faith unfaded

I’ll be honest: there have been seasons when I thought my story was over. I stood in a place so dark I could hardly remember how to breathe. If you’ve ever felt that way — like the next page has been torn out — you know how small the world looks in that moment.

MercyMe’s song Oh Death reached me today the way only a familiar hymn of rescue can: not with platitudes, but with a stubborn, holy truth. The words feel like a victory banner — a brave, quiet shout that shows the devil did his victory dance over me a little too soon.

Devil, come get off of my shoulder

You thought you had the last laugh

You thought this song was over

Whoa, you ain’t my king though

Whoa, where did your sting go?

Oh death, I will not be afraid

In the end, you will lose

I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you

You ain’t nothin’ but a stone that my Savior rolled away

Set you straight and set me free

Oh death, you are dead to me

These lyrics are more than a song to me. They’re the true tale of someone who walked through the valley and lived to tell the story. Psalm 23’s promise — that even in the valley God is with us — isn’t a decorative line on a card; it’s a lifeline you clutch with trembling hands. For me, the difference between then and now wasn’t that trouble disappeared. It was that God was working even when I couldn’t see the stitches being sewn back into my life, while engrafting spiritual armor onto my soul to deal with life’s challenges differently this time.

And now — small, serendipitous joy — my niece Emma and I are getting to see MercyMe live in Biloxi after our cruise next week. I can’t think of a better way to stand in God’s goodness than scream-singing Oh Death with a coliseum full of believers who know the truth: the devil is nothing but sticky gum on a hot sidewalk.

Annoying, messy — but harmless in the end.

If you’re in a season that feels like the last chapter, let me remind you it’s not. God does His finest work in the valley, stitching life back into places you thought were finished and strengthening you for what’s ahead. You don’t have to see it to trust it — you just have to hold on long enough for Him to turn the page.