After one particularly difficult relationship break-up, I received a care package in the mail. I don’t remember all the items that were there, but I’ll never forget the two CDs. Both had been carefully curated. The one was full of loud, strong, defiant songs, with lines like, “If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it,” “I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it,” and “Cry me a river.” The other one had quiet, sad love songs, like “Nevermind, I’ll find someone like you,” “Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts,” and “I will always love you.”
It was while listening to this second CD that I first heard the song, “She Wil Be Loved,” by Maroon 5. The tears fell as I sat in my car. I heard, “I don’t mind spending every day, out on your corner in the pouring rain. Look for the girl with the broken smile. Ask her if she wants to stay a while. And she will be loved.”
And in that moment, I was the girl with the broken smile. And the One pursuing me, looking for me, staying with me, loving me, was our Creator God. I heard God singing over me, “I want to make you feel beautiful,” promising, “You will be loved. You are loved right now.”
It reminded me of Zephaniah 3:17, “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (NKJV).
God rejoices over you. God quiets your heart with God’s love. God is so crazy about you that God can’t help but break out in song.
This Valentine’s Day is also Ash Wednesday. It’s a day when many Christians from different traditions around the world will attend a service and receive ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. The person administering the ashes may say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Today reminds us that even our brightest, most constant flames face the threat and reality of death. In our vows, Michael and I chose to say, “As long as we both shall live.” It feels better than, “Till death do us part.”
Today reminds us of our inherent mortality. We are dust.
Today reminds us of our brokenness. We are in need of repenting, or literally, “turning.”
Today reminds us that we are in need of some good news, a life-giving word from God.
Over the next 40 days, during Lent, leading us through to four days with Jesus, community members will be sharing personal stories of when a word from God helped them go on.
This may have come in the form of a Scripture. But God also speaks through the lyrics of songs, poems, the words that come from a friend or mentor. And sometimes, we hear a word or a phrase in our heart that feels like it comes as a gift from outside of ourselves.