It's Lent

This week we will focus on a more contemporary piece of music.  The video above has both the song and words together.  I invite you to breathe in slowly and exhale.  Center your hearts.  Listen to this piece of music as if God is singing these words to you.



For me, the heart of Lent is being honest about who we are.  I find Lauren Daigle's words profoundly powerful.  She sings:
I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know 
You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don't belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
I believe

First, how many of us relate to the voices that clamor within us that say we don't measure up?  We look in the mirror and we see the flaws/failures/mistakes/missteps of the one staring back at us?  What often are our New Years Resolutions than the chance we see to correct those parts of ourselves?  How often to our Lenten practices echo that?  We want to lose weigh, so we give up chocolate for Lent.  Please hear me, giving up chocolate if it has become an addiction or an obstacle for your relationship with God is healthy.  But sometimes we self-deny because it makes us seem holy or to make ourselves feel worthy.

Daigle is identifying what psychologists have long called, "The Shadow side".  The Shadow isn't necessarily bad, it is just that part of ourselves that wants to keep us in the well-worn rut of sameness.  This is why change is so hard.  We try with our whole hearts.  But, then something happens, we fall back into our previous pattern we were trying to break free from, and we think, 'I knew it...I'll never be able to do it.' 

Which is why I find the next part so powerful when she asks the question, 'Am I more then just the sum of every high and every low'?  It is such a faithful question.  It is a rhetorical one.  Of course you are more than just the sum of what happens to you, more than the sum of your emotions, more than the sum of your knowledge, your degrees, and more than the sum of all that put together!

You are.
You are beloved.
You are a beloved child of God.

May that truth and our first deep dive into the poetry of this hymn offer you more than a trace of God's grace this day.

Blessings ~~