The Song I Came to Sing

The Song I Came to Sing

I woke early one morning thinking about lyrics to a song I was writing titled, “The Song I Came to Sing,” inspired by a gravestone epitaph I saw years ago.

I was just a young girl then, wandering curiously through an otherwise sunny graveyard, but the words written on the stone left a lasting impact on my life.

It read, “I spent my life stringing and un-stringing my instrument, but the song I came to sing remains unsung.”

I’m a singer, from a family of singers and musicians, and those words still chill me.  The person’s last message on earth told of a life that had somehow missed the mark. Whatever his dreams had been were never to be.

I remember thinking then, “I don’t want to end my life someday, not having fulfilled my purpose.”  I know now, God has a purpose and a plan for every life!

Reading in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, I found a note I’d written beside the text at some point… “Live, as if from heaven to Earth; not from the BATTLE, but from the VICTORY!” 

Realizing Things Unseen

2 Corinthians 4:18 reads, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Unfortunately, when I read the epitaph on that stone, it would be many years before I discovered my own true “song.”  I was so caught up in the things of this broken world then, I felt trapped by life.

I couldn’t see that all the “truth” I had ever believed about God, and almost everything else, was A BIG FAT LIE!

Thankfully, God gave my soul a song to sing, March 4, 1984.  Now, in the years since my heart and life were changed so dramatically, I can understand those words I wrote in my Bible that day… “Live, as if from heaven to Earth; not from the battle, but from the victory!” 

Victory in this life happens when we come to know God’s heart through reading His word, and the leading of his Spirit; when we begin to live from his perspective.  My great-aunt “Stella” liked to say, “You don’t know what real life is about, until you come to the foot of the Cross.”

Finding the Path

For me, it took God’s two-by-four, him literally speaking right out loud, responding to my pained and impudent cry, “Show yourself or get out of my face forever!”  I don’t recommend that approach to Him now, you might understand.

Amazingly, God answered my bold challenge that day with love and grace I didn’t deserve. And with words I’ll never forget—“You’re going home, Susan!”  Twice, He said it, out loud, and I could no longer deny Him.

These days, many people believe all the same lies I’d bought into. How do I say, “STOP, you’re going the wrong way!?”  It’s like watching someone about to walk under a falling building, and unable to get their attention to avert a catastrophe.

Yet, taking God at his word, and believing who he really is, can allow one to glimpse this whole thing we call life as if through God’s own eyes.

But, there it is—it’s true!

Human Perspective Only Leads to More Questions

The battles we endure here on Earth are like swimming in rough waters; always some resistance.  But, by faith, the battle can strengthen us, as we continue to swim; believing there is victory on the far shore.  Because, there is!

Learning to see one’s self, your surroundings, other people; every challenge, every issue and effort—as much as God allows from Heaven’s perspective—is the very answer to life.  Trusting Him for every step is an adventure I might have missed.  I pray you won’t miss it either!

I still hear Him say, “You’re going HOME, Susan.” He said my name, and it keeps me swimming, through even the most troubling waters. “Come to Me,” he says in my heart, “The victory is yours. Stay on the path. The world and its offerings will entice and try to defeat all your efforts to endure. But, trust and keep your eyes on Me, and I will get you Home.”

Sounds crazy, right?  It did to me for many years, until I had lost everything and bothered to seek Him. Amazingly, I found he’d been there all the time, waiting! My favorite Bible verse says… “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1b)

Taste and See!

When we taste only the things of this life, and fail to look up, we miss real life—the real “song” he planned for each of us to sing.  The peace I had sought here on Earth was in whatever made me happy at any given moment. An object, a place, a philosophy; another person I thought could make all my dreams come true. I was hung up on whatever I could accomplish on my own.

Oh, if anyone had asked if I was going to heaven when I died, I would have said, “Yes, I’m a good person!” But I didn’t know the truth.  With no anchor for my soul; only the counsel or persuasions of others who also didn’t believe Him, I only had more questions than answers.

When I understood those words the Lord spoke to me back then and the amazing GRACE they impressed on my heart, I knew I would spend the rest of my life telling about him and his truth.

The Song I Came to Sing

I’ve sung thousands of songs in my time, but THIS is “the song” I came to sing:  about a perfect heavenly Father who loved us so much He became one of us on Earth; then laid down His life to pay for the sins of ALL who would believe.

Some years ago, I co-wrote the stage play, “Ten Boom the Musical,” with my sister Donna Griggs about the life of author and Holocaust survivor, Corrie ten Boom, whose faith brought hope to many women in Ravensbruck concentration camp, during WW2. Corrie found God’s call on her life… HER “song”… in that place.

I pray you will find your own life’s “song.”  And that you will live in victory, as if from Heaven to Earth, with the hope of the eternal home God promises to all who come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Grace for Grace: The Dream That Inspired the Musical

Grace for Grace: The Dream That Inspired the Musical

It seems I had died!  In my dream, I was standing alone before an enormous set of gates. Closed and rising skyward like a mountain peak, the tops of the gates obscured by great billowing white clouds tinged with silver and muted hues of teal. The intricate grill work on the gates was like nothing I had ever seen. Or had I?

On each gate, a tall winged creature was woven into the lattice; gigantic wings pointing toward a creature on the opposite gate.

I remembered then, seeing similar artist renditions of two kneeling angels facing each other atop the Ark of the Covenant.

I was aware of nothing else around me.

Suddenly, I found myself standing inside; the still-closed gates now behind me. A man dressed in white stood several paces ahead with his back to me. As he turned, I recognized Him as Jesus, although unlike most artists ever depict Him. His eyes looked sadly back toward the gates. I turned to see what He was gazing at so intently.

There, desperate hands were reaching through the grill work far below the winged creatures. I could see the people’s lips moving, their eyes pleading to be let in, but could not hear their voices. Turning again, I saw Jesus walking away.

“Those are the hands of many you were meant to tell about Me, and you did not,” I seemed to understand.

Jesus was gone now, and it struck me deeply that He had not said what I’d hoped to hear—Well done, good and faithful servant.”  I had made it safely inside the gates, but sadly I knew the hands that were reaching toward me would be eternally left outside.

Beyond the Gates

That disturbing dream caused me to wonder what it was speaking to me, personally. Not that I believe all dreams have some deeper meaning; but this one was so real.

There, beyond the gates of heaven, I had wondered, “What more could I have done or said that might have made a difference for those outside?”

What might I do now?

The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “God’s GRACE is sufficient.”  It’s humbling to be the recipient of God’s grace when, like Paul, you’ve thought of yourself as “the chief of sinners.”

The SAVING GRACE of God is that, although we deserve Hell for our sinful ways, when we stand before Christ one day (and we will), if we have trusted Him and HIS righteousness to save us, we won’t have to try to justify ourselves by the flimsy, raggish evidence of even our best earthly works. By faith in Him alone, we will be justified!

My dream had seemed to accuse me, “Those are the hands of many you were meant to tell about Me, and you did not!”

However, believing Christ’s sacrifice and His grace to be sufficient for salvation, why would I concern myself (in dreams or otherwise) that I had not done enough works?

In Romans 4:4, Paul wrote, “Now to him who works [to earn salvation], the wages are not counted as GRACE, but as DEBT.” Our salvation should cause us to do good works, but “good works” without faith in Christ will not save anyone.

Another Question to Ponder

What will cause the Lord to say to any of us, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’?

Although it is grace through faith in Christ that saves us, in Matthew 25, Christ assures us that the evidence of our love for Him (the “fruit” of our faith) will be the acts of the heart that we have done toward others. God will reward us according to the works we did whole-heartedly toward the hungry and thirsty, widows and orphans, those in prison; any in need of comforting, as though serving Christ Himself.

“What you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto Me,” Jesus said. It seems the more we extend our love and grace to others, the more Christ is served, and the more love and grace comes to us. Grace for Grace!

Birthing a Dream

Not long after my dream, my sister Donna Marquean Griggs and I began writing a musical stage play the Lord had put on my heart in 1986. I had procrastinated about that calling all those years. It’s the powerful true story of Christian author and Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom. Donna and I finally set her story to music.

It took a dream to begin the project in 2009—and “Ten Boom the Musical” was born!

Corrie’s life was full of grace for others; loving and serving millions in Christ through her testimony and her many books. I believe she would not have looked back at reaching hands when she entered heaven’s gates. Telling her story hopes to reach many more “hands” for His kingdom.

Near the end of Ten Boom the Musical, Corrie is about to be led away by a Nazi prison guard, when another prisoner who has mocked Corrie’s faith for months suddenly runs to her. Desperately, she asks Corrie how she can know God, before the Nazis take her life.

Corrie and “Giselle” sing the play’s signature song, “Imagine Perfect Love,” and Corrie’s amazing story ends on a high note after all!

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