afflictions eclipsed by glory

when i fall in love with a new song it is common for me to marinade myself in it for a week, listening to it again and again, absorbing every part of it. i soak up the instruments, and how they crescendo and decrescendo. i rise and fall with them. i drink in the tone in the artists voice; the tenderness, power, longing, struggle, desire, passion, and message behind each word they sing. as i think over the lyrics i wonder at the writers own story, what beautiful mercy or grace lead them to write such powerful lyrics? and what did that moment of inspiration look like? that moment when the lyrics hit the writer's heart, the moment the pen hit the paper, and the pick strummed the strings on the guitar.
When i fall in love with a song, i become a part of the song. i am grateful that music so beautifully formulates the words and emotions i can not. i am grateful for the many songs that have spoken, healed, rescued, and spoken Truth to me.

last week i was marinading on the song He Love Us.

somewhere around 2:00 a.m. monday a.m. i left the emergency room, and drove the 45 min. home for a little rest. i got in my car and allowed myself to release the emotions i was bravely trying to hold back, but after just a few moments of release the lyrics of He loves Us sweetly covered my thoughts, not allowing me to become overwhelmed with all that had transpired that evening, but drawing me towards resting in the Truth of God's love for me, for michael, and for our family.

As God sang this song over me on the way home I was reminded that earlier that week i had asked Him, "what do the lyrics 'i am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory' mean?'"
and it occurred to me that through the events of the evening God was revealing to me the answer. here we were again in the middle of afflictions, but i was not consumed by the weight of them. i knew (and KNOW) that God is going to use this for His glory. He always does.
And i know that God is going to use this to draw us deeper into relationship with Him, deeper into His love. He is going to lavish His love on us. He always does.
these "afflictions are eclipsed by glory."

Hmmmmm.

And yes, we have been through many "afflictions" in our 13 yrs of marriage; a premature baby, followed by hemorrhaging and hospitalization, the loss of a son, debt, depression, hysterectomy, and other medical issues (to name just a few). BUT as i look back God has ALWAYS been glorified through each affliction, He has ALWAYS drawn us deeper into relationship with Him, deeper into the fullness of His love. And I am grateful for the ways He Loves Us.

Oswald Chambers says, "when we are in fear we can do nothing less than pray to God, but Our Lord has right to expect that those who name His Name should have an understanding confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the reliable ones....There are stages in life when there are no storms, no crisis, when we do our human best; it is when crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we will go to the breaking point and not break in our confidence in Him."

May we all live in His love, and may our confidence be in Him.