Here is my song...


Let me be perfectly honest with you: I spent an hour writing and editing this first post and quite frankly I've had it. I deleted everything I initially wrote. That's exactly why I resisted friends encouragements that I start a blog. I'm a first-born, performance driven, Wheaton graduate, and perfectionist, and a blog is the perfect place for all that stuff to come out and wield wild control.  Well, I'm in the process of leaving that old life and identity behind so maybe this will help me move forward. But I'm still kind of confused about what a blog is. Is it an online journal? Who's your audience? Isn't it weird that anyone can read your stuff? Is it copyrighted? Questions in need of closure... well maybe this is part of the healing process too. I'll let you know right now that this blog isn't going to be perfect but I can assure you that it will be real.

The bottom line is that I have met and encountered the love of Jesus and decided that I have no choice but to follow Him with everything inside of me. I'm not talking about going to church every Sunday, being a nice and civil person and knowing a lot about God. No, I've been there and I can tell you right now that it will drain and burn you out. What I'm talking about is a personal, daily, constant relationship with Jesus that seeps into everything you do, from the way you fold your laundry, to the way you check emails, to the way you talk to the flight attendant who helps you check your baggage. This isn't a relationship contained by four walls for Sundays only; it's a crazy, wild fire love that will consume everything from your bitterness, to your past, to your obsession with being in control. Thus far I've found it to be a mountain climb of adventure, joy, and healing but also a low road of humility, pain, and lots of messiness. Yet, at the end of all things, I've found it to be the path of Life. When you really encounter Jesus, you are forever ruined for anything less. So beloved, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever it is that you read this, I want to invite you on this journey with me.

I'll leave you with the lyrics that inspired the title "Freedom Song":

"Hope" by Kristene DiMarco

There is a song I will sing
That angels only dream of singin'
A song that moves the heart of God
That only the redeemed can sing

It's the song of the storm ceasin'
The song of the dawn breakin'
It's the song of the undefeated soul
Comin' forth from the fire

There is a song I will sing
That angels only dream of singing
A song that moves the heart of God
That only the redeemed can sing

It's the song of my rescue comin'
The song of my last tear fallin'
It's the song of the undefeated lover
Comin' forth from the fire

All of our lives have a song to sing, and I hope mine can be that of a captive-set-free whose life is a testimony of abandoned worship, the song of an undefeated lover coming forth from the fire.