AFTER ALL: LETTERS TO THE CHURCH, VOL. 2
After All: Letters to the Church, Vol. 2 is a triptych of three songs specifically written to the church as a journey through the valleys of our apprenticeship with Jesus.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow death, I will fear no evil for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” –Psalm 23:4
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WE DON'T HAVE TO SPEAK
I have had the sacred experience of sitting with people in some of their hardest moments. What I’ve learned is that most times what is best is to be silent and listen. This song came from one of those moments, when my daughter Hannah received a piece of bitter news for which platitudes would never suffice. No words could lighten the moment, no words could explain away the pain. This song is about sitting with grief, allowing it to hang in the air without pushing it away too quickly, going through it together, and being present with one another in its midst. To “let the darkness rest” is both finding a moment for the darkness to decrease while also letting it hover in our present circumstance.
I’ve found myself in many situations when I knew I didn’t have the right words to say no matter how hard I searched the recesses of my experience and training. I’ve also endured awkward moments when a well meaning soul has tried to relieve the grief by trying to provide some kind of rationalization in the midst of the unexplainable. And so I try to remind myself that “sometimes saying nothing means an awful lot of something when what the heart is wanting is just to grieve.” This letter is to the grieving accompanied by the words of Jesus from the sermon on the mount, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
YOU'VE BEEN FAITHFUL
When we gather to worship God together, we remind one another through the retelling of God’s story that God has been faithful. We read this in the biblical account and we hear it in the stories of our community as we recount the many ways he has shown his faithfulness over the years. We also see how God is being faithful. We know this through the accounts of the saints in our midst and as we share how God is at work in us and through us. And because we know this about God’s character and we’ve seen it firsthand, we can trust that God will be faithful in the future. We trust that he is working all things for his good.
The through line in our experience is the faithfulness of God. Even in our questions, our doubts, on the mountaintops, in the valleys, through the hard seasons, in the joyful moments, in our working, and our playing, there is the faithfulness of God. Sometimes it is hard to understand or to explain, but he promises to be faithful. And it is through our lives and our stories that we encourage one another that we can hold on to this constant. In the end, my hope is that will be the story my life will tell. And I hope that will be the story our lives tell as followers of Jesus.