Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Walking through the Valley

This is an amazing interview with Steven Curtis Chapman about his new album, written in the aftermath of the tragic death of his adopted daughter, Maria.

I especially appreciated this:

I'll refer again to the Psalms, specifically those where David is crying out, God, how long before you take away this pain, before you right these wrongs? And then almost in mid-despair, you get this sense of David literally making the choice, again, in saying to his own soul,Why are you so downcast within me? Remember this. Hope in God. Trust in God. This is your anchor. I've used that analogy, too, so many times—having this hope as an anchor.


We have absolutely questioned God and had our doubts and said, "Is this whole thing true? Is this real?" I sat on our tour bus last summer and called Scotty Smith
, my pastor, after spending a very difficult night of wrestling with God. We were getting ready to go do an interview with People magazine or Larry King or somebody, and I was just in tears. We've come to realize dropping that anchor has been, and will continue to be, a daily, sometimes an hourly, process. It's not a one time thing: I've dropped that anchor. It's, man, wait a minute, I'm getting blown away here by the hurricane of grief and questions and doubt. What am I going to do? Am I just going to drift out to sea? Or am I going to drop the anchor again?

2 comments:

Laura Lee said...

Thanks for this, Sean. It puts into coherent words something I was trying to express to a friend today.

It was nice seeing you and Sarah on Monday, and I enjoyed getting to visit with her a little bit.

Laura Lee said...

I just realized I misspelled Sara's name. Sorry!