Love's Done Something

Don't let your happenings destroy your happiness.

There is something so amazing about this quote that has kept it floating around in the back of my mind for the last week. I couldn't understand how it was convicting and inspiring to me at the same time. Today it hit me.

When I came back to my room after playing basketball this morning I knew something was up. There was something I had been missing that God was trying to call my attention to. I just could not figure out what it was.

There has been a song that I have been listening to a lot lately by This Day & Age called "Second Place Victory". It is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, musically and lyrically.

This song has been influential because I have still been dealing with a degree of continued brokenness that has left me with a lot of pain and distress because no end is in sight. I want it to be over and done with, by the quickest way possible. Sadly, there is no quick way around it. But the words to the song remind me that there is so much hope in any situation.

"It's breathtaking to think of you
And to learn that sometimes the only way out is through
It's mind numbing, to think of yesterday,
I'd run to you now if I could but things have changed

I heard you say it's enlightening
To think of the breeze
To believe in things that we can't see

So here we go
Let's show them how to live
Accept the pain
Always forgive
Watch the sun go down
Learn the sound of following all that is complete

It's breathtaking to think of you
And to learn without faith the sky isn't as blue.
It's mind numbing, to think of yesterday
We'll look toward the stars and dream that we're airplanes

I heard you say it’s enlightening
To think of the breeze
When you watch the sunset, think of me."

Don't let your happenings destroy your happiness.

The song has such an optimism to accepting things that you cannot control. Accepting all that comes with hardship, and knowing sometimes the only way out is through the pain. These are the troubling facts about when life gets hard, that you have to fight through it.

I have been seeking to be satisfied and content in God and what He has for me right now. That is not always easy, especially when there is still hurt lingering. That is what God wanted me to see today. There is a way to be satisfied and content with whatever God has for you, and it is also how to not let your happenings destroy your happiness.

The answer is so simple: God's love for us. His love is so beyond anything we can comprehend it is amazing. Seeing as God knows everything about me, He used something that I love to express this love to me from Matthew West's song "More".

"I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine and you shine for me too
I love you
Yesterday, and today, and tomorrow
I'll say it again and again
I love you more."

Very few people know how much I love stars. I love clear summer nights away from the lights of the city where I can see the sky full of stars. Each one placed there by God's hand. It is incredible to just lie there and gaze in awe.

Isaiah 40:26 says this about God and the stars. "Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars. The One who leads for their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing."

Not one of them is missing. There is perfection to the far reaches of our universe. God's love for us is that great. He loves us more than all of the stars that fill the sky, more than we can ever try to count. Now if that is not something to find happiness in, I don't know what is. If you are truly happy, you are going to find that feeling of contentment and satisfaction in Christ.

Don't let your happenings destroy your happiness.

Psalm 90:14 says, "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

Love never fails, one of my favorite reminders of the power of love. Every morning, desire that you are satisfied with that love that never fails. It will bring such joy beyond anything we can imagine.

When I sat down at my computer this morning after basketball I listened to David Crowder Band and the song "Our Love is Loud". The song reminds me of that verse from Psalm 90, it is about such a great joy that we are shouting and dancing out of love for God. That is no ordinary love, only God can put such a love in our hearts for Him, and it is only because He first loved us that much.

I know what I was missing. God brought it to my attention. The key to being satisfied and content is to be lost deep in the Lord's unfailing love for us, so our happenings don't destroy our happiness.

So shine like God made us to. Shine like the sun and the stars. God taught them how to shine, and He wants to make us shine for the rest of our days. Happiness radiating from us founded in the awesome love of God.

Love's Done Something
"I am Yours and You're mine
Tonight I feel like I'm on top of the world
As I soar through the starry sky across the galaxy
On the wings of Your love forever carrying me
I've only begun, there's so much more to see
Lock me up throw away the keyhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=9135643913998593586
I'm a prisoner of love but I never felt so free
You've given me more than I ever dreamed"

-April 26, 2008