firm. I was driving over to Tyler, Texas to pick up the record on appeal for a case on which we were working.
There was supposed to be bad weather, so the one attorney suggested I not go. The others didn’t think it would be bad, so I went ahead. As I entered the highway, my car slid out of control because of the wet ground. Thankfully, I didn’t hit anything, but it made me a little nervous about the travel ahead. The radio was, of course, on, and a song by Twila Paris was playing, “God is in Control.” “God is in control, we believe that His people will not be forsaken, God is in control, we will choose to remember and never be shaken, there is no power above or beside Him, we know, God is in control.”
The song gave me comfort and I chose to believe that He was in control of my travel that day. I went on, and as I did, it turned into the most beautiful and sunny day! Well, this wasn’t bad at all, I thought. But as I drove, after I would pass a town, a short time later, the radio announcer would say, “The tornado is now in X.” And X was whatever town I had just passed. But I wasn’t worried because it was so sunny and pretty now. Surely those towns were pretty big, and so the likelihood I would encounter anything on the way back seemed remote to me, I reasoned.
I ran into the Court of Appeals and got the record. As I started to head back to Dallas, I thought again about the storm, but went ahead. As I drove, it didn’t really occur to me that there were no other cars on the road; the highway was empty. But they obviously had heeded the warnings. I have never before encountered what I did that day. It literally went from blue and sunny to black, heavy rain, hail, and a total inability to see — literally, it seemed in one second flat. There was no transition from light to heavy rain — it just went light to dark in an instant, and I had zero visibility for the darkness, the torrential rain, and the softball size hail hitting the car!
I didn’t know what to do. The last thing I had seen was that there was an exit ramp just shortly ahead, but I couldn’t even see to drive. I inched along. Suddenly all the glass started breaking on the car, the back window blew in, I was covered in glass, rain and hail, and the car was flooding. I did the only thing I knew to do. I was screaming to God to help me. All I know is that my panic turned to peace as soon as I heard a song coming in from the radio. Yes, once again, Twila Paris, “God is in Control.” “God is in control, we believe that His people will not be forsaken. God is in control. We will choose to remember and never be shaken. There is no power above or beside Him, we know. God is in control.”
I clung to those words. There is no power above Him. He was right there with me. I remember the rain moving on enough that I could see to exit, and oddly, I still remember driving my car in a complete circle, so shaken, so unsure where to turn, which direction, that I literally held the wheel and kept going around in a circle. I saw a driveway and entered. It was a local country club. I went inside, and they were shocked that I had been caught out in that storm. They all testified, “We’ve never seen anything like it. We can’t believe you were caught in it!”
I was drenched and upset. They then said, “You need to get under the pool table with the others because it’s not over. The tornado hasn’t passed yet.” I decided not to do so as I couldn’t expect anymore could possibly happen. The men, who earlier had been out golfing, stood by the back windows and watched the tornado pass.
A nice lady followed me back to Dallas in my demolished car. It took several years for me not to shake all over when a storm would come up. I remember getting back to Dallas and hearing about the Oklahoma City bombing that day. I trust God was near to those and revealing Himself to them in their time of need, accomplishing His purposes in the midst of great tragedy.
Praise You, Lord, that You are the Sovereign Lord who controls all things and is all powerful. Thank You for Your protection in the midst of life’s storms and for making Your presence known when fear was threatening me. You are so worthy of all our trust!
Let Everything That Has Breath Praise the Lord
I love this song:
“If we could see how much You’re worth; Your power, Your might, Your endless love, Then surely we would never cease to praise You!”
Psalm 150:6: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.”
To Him Alone belongs the highest praise!
Praise Proclaimer 