Strong to Save

The very first CD I ever owned, one I bought before I even owned a CD player to play it on, was Russ Taff's Under Their Influence: Volume 1. (I'm not sure he ever made a Volume 2.) I played the heck out of that thing.
I still have it and pulled it out of my collection recently. I hadn't listened to it in ages. One song that really ministered to me is "God Don't Ever Change."

I've changed a lot in the seventeen years since I first heard that song. Seventeen years is not a long time, but I've gone from no facial hair to a few sprigs of gray in my brow, from having no luck with all the girls I liked to being blessed for twelve years (this Sunday!) with the woman of my dreams, from stuttering like a fool to speaking to large groups, from never having babysitted a baby to being a stay-at-home dad for going on 7 years, from skinny to fat to working my way back, from sinning like crazy to . . . Well, I guess some things haven't changed.

But in my highs and lows and successes and setbacks, in my delights and -- yes, I'm sad to say -- in my depressions, I believe God has been faithful. My heart and soul are as firm as the shifting sand, but God has ever held me.

Two years ago, my good friend Bill's wrote something at Out of the Bloo that rocks my socks off:

He's always good, in the good times and the bad. He was so good during some of the hardest times we've ever faced back a year ago, and he's so good now, having completely redeemed that situation.

Struggles will come and go, situations will arise, "happenings" will challenge our happiness, but there is a deep joy in knowing the Lord and knowing that He has it all under control. And that he really goes beyond my feeble expectations and thoughts and imaginings.

If you are facing an impossible situation, know that nothing is too hard for him. He can redeem that situation, and the next one, and the next one . . . none of us are ever "out of the woods" this side of glory. But he is the Lord of the woods, and the mountains, and the valleys, and even in the deepest, darkest pits his arm remains very strong to save.

To him be the glory, forever and ever. Amen!

Amen.

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