Joe Day

husband, father, designer, songwriter, pastor

What I was trying to say.

There I was, coming up on the last song of the set. I had been chewing on something all afternoon. All week long, really.

To many of you, that is not worth a second thought. To some of you, that's not cool at all. Did I mean it? Yes, I meant it. Should I have said it differently? Probably. But my heart has been wanting to leap out of my chest the past week as something very significant has been happening. Here's the story:

It all started the first week of October after I had returned from Atlanta with a cold. I was sick, took a day or two off to recover and went back to work. A few weeks later I got hit with a bad stomach flu. Then another cold. Then another stomach flu. Then my house was robbed the week before Thanksgiving. December hit, and again I was sick over Christmas break, a time I was planning on taking vacation, but had to cancel it because of a very important work deadline. By the time the new year hit I was toast. Burned out really. 

This freaked me out.

But, there in my fear and completely worn out frame, God began to reveal himself in some really close ways as I begun to share honestly with my friends, pastors, and wife - in community. The grace of Jesus met me in what has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. He assured me through the gracious words of my brothers and sisters in community that even as messed up, tired, worn out as I am, his love for me is complete and that he will walk me through all of this. That assurance has been the most refreshing thing I've ever experienced. 

And so I've been meditating on all of this and last week a fresh thing that I can only identify as joy started to bloom in my heart. As I've felt the closeness of God, the tangible effect of the Cross of Christ, and realizing that truly NOTHING can separate me from his love, a new passion and joy has emerged. 

Tonight, the last song we sung was Before The Throne Of God Above, and the last verse goes like this:

Behold Him there the risen lamb
My perfect spotless righteousness
The great unchangable "I am"
The king of glory and of grace

Because the sinless saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me

What I simply wanted to do was highlight this verse and call us all to sing as though it changes everything, because it absolutely does. And our people generally are a reserved bunch when it comes to singing truth like this and I didn't want us to miss this. When the time came, we sang it passionately loud. 

Because it does change everything.