What it means to be held
March 26, 2010 | 
Author This song was born out of dealing with the messiness of life and the results of a sin-wrecked world. He will never leave us – those who know Him through His Son – but, what comfort is there for those who do not?
May we weep for humanity and call with loud voices to the strong and able hand of the Good Shepherd.
Posted in Lyrical Theology | 
Tags: Christianity, Comfort, Dependency, Faith, God, Grace, Jesus, Joy, Rest, salvation
Thanks for the post. I’ve read over the lyrics several times and I assume that the point of the song is that the hand of God sustains us when lose the people on earth who are most precious to us. This brings me to a question – When a believer says that God helped him through a trial or “I don’t know how I would have made it without God,” what does that mean? In other words, what is the difference between a saved person saying “Without God and His grace, I wouldn’t have made it through this trail,” and an unsaved person saying, “Without my friends and family, I wouldn’t have made it through this trial.”? What does it mean to “make it”? How does God’s grace in trials uniquely benefit the believer in suffering as opposed to the unbeliever? Nothing urgent here, but this has been on my mind for several months now.
This has to do with acknowledgement more than anything. So often, we use very shady verbs in relation to our Christianity. We say: I finally made Him Lord of my life. We say: I allowed God to work through me. These are verbs that make it seem like we have some sort of power over the Sovereign of all reality. This problem cannot be overstated. It is also the root of what you ask . . .
Common grace (Matt. 5:45) reminds us that all Good in our world is wrought at the hand of the Father of Lights (James 1:17). Whether or not this is acknowledged, this is truth. Now the non-Christian might say that the grace they experienced was due to the unity of the family or even the universe, but that does not define reality, it is just a false approach to it. The difference for us is that we have already placed ourselves under the truth of God’s Word and KNOW what is really going on – and we acknowledge that truth. This is the transforming of the mind that Paul talks about in Romans 12. We do not conform to ANY other way – which is the way of the world, we conform to the truth of God.
Now, you might say, well, what’s the difference if both experience reprieve or even comfort from their encouragement – isn’t that enough and does it really matter whether or not they acknowledge truth? If the end were the comforting, the encouragement or even the feeling of inspiration , then that might be a worthwhile question. We know that guys like Lance Armstrong can whip cancer and win 1,000 races and his flesh is still like grass – soon rises the sun. Our myopic little victories remain only that unless they are tethered to the Great Purpose of IT All, and all the smaller “its” that make IT up. Unless one knows the end that everything is culminating to, the means are only an endless odometer – just changing numbers.
The getting through the tragedy is a tragedy unless there was a greater purpose. Without purpose, you’re just building calluses. But, if God is bringing about endurance, which brings about completion for His glory – well, now there is a huge difference!
This is what drives guys like Piper to post this: ow not to waste your cancer. Zach Smith watered the plant of my faith today with my own tears. http://ow.ly/1qjKc
That makes sense. Zach’s testimony was a beautiful illustration of your response. He didn’t say, “I’m making it,” but “God is making me a better . . . follower of Christ.” Thanks for the well thought out response.