faith unfaded

I was in the midst of a two-week writer-in-residence retreat when the porch swing and cool breeze had me drifting off. I decided to listen to Hope Darst’s Peace Be Still album while I shut my eyes for a few minutes.

I knew the title track. It had calmed many a mental storm during a particularly difficult season of my life. But I’d never heard the rest of the album. I laid down on the swing and hit play.

The first song had an unusually long intro. I kept waiting for the lyrics. With one eye I peeked at my screen. The song was coming to an end.

That was weird, I thought. The album started with a 1.16 minute instrumental song that was somewhere between a sound machine and ambient spa music. Then I noticed the title: Surrender.

It made perfect sense.

When it comes to true surrender, that’s when all the words stop.

I couldn’t talk my way to complete surrender. I couldn’t reason it out in my overanalytical brain. I couldn’t be “good enough” for God.

I had to be silent and let my heart do the talking for a change.

The water is symbolic — the ocean waves and falling rain are pictures of a complete cleansing.

The faint drumbeat indicates an excitement, a prelude of the fire that follows surrender.

But the primary tone is meditative and peaceful, the end result of allowing your soul full immersion with the One who created you.

That kind of surrender needs no words.

https://youtu.be/wIqBaEM-_Cs?si=qVS3-qXx1BYATeHF