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.