Closer to Love

I'm sitting here tonight after hearing that the father of one of my best friends in the world died. He's been sick for a while, but it was still sudden.

When the phone rang, I was in the middle of one of the best workouts I've had in a long time. I was blown away with a hundred things running through my head-- where are her kids? What does she need? How can I help? Mostly I just felt sad.

I've been thinking about how quickly your world can crash around you-- how you are usually doing something as mundane as lifting weights when the weight of the world suddenly falls on your shoulders. (Speaking of my friend.)

I think that the first lyrics of Mat Kearny's "Closer to Love" say this all better than I can:

She got the call today
One out of the gray
And when the smoke cleared,
It took her breath away.

She said she didn't believe
That it could happen to me
I guess we're all one phone call from our knees.
We're gonna get there soon.

If every building falls
And all the stars fade
We'll still be singin this song
The one they can't take away
I'm gonna get there soon.
She's gonna be there too
Cryin' in her room
Prayin' Lord come through
We're gonna get there soon.

(Chorus)
Oh it's your light
Oh, it's your way.
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way
Cryin' out now
From so far away...
You pull me closer to love.

As I'm typing the lyrics (somehow there is black magic that prohibits copy and paste for that kind of stuff), I'm realizing how much truth this guy hit without probably meaning to. To function, we all have to pretend that it is a certainty that we and the people we love will be here day after day. It does us no good to become paralyzed by the reality that we have no control and no idea what will happen in the next hours of our lives-- let alone days, weeks or years.

The only thing we can control is our own faith-- a faith that weaves itself around our insecurities and ties us to the Master Plan. We are not spinning out of control. There is purpose. There is reconciliation. There is Love.

Sometimes it takes a good wake up call to "pull us closer" to that Love... and in those moments, we realize that it has surrounded us all the time.

Stay strong, my friend. Reside in His love and let it lighten your heart. You're in my prayers.