lift up your head

many thanks to everyone who shared encouraging words when i confessed i was feeling "in over my head" with my little ones. it did my heart good.

while i know that i don't need to do everything on my own, and that as a christian, i'm called to trust the Lord to give me the strength i need, sometimes, it helps to hear it from you.

and my mom.

she sent me a voicemail saying that perhaps God is trying to teach me to be more dependent on him. she said the we are "created for dependence."

i believe that. and yet, it is so easy to lose sight of.

the rugged individualist, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps american spirit suggests otherwise. it tells us we shouldn't need to ask for help and that there's possibly something wrong with us if our lives aren't perfectly managed.

that individualistic spirit of self-sufficiency has crept into christianity as well, threatening to warp a faith of dependence, discipleship, and denial of self into some kind of creepy american civil religion where sin is is neatly managed and the cross of Christ rendered unnecessary.

that's not the kind of faith i want to practice.

i want to show my kids that serving God is not about being perfect or about having it all together, but about submission, repentance, forgiveness, and trust. it's about God working in us and through us because of his goodness and power and love.

my mom also reminded me of the psalm that says that God is the lifter of our heads:

But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. (psalm 3:3)

it's funny, because over the past week, i'd been singing the chorus "God will lift up your head" around the house to myself and dylan. (you can listen to it here.)

i didn't even know all the words until i looked it up. it's a good one:

Give to the wind your fear
Hope and be undismayed
God hears your sighs and counts your tears
God will lift up, God will lift up, lift up your head

God will lift up your head 3x
Lift up your head

Leave to His sovereign sway
To choose and to command
Then shall we wandering on His way
Know how wise and how strong
How wise and how strong
How strong is His hand

God will lift up your head 3x
Lift up your head

Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears the way
Wait because in His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
Soon end in joy
 
God is strong. God is compassionate. God is in control. and he will lift up our heads.