"You Raise Me Up"

Funny how at times there’s a lining-up of song and circumstance in our lives that feels like a knocking on the soul’s door exclaiming, “Special delivery!” That happened to me the other day when Josh Groban’s rendition of “You Raise Me Up” came on the radio.

I was contemplating how we allow our thoughts to work against us, keeping us shallow in spirit - especially those that keep us awake at night. (You know those irrational ones that serve no purpose other than keeping us a sleepless mess, lessening our chances for a good night’s rest and piling worry upon worry?)  None of us are exempt from them. So, how to rise above and leave them behind?

God beckons in Isaiah 55:3, “Incline your ear, and come to me...” The order of our action seems reversed: Shouldn’t we go to Him first and then listen? But He would have us let go of the declining inner monologue in our heads so that we are able to incline our ears toward our Father who says to us, “Come.”  

“…listen, so that you may live.” (Is. 55:3) And because we submit to Him through the inclining of our ears we move to a place where our hearts are able to go to Him to learn abundant living. How can we resist such an invitation?

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord,

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:8-9)

What a relief! Out of the depths of our misguided and scattered thoughts we are reminded that there is another way - His way, not our way - that raises and uplifts, that offers something better. When we quiet our own thoughts and listen for His, we can trade ours in for thoughts that heal…thoughts that shed new light…thoughts that break old patterns…thoughts that cross the barrier of self and challenge us into new growth…and, best of all, thoughts that restore spirit, with the strength of God the Father behind them.

“My heart has no desire to stay

Where doubts and fears dismay;

Though some may dwell where these abound,

My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.”

~Johnson Oatman Jr.