Comes to mind.

1. :) life.

   (Source: mrsgrumpygills)

2 weeks ago 61,737 notes
2. 

   When I first wrote, or I should say re-wrote, “Joy” I had no idea the
   wave it would make.  I have received countless emails, questions, and
   comments on this one song, several with the similar theme of “she sure
   does not sound joyful to me!”  I’ve even had people tell me that they
   did not finish the song but skipped it because it sounded too
   depressing and confused them in contrast to the rest of the Hymns-I
   record. If perchance you are someone that has not finished the song
   yet please listen through the end. It would be like starting a story
   and never finishing it.
   
   The first time I played Joy was the night my father passed away.  He
   had a short and painful battle with cancer.  My dad was not perfect
   but he did the best he could with what he had.  A year before he died
   he was diagnosed with dementia.  The day he told me he had cancer he
   said it was a blessing.  To him, cancer was a better way to end his
   story than a mind with no memory of his family or his life.  So as I
   sat at the piano, the only place that felt safe that night to me, the
   weight of loss hit my chest.  I remembered my eyes were blurred with
   tears and I literally began to play the now familiar progression of
   Joy.  I kept cycling through the progression and then, as if it had
   already been written, I began to sing a different melody to a song I
   sang in VBS as a child, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my
   heart…” The truth is that I was terribly and profoundly sad.  The
   reality of grief had not even entirely hit me yet.  But at the same
   moment I had a deep sense of peace.  He was no longer in pain.  He was
   no longer sick.  He was free from all his ailments and restored.
   Although I still miss him, I know that God has weaved redemption
   through death into my father’s story.  That brings me great joy.  It
   was not until grief became a part of my story that I realized that joy
   is not simply an expression, but an attitude and acknowledgment of the
   deep peace of knowing a Savior.
   
   I believe it is important as a community that wants to comfort the
   weary we allow space for those who are grieving, suffering, and
   experiencing loss to say, “Hey! I am hurting! I am in pain!”  It is
   okay to give them space to figure out what joy means in that time.  

   I now know that you can experience grief and joy simultaneously…and if
   not, that joy can and will come if you allow it to.
   
   I had Joy written without the ending that is on the record for a
   while.  And after I had some time to grieve I remembered the hymn “It
   is Well With My Soul.”  The author of that hymn lost multiple members
   of his immediate family when he wrote those deeply wise words.  It
   seemed appropriate to end “Joy” with this hymn in acknowledgement that
   God brings us peace.  He even brings us joy when it seems and feels
   impossible.

2 weeks ago 1 note
3. 

   "No power of hell, no scheme of man

   Can ever pluck me from His hand
   
Till He returns or calls me home

   Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand"

2 weeks ago 0 notes
4. 

   "How strange it is to know that she is at peace and all is well, and yet be so sorrowful!"

   Martin Luther - Following the death of his daughter Lena

   (Source: drquote, via etiamreformandi)

2 weeks ago 12 notes
5. 

   "Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

   C.S. Lewis (via joshuarice)

   (Source: nameaboveallnames, via jasminedeandres)

3 weeks ago 123 notes
6. 
   

   (via m0ments0ftruth)

3 weeks ago 13,775 notes
7. 

   "Now, you need more motivation? Because if you do, you’re lost. If you need me to tell you that if you serve God you’ll get a Mercedes, you’re lost. If you need me to tell you that if you serve God He will heal your body and fix everyone of you’re problem, if you need that, you’re lost. If Jesus is not enough to motivate you to live a godly life, you don’t know Jesus. So let us keep it simple: Christ and Christ alone, no one else. I have need of nothing else. It is well with my soul."

   Paul Washer

   (via johnnyis)

3 weeks ago 320 notes
8. 
   

   (via nothingearthlyminded)

3 weeks ago 71 notes
9. 
   

   (via nothingearthlyminded)

3 weeks ago 670 notes
10. 

    "The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not that if you follow Him, everything’s going to go well and everything is going to work; the good news, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that you get Him and He’s enough no matter what circumstance comes."

    Matt Chandler

    (Source: martelthechristianrapper, via uncleanlips)

3 weeks ago 27 notes