Christ - The Solid Rock

A song has been going through my mind lately and slipping through my lips, “Solid Rock” It is an old hymn I learned when I was a small child. The first stanza goes like this – “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” The chorus goes, “On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.”

I posted something last week that I struggled over sharing. I struggled because it required of me to bare my heart about a situation that felt emotionally like sinking sand. I struggled to the point that I ended up removing the post all together. I tucked my feelings back into the privacy of my own life where they were safe and unexposed and posted something else. By doing that, I was left feeling a little guilty. After all, I started this blog so I could share my faith and journey with you, as we walk together along these pages.

Those words in the song, “all other ground” kept jumping out at me through the week, until they landed in this question, “what is all other ground?” So I asked God, and in answering, He brought to my mind that particular post; my reason for writing it, and my reason for removing it. He showed me that they belong to the “all other ground” in my life. The sinking sand of insecurities, feeling out of control, and my limited understanding of what He was doing in my life and someone else’s life through difficult situations, were all part of the “other ground.”

I was reminded once again what the “all” in this song really means. It has nothing to do with my preconceived notions of what sinking sand might be, or even what I view as “ground.” It is the anything and everything in my life that I stand my thinking and reasoning upon; a concept, a feeling, “all” things that are not Him. He is the only Solid Rock, everything else in life can be moved or shaken. When I am sinking in a problem, a sickness, a loss, He is the One who rises up in the situation. Like the song goes on to say, “His Oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.” On Christ the Solid Rock I stand [because] all other ground is sinking sand!

I’m so glad William B. Bradbury decided to share his heart with us the day he wrote this song. It has traveled through many churches between the pages of hymnals. Its melody was planted in the soul of a child as its words sang their truth throughout a lifetime. The author warns us though, that we are not to even trust in the “sweetest frame,” but instead, to wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

I Remember You

Unwanted
1995


They'll never know how much they would have loved him,
He’ll take no place in anybody’s plans.
No path will ever know his little footsteps,
And he will never hold another’s hands.

No one stopped to count his tiny fingers,
Or check to see ten perfect little toes.
He may have been important to the future,
But then I guess nobody really knows.

His voice will never laugh or sing in pleasure,
Silently he leaves all hope behind.
Unwanted and alone, he is rejected,
No tenderness or shelter here to find.

He was not stricken by some childhood sickness,
Nor was he lost to cruel and harsh disease.
No, he is gone because of inconvenience,
A woman’s right to do just as she please.

Can I let him pass from here forever,
As though he never really did exist?
Unwanted and without a mom to love him,
Someone the world didn’t know they missed.

I’ll adopt the memory of this baby,
Motherly I’ll mourn and shed a tear.
In my heart I’ll hold his silent vigil,
His life to ever cherish and hold dear.

I wrote this poem in 1995 when someone I knew very well had an abortion. I prayed and cried the day it was done and I wrote this poem. Years have passed and periodically I take out this poem and read it...and I remember him and celebrate his life.

It's My Party, I Can Cry if I Want to!

I love this picture of my granddaughter. Not because she is sad, but because it shows something very special about her...she is a girl! She feels deeply! When she is up-she is up, and when she is down-she is down. She wears her emotions right out there for all to see (and hear!) and she doesn't care who witnesses it. Of course, she is only two years old, which is probably why she doesn't think much about what others think of her. We all know that will change.

One day the acceptance of her feelings and the expression of them will be tempered by maturity as she grows up. Hopefully to the point of no more tantrums! Yet, not to the point of not being real and open with others about what is felt in her heart. As women we are not always so open about our emotions. We don't always trust to lay them out for all, or anyone, to see. We ride through our lives in the center lane. That place of safety...not too fast, not too slow. Staying clear of exposing too much of who we really are.

Hearts are tender and valuable; they do need to be guarded and protected. But they also need to be shared. What lies within our hearts is the essence of who we really are, what we feel, and believe. It is where we "hide" the precious things, like God's Word. As we give Him our lives, we give Him our hearts, and they become deep wells of His love and compassion to others.

I have been guilty of staying in the middle lane, glancing too often in my rear view mirror, afraid to change lanes. It is a comfortable place to be, but life itself has a way of moving you over; situations with other travelers or the flow of traffic can move you and adjust your speed whether you like it or not. I have learned it can be a good thing to experience the exhilaration of the fast lane (the wind in my hair), and also to experience the calming effects of the slow lane.

Life is a journey with its many highs and lows, but along the way what a blessing it would be to reach out and touch the other travelers with the one thing that is uniquely ours...our hearts. To laugh, cry, dance, sing, praise, shout, clap, mourn and even get angry. To live life to the fullest with the emotions God has given us.