March 2024
Dear Church Family,
I often find good music to be transformative - I realize ‘good’ is subjective, but I mean music that opens you up, invites you to see differently, challenges your mind and heart, maybe makes you feel something worth exploring. Bad music has its own effects… but likely doesn’t invite the same kind of introspection. It seems like such a gift to me that God uses many different avenues to engage our spiritual realities, music being a way that can stop me in my tracks. Music is also a fluid connection with the saints that go before us - we read of sacred song from the time of Moses, we have the book of Psalms which were often chanted or sung (and in many traditions are done the same way today), and it is such a joy to join in gathered worship and sing songs that connect us together.
The Porter’s Gate is a group I discovered a while back and is known as a music collaborative - meaning a group of individual artists who come together to write songs around a theme. This group is one that writes from a Christian perspective, and they have explored a variety of topics about God’s action and presence when it comes to issues of justice, lament, mental health, even neighbor songs! One of their most recent albums, Worship for Workers, includes the song below. I encourage you to find it online (youtube has it) and give it a listen if you can. The lyrics are as follows:
Open Hands (Song by The Porter’s Gate - Click to see/hear on YouTube)
The earth you made and blest in days, your Spirit breathing into clay,
Lord, I receive with open hands, open hands.
The breath that fails, the light that fades, while earth and heaven pass away,
I let them go with open hands, open hands.
In desert days a feast you spread, and with your manna I am fed,
Lord, I receive with open hands, open hands.
And when another needs this bread, they ask as Christ, who broke and blessed
I let it go with open hands, open hands.
The work that waits for me today, the joys and sorrows on the way,
Lord, I receive with open hands, open hands.
And just as earth you freely gave, so any goodness I have made
I let it go with open hands, open hands.
The melody itself is beautiful and makes me stop every time it comes on, but the lyrics are their own invitation to rest, receive, and release. I am reminded of all that I have been given, and all that is fleeting in this life. I’m reminded that often grief from loss is also due to the joys we’ve experienced in life. I’m reminded that to receive blessing is also about being generous in sharing the blessing and/or passing it along. I’m reminded that life happens to us, and we get to figure out what to do with it. Recently a friend was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer at age 38 - not something she had any ‘control’ in, and she has the choice to enter into this news with open hands or closed ones. Closed hands is a closed posture, and seems to echo feelings of ‘why me’ and ‘this isn’t fair’ or ‘what did I do to deserve this?’ feelings we all likely resonate with, but stewing in them doesn’t change the outcome. Open hands is a posture that lifts the situation up to God, echoing sentiments of ‘take this cup from me’ and ‘Thy will be done’ and perhaps ‘bring healing and restoration’. I think the human reality is one of fluctuating between closed and open - open hands is always an invitation because we are likely always gripping something hard to give us a sense of stability and control.
In the midst of this terrible and devastating diagnosis (please pray for Annie!), there are also blessings in the surgeries and medical care she is receiving, blessings in the community that has surrounded her and her family, reminders at every corner of God’s love in the midst of suffering. We will likely always be gripping one thing or another tightly, but when our hands are closed we also miss the opportunity to receive other things. Micah is 15mo old now, and likes to have crackers in each hand while walking around - perhaps as an assurance of a snack wherever he goes. But it keeps him from being able to hold on to a rail or a hand, to grab and explore something new, or to catch himself when he falls (it also meant at the beach his crackers often got covered in sand since he couldn’t decide what he wanted his fingers to be doing!). May God’s Spirit pry your fingers from whatever is holding your attention too tightly so that you might open up and experience God more fully.
Blessings,
Pastor Becca
