It always amazes me how close the world sometimes comes to truth. Oh, the voices we hear calling us to realize we were meant to live for so much more, that there must be more to this life. Something, I believe, that was implanted in us before we were even born makes us strive toward meaning. Every now and then I can see a glimmer of hope in a life that has almost tasted of true purpose - hope that fades with the realization that nothing in this world can satisfy. To the grand majority of the world, this is hopelessness. To the few of us who know salvation, this is the very foundation of hope.
I've always wondered about purpose. Who am I? Why am I here, and where do I fit? God has given me this life - what would He have of me? Yet although I'm not sure what God has for me - although I don't know what my future looks like - I am sure of one thing. I am on the other side of something, of a fear that I once knew. I now have purpose. I have a new hope.We were all meant to live for something, for an express purpose. That's why so many are destined to live out life endlessly searching - wasting away precious years, searching for fulfillment, something to fill the endless void, the bottomless pit that is our need for a Savior. We were all created to worship... something. And so we will worship anything in search of the one and only thing that truly satisfies. That's why the life in Christ is such a beautiful thing - the human soul in Him finally has the power and the freedom to really live. Because of Him I now have reason to go on living, reason to sing. And so I will - I am compelled.
I'll always remember the fall of my seventh grade year - a painful season to some, but a definite growing season for me. (Although growing is, more often than not, plenty painful!) I was beyond nervous - I had just recently moved back from Mexico, and was far more comfortable in Hispanic culture. I had just begun to attend a Christian school in Gilbert, and was hard at work accustoming myself to being, once again, in the United States - troubled, as before, with a new culture and a new way of life. The real temptations of the world were suddenly becoming clear to me, and my head was spinning. I'll never forget the day that I stepped into choir class, unsure of myself, wary of those around me, and I heard the incredible words of this old Quaker hymn:
My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, though far off song, that hails a new creation
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Rock I'm clinging -
It sounds an echo in my soul...
How can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roar
I know the truth - it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Rock I'm clinging -
Since God is Lord of heav'n and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
How can I keep from singing?
Only a heart that has met its true purpose could sing such words, and I prayed that day, that I might sing them with the same conviction with which its author penned them. Through Him I no longer have to try so hard, to be so proud, to stand so tall. I don't have to search for meaning - I don't have to question. Who am I, you ask? I'm a daughter of the King. I'm a servant of the most high God, and in Him I find my purpose. I am now compelled to live for Him. Never in myself, in my sinful nature could I make this decision - for it is no longer me, but Christ who lives in me. This truth is a mystery to a carnal heart - a saved heart's only glory.
COMPELLED
Sara Groves
I have a new hope...
What a relief it is to know
I'm a slave to Christ
Of all the masters I have known
I'm compelled to live this life
Free for You
I'm on the other side of something -
I'm on the other side of something...
And I have a new hope that blows away
The small hopes I knew before
And at the end of the day I amYours
And I am compelled
You've written on my very soul
Where no man can legislate
The law of Your love has taken hold
With Your holiness and grace
There's no mistake
I'm on the other side of something
I'm on the other side, the other side...
Drawn and driven, I am compelled
You have written it, I am compelled
You live in me
I can't help myself
I have a new hope...
... How can I keep from singing?
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3 comments:
I absolutely love your "trail" of thought here. As sinners saved by grace, we are so quick to forget how meaningful it is to know that we DO have a purpose and a meaning for being here. We have found satisfaction, the ultimate fulfillment, in Christ.
I loved this line in the quaker hymn:
What though the tempest round me roar
I know the truth - it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Rock I'm clinging -Since God is Lord of heav'n and earth,
How can I keep from singing?
You should have seen the smile on my face when i read this... ;) >>>
"Who am I, you ask? I'm a daughter of the King. I'm a servant of the most high God, and in Him I find my purpose."
How can we do anything but sing? Let's be so full of praise, so consumed by Him, so full of joy that praise pours out in sounds of beauty call song. Let us know we are children of the KING and rejoice like it is a new truth in our soul. Yes Hannah, let us Sing to the King.
Having just done a personal study on finding my identity in Christ and not the things of the world, this just fits in so perfectly . . . I also can't help but think of the Switchfoot song, "Meant to Live." I agree that these truths are only something believers can comprehend. Remember Marcus at the Iowa State Fair? He didn't have a clue about living for something more except the next concert, party, event. I praise God for the joy he has given to me as a believer who lives to make Him known.
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