This season of my life feels, most often, like a cage. A place of confinement. The circumstances which are mine have walled me in, and though I’ve pressed up against them in an effort to break free, they have budged not. Have you ever been in such a place? Maybe you, too, are in such a season? We wish things could be different. We pray and hope and wait for the moment of change to come. But there is only stillness and silence.
In such seasons, the songs we sing matter.
Outside, where the skies are wide and the room to move freely abounds, we hear but a fleeting snippet of the songs sung by the creatures with wings. They are so busy in their freedom that we rarely experience the full blessing of their music. They are not perched on our window sills, day and night, reminding us to pause and appreciate the rhythms of divine creation.
But when birds – or people – are confined to cages, the songs sung are restricted in their influence to the space they’ve been assigned to. And while we tend to view all limitation as something to be resisted, I’ve learned to see the great potential within such divine limitations. I’ve learned of the power a song can have in places that know hedges.
Such power is either music to the listening ear, or a great nuisance. And the determining factor has everything to do with the perspective of the bird, or the person. Every bird sings. Every person speaks. And depending on what we believe about our seasons of confinement, we will either sing of God’s goodness, or we will bitterly screech about his unfairness.
What is the song of your heart in this hour? In your seasons of confinement, when God hems you in, for a time, and for a purpose? Do you believe that He is within your confined spaces? Do you believe that all His ways are best for you? Do you believe that He can use such apparent limitations to release unlimited potential in the space around you, for the people around you? Even in and for your own spirit? Do you believe we are always placed where He can bring the most blessing? Can you believe that even the disappointing places are places appointed for encountering the fullness of His love?
Are you intent on resisting, or will you entertain the thought of surrender, though it goes against possibly everything you want and even everything you’ve been taught?
Will you sing from within the bars of your confined spaces, trusting that – at the appointed time – release will come, though it may feel far away now? Of what will you sing? Will you sing of a freedom you cannot feel, but know is there? Will your song be one of lament? Or will you sing of His goodness, experienced right where you are, despite the freedom which may yet be far off? Will your song be one of praise?
Will those who live in the spaces to which you are confined strain their ears and slow their stride to hear more of your beautiful song, or will they look for ways to silence your noise? Will you bless, or will you curse? Will you sing, or will you grumble and complain?
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14
“He placed a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see this and worship. They will trust the Lord.” Psalm 40:3 (GOD’S WORD Translation)
May a new sound, a new song, come forth from our hearts and lips today! May we sieze the divine opportunities we find ourselves in, and there release a song of praise unto our God. And as we do, may our heart become yet more convinced that He is truly good, all the time!
She Dances Over Graves 