Pondering Song Lyrics

One of my favorite things to do is listen to song lyrics! I love when the lyrics are super powerful and they always seem to put to words exactly what I've been feeling or they make me think about things in a brand new way! One song that I have listened to that has particularly impacted me is "They Need Love" by Jonny Diaz. One verse of the song is, "If she doesn't somehow catch an eye, she'll sleep out in the cold tonight. So she works the corner with fishnets on just blocks away from the house of God. She claims she'll never go inside she doesn't think that it would feel right. But what if we stepped out to her, with love that she didn't have to earn. She needs love and lots of it before she'll ever open up. She needs grace from God above but from us she needs love."

This is so powerful! It's talking about a prostitute who's thought about entering the house of God but ended up not doing so because she doesn't think that it will suit her. The thing that hits me the hardest is when it says "but what if we stepped out to her?"... What if we stepped out to her?! How many people are out there hurting and searching for love who would receive it if we merely stepped out to them! It's so mind blowing because I look at my life and how I can stay in my comfortable little bubble of happiness and bliss, fellowshipring with believers and only breaching the gap with my family and friends that I am comfortable with and who are familiar to me. But what about the others? What about the poor, the hurting, the lost?! What about the homeless, the prostitutes, the crippled, the unlovable?! What about them?

How my heart breaks for those people who are so lost and without hope and without love desperate for it! In class we did an assignment where we read Mark 5:21-34, the story about the sick woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and was healed by Jesus. While we were going over it we discussed the position this woman was in. First off she was a woman and in that time period women were not favored highly. Secondly she was unclean because of her bleeding and therefore was looked at with disgust and no one would touch her or go near her... For twelve years! How do you think this woman was feeling at this point? She was desperate for healing physically and emotionally.

When she touched Jesus' cloak she was healed and Jesus knowing he'd healed her wanted to see her. It says, "But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering" (Mark 5:32-34). The amazing thing about this especially for the woman was that Jesus listened to her! She told him the whole story and he paid attention to her. This woman who had been scorned for twelve years was experiencing Jesus' love for her.

After all of those years she had to have been thinking that she was the scum of the earth because everyone treated her as if she was. But not Jesus. He loved on her. Tom Ewers said that Jesus probably even knelt down and looked her straight in the eyes as she was on the ground trembling in fear telling her story. He looked at her with love and compassion. He showed her that she was more valuable than she herself thought and he called her daughter.I can't even begin to imagine what it would feel like, to be ridiculed and scorned for twelve years and then loved for the first time.

We have that power!

We have the power to love people like that! Think how many people are hurting in this world. How many people feel like they are nothing. How many people are lonely and dying for a friend. How many people are overwhelmed. How many people are overcome with emotion. How many people are desperate for truth and genuine love.

How many people think that no one would care if they didn't exist.

How many people commit suicide because they have. no. hope.

But there is hope!

Think about the hope that we have! Our hope in Jesus Christ in God in our salvation and future eternal glory! Our hope in the love that the Father has for us! Why would we keep that to ourselves?!

People are dying without hope. How is it that someone can be so completely without hope that they would kill themselves?! That is so heartbreaking to even think about! Especially since we have such a glorious hope in God and His love for us! We need to proclaim that hope to all people!

I know first hand that it is so easy to hide pain. It's so easy to put up a mask and pretend to be happy when really your heart is breaking inside. When you laugh with people on the outside but on the inside you're weeping in agonizing pain only wishing that someone would understand or even notice that your life is crumbling.

One of my hearts desires is that I could have eyes to see the pain that people cover up. How awesome would it be to have the discernment to see someone who is dying on the inside and be able to reach out to them and love on them! What would that do for them?! Don't you want to be the kind of person that loves with all your heart?! Don't you want to be the kind of person that could radically change a persons life with love?! I can't even put to words all that is on my heart with this matter it's just so hard to express!!

There are so  many people hurting and often times we never come into contact with them because they are too afraid to come to us or because they buy the lie that it's not for them! But what if we stepped out to them?! What if we went to them and showed them love?! If we have such an amazing love and hope why are we keeping it all to ourselves?! Why do I keep it to myself?! Why don't I tell people about how much God loves them?! Why do I let fear control my words when I have the Spirit of God living in me?!

We need to step out to those people! We need to love them because no one else will. And we need to love them because God loves them. Because God died for them. They need to know that.