"You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to stay, though you give and take away."

These lines from a great song, Blessed Be The Name of the Lord, ring in my soul. They have been working their way into the depths of my heart over the past four or five weeks, and are a perfect description of where I am today.

Today is a long way from where I was a year ago. Just twelve short months ago I was in pain - emotionally and spiritually -, wrecking my life and my family, destroying everything I loved, and because of my actions, there was much God took away. "You give and take away..." The take away was what had consumed me. Things I'd lost, people I'd pushed away.

It's different today though. "You give and take away." The same God who can take, is the same God who so desires to give. Last night, I had the privilege to stand in a room of more than 300 people - all of whom where looking for a healing, restoring God - and make a fool of myself with a message of hope. I'm as convicted, right now, as I've ever been that God is the one who has given this ministry at this time and at this place. Serenity Church blasted off last night at 7:00 pm, and was an unbelievably freeing, healing, spirit rumbling, rock and rolling event. (I preached in shorts and no shoes!) "You give..."

Here's the thing for me, at least today: God does give and take away. It's His prerogative, His to control, His to use. God gives and takes away. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. I haven't always understood why God takes away, but He knows. I could give you fourteen "here's what I think" answers to why God takes away, but they'd all be short-sided guesses. I don't know. What I do know, what I'm really confident in, is that He does know. "You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to stay, though you give and take away." I love those lines. Because they issue forth a soul confessing cry: "My heart will choose to stay." Where else can I turn? When things are good, its easy to bless the Lord. When things aren't so good, where else can you seek relief, ask for justice, plead for mercy, or beg for healing? See, the really powerful thing about this song for me, is the next line. When times are good - "You give," or when times are bad - "You take away..."
"Blessed be the name of The Lord."