Starting Fresh with a New Song
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, and I think it’s for a few reasons. Maybe it’s because my full-time job is to write for another company, and I’m too tired to put any effort into this. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t felt like my life has been noteworthy, or maybe it’s more complicated than this.
I have grown up in a social media age where my life has been on display since my first Facebook account in 6th grade. I’ve fed the algorithm for years, and I even centered my higher education on learning how to communicate well in a digital age. While I love promoting other businesses and other individuals, it has gotten harder to share my life with others in the last year or so online. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but I do want to use this platform well and ultimately for the glory of God.
I feel this tension to withhold writing about my dull, monotonous rhythms of life and wait to write about the big, exciting things that happen ever so often! I’ve had a profound realization in the last few months that my actual life is within those “dull” rhythms that may not be as noteworthy, but they’re important nonetheless. I hope to write about them and celebrate them more often. I hope you’ll keep me accountable, dear reader.
That’s what drew me to Erin Napier’s blog, Make Something Good Today, so many years ago, before she was ever a host on Home Town. She wrote about the best parts of her daily life, no matter how minuscule, for eight years.
Every. Single. Day.
She no longer writes on Make Something Good Today, and it’s become the Laurel Mercantile Journal (which is where you can find my work.) It’s kind of a surreal full-circle moment for me, and I’m so blessed to have this job.
From reading Erin’s words when I was a teenager to the blogs written by my favorite pastors, I know that words can be a great blessing to us. I hope that this little corner of the web will make you feel inspired to share the seemingly insignificant and monumental moments.
All that to say, today made me happy, and I want to tell you about it.
Charlie and I wake up early on Sunday mornings, take our morning stroll and he eats breakfast. (I’m not much of a breakfast person.) We have a good routine in the mornings, and he keeps me accountable to wake up on time most of the time. I think God made dogs for people who don’t like mornings, because you have to will yourself to like them eventually.
I went to the 9 am service, and our worship team sang a new song that made me so happy. Coincidentally, it’s called You Have Made Me Glad by Charity Gayle. My roommate, Kayla, sang lead on this gospel-filled song, and I about leaped for joy when our southern baptist congregation started clapping along. My momma was choir director for years, and most of my Sunday mornings were spent clapping along to songs like this.
It was all a precursor to the message that would follow. Our pastor is such an earnest teacher and faithful shepherd of his congregation. I learn so much each week, and this week was no different. You can listen to his whole sermon here!
He taught from Psalm 32: Blessed Are the Forgiven.
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
David wrote this psalm from personal experience and instructed us on what we should do when we haven’t confessed and when we run from God. He had hidden his transgressions/sins from God for a long time, and he ran from God instead of admitting to Him, which caused him pain. To his surprise, he couldn’t hide from God.
In God’s loving kindness, he laid his heavy hand on David and intensified David’s conviction. This heaviness led him to cry out to God and confess his sin. Instead of being met with more pain and wrath from an angry God, David experienced great mercy. God forgave his sin and gave him peace and a glad heart! He found that God became his hiding place.
He discovered that he could come to God with a humble, contrite spirit and an eagerness to repent, and God was faithful to forgive.
So easily, we run from God because we believe that we’ll be met with judgment, but dear Christian, our God is merciful. He wants to counsel you and lead you on the right path of righteousness. He’s a good father, and we can trust Him. We do not have to cringe at our guilt or hide. We can experience freedom, joy, and rejoice fully in Christ.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Psalm 86:5
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
1 Chronicles 16:34
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
*Queues up You Have Made Me Glad.