faith unfaded

I was driving down the road, just as happy as could be, when Ben Fuller’s Black Sheep came on the radio. 

Oh boy. Have I been there!

My whole life I felt like the black sheep. Of my school, my family, and society in general. 

I didn’t fit the mold. Truth be told, I still don’t… but I feel like I’m now standing with the Shepherd so that the other black sheep can find their way back to Him as well. 

Fuller’s original 2024 song was a gentle prodding to return to Jesus, an assurance that He will leave the 99 to go after the 1.

🎶 So, how’s it going out there?

Acting like you ain’t scared

How’s that heart of stone?

It ain’t so hard when you’re alone

Crying tears you hope nobody sees

Guess the good news is He’ll never leave you be

Jesus loves you black sheep 🎶

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? Matthew 18:12-14

A recent follow-up with KB, hits listeners with an electric prod. 

🎶 Don’t tell me you ain’t growing tired

Don’t tell me you don’t care

The devil’s done made you a liar

It’s time you’ve been made aware

I’ve tricked, I’d tried, believed them lies

Done it all the same as you

Say goodbye wild, and run home child

We ain’t got time to lose 🎶

Sometimes we need gentle grace. Sometimes we need a wake-up call. 

Always we need Jesus. 

🎵 Black Sheep (Ben Fuller, 2024)

You broke through a thousand fences

Been rescued from a thousand ditches

You still swear you don’t fit in

So you kick and scream and you’re gone again

Wandering off into the devil’s wind

Jesus loves you, black sheep.

You hate everything about you

You think we’re better off without you

You wear your pain out on your sleeve

And you paint it on in rebel ink

But the alcohol and pills ain’t fixed a thing

Jesus loves you, black sheep.

I get it. All of it. The thoughts. The coping tools that go from salve to slammer in your soul. The emotional outbursts. The silent torment. The effort. The escape. 

The wondering if it’ll ever change. 

I can tell you that it will. Hope is not a future goal, nor an elusive dream. It’s a real tangible promise given to all who call on the Lord. 

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. Psalm 118:5

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:1-2 

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Colossians 1:13 

https://youtu.be/erc4IeGwfjk?si=jl7hXMDt6LK_Igri