I heard this really amazing metaphor recently about Christ and his love for us. Our high school group’s theme right now is Illuminate and this week is all about faith. They put together a video that they shot in the snow the other night way past dark. A great deal of it was just 3 people walking through wooded areas and over uneven terrain with one person carrying a lantern. It showed them walking together, somber and quiet and obviously cold. It clips to just one of them sitting talking, and it’s what he said that really hit me. He talked of how he was always told when he was younger that life is great with Christ, that it’s happy and that things are always good. And he didn’t understand why he was feeling and experiencing the pain that he was experiencing. Then he equated it with this metaphor: It’s like parents teaching a child how to ride a bike. For a while, they’re holding on and holding you up, and helping you steer. Eventually, they’ll let go, and you’ll be fine for a while, but eventually you will fall, and it will hurt. Does that mean that they love you any less? No it just means that you have to experience some pain on your own. I wonder sometimes why I have to experience or think and feel the way that I do. I wonder where He is, and why He doesn’t seem to be answering me as soon as I call. But He does, He does answer. With His silence, with His eye constantly on me, and the pain I’m experiencing as evident on His face as it is hidden in my heart. And I realize, He understands. He always has. He always will. Long after my heart heals. Long after this void is filled. He still understands, b/c He felt that pain first and for me to a degree that I will never know.

Deliver me out of the sadness
Deliver me from all of the madness
Deliver me, courage to guide me
Deliver me, your strength inside me

All of my life
I’ve been in hiding
Wishing there was someone just like you
Now that you’re here
Now that I’ve found you
I know that you’re the one to pull me through

Deliver me…
Deliver me

~David Crowder