i am obsessed with this song by john lucas
My heart has known the winters
And my feet have known the snow
But mine eyes have seen the glory
Of a seed begin to grow
There is a time to uproot, darling
But most days just hold on tight
For there’s a time for darkness, honey
But dawn will always beat the night
Sometimes death will come calling
When you’ve been good and warned
And other times its cold hands will cradle
Dreams yet to be born
There is a time to dance on sorrow
And a time to kiss her cheek
There is a time to mourn in silence
But justice aches to hear you speak
And I don’t know the end, or tomorrow’s story
But I have found the one who gives me rest
And I will make my bed in His promises
For He holds true when nothing’s left...When nothing’s left
There is a time when laughter will echo
Through your halls of peace
But war is known to change your locks
And carry off the family keys
There is a time for healing and pain
A time for drought and a time for rain
There is a time for everything
Until we crown the risen King…Until we crown the risen King
And I don’t know the end, or tomorrow’s story
But I have found the one who gives me rest
And I will make my bed in His promises
For He holds true when nothing’s left...When nothing’s left
So crown Him in your mourning
And crown Him in your laughter
And crown Him when it all turns dark
Crown Him when you bury
And crown Him when you marry
And crown Him when your faith finds a spark
Crown Him for He’s faithful
And crown Him for He’s worthy
And crown Him for He is good
Crown Him for His promises
Cut through the blindness
Of children that have barely understood
The beauty that has come
And the beauty yet to come
And the beauty that is yours and that is mine
And that death produces life
And that we are made alive
By the King who paints beauty with time
By the King who paints beauty with time
By the King who paints beauty with time
And I don’t know the end, or tomorrow’s story
But I have found the one who gives me rest
And I will make my bed in His promises
For He holds true when nothing’s left...When nothing’s left
from Promised Land, released May 15, 2015
and so i put my name on some list to be notified if john lucas does anything and wants to tell me about it (i think i just signed up to get notifications of tours and blog updates, but i like to think me an john lucas are pals now.) and he wrote a blog post that i really loved about how to be a successful artist.
I THINK THAT THE PERSON MAKING ART THAT THEY BELIEVE IN - WHILE NOT MAKING A DIME FOR IT - IS FAR MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN THE RICH “ARTIST” SELLING HIS SOUL TO MAKE MEANINGLESS PRODUCTS THAT HE THINKS PEOPLE WANT TO BUY.
from “the pursuit of bravery” blog by john lucas
john also told me in his blog post…
“And I also hope you keep adding to the world in the ways that make you most come alive.”
so i thought i would add this here. just so my blog isn’t so lonely. and just so i could read it from time to time and remember to add to the world in ways that make me come alive.
maybe the song hit me in all the feelings spots these last few weeks because this i have had a lot of thoughts was how UGLY this world is to me right now.
but we have this hope in ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
i taught on ezekiel’s dry bones Bible story a few weeks ago in sunday school. the last part of ezekiel’s dry bones story has this phrase repeated “THEN YOU WILL KNOW I AM THE LORD.”
ummm, they know He is the Lord, right? they knew His law. they knew HIs perfections. but this shows how the exile is going to show them fully who He is, and who they are, and they are going to know Him in a way they never knew Him before. after the exile, they will know His forgiveness, His grace, His mercy, His love more fully because of the exile.
and so will we. in time. after the exile. after the sorrow. after the sadness. AFTER.
i have wondered why after Jesus’ resurrection, does he still have the nail scars to show thomas? why does Jesus/ resurrected body have scars?
maybe because of 2 Corinthians 4:17
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…
God is so triumphant over evil that EVERY affliction, EVERY trial, EVERY hardship is turned into something glorious in eternity. every scar makes your eventual joy greater EVERY EARTHLY BURDAN BECOMES AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY.
He is the God who paints beauty with time.
His artistic material is called time. ETERNITY.
we will see face to face IN ETERNITY.
we will arrive HOME in time.
HOMECOMING is the true holiday.
we remain exiles until we are in our TRUE HOME.
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle