Monday's Mourning Ministry - Only Hope

Monday's Mourning Ministry

Only Hope

For your Monday's Mourning Ministry, I found this wonderful song again, this time on video. The story behind the song I have already shared in a post here on my blog on February 24th of this year. (If you want to read the entire post, I have noted it at the bottom of this post.) But today I really wanted you to know the story behind the song so that you would know just how special the song is for me. It means so much to me, I hope you will indulge me to repeat excerpts of the post here! I hope you will enjoy the song too!

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Merry Katherine gave me another Valentines Day present this year. I stumbled across a C.D. she had made. She knows my heart, and she knows just what I need to calm a large part of this aching mother’s heart.

One of my big fears for her before she was killed on 8/2/06 (besides the obvious safety issue of a child with her high-energy, high-risk behavior) was that she would wander so far away from God in her acting-out that, without realizing it, her heart would harden more and more until she wouldn’t turn back to Him. (Her heart was already icing up somewhat toward us, her parents; she seemed to be living so many lies that I think she was starting to believe some of them.) Sin itself is destructive and alienating; it blinds you to God’s truth that could save you from its ultimate destruction. I could see her heart getting more and more hardened, and she was becoming more and more brazen in pursuing what she wanted despite its destructiveness.

So when she was killed in the midst of her estrangement, as a mother my next biggest question was, "Where is she now? Is she okay?" which means,

Is she in Heaven with God?

There are many questions rolling around in my mind of course—you go over and over the “what if’s” and the “why’s” all the time, but the “safety and security of her soul now” has been the most agonizing question for me.

So finding this cd on the 10th of February was a delight for me, to see where her heart was with God—she hadn’t totally tuned Him out; she was struggling with needing Him, yet not obeying Him, while still recognizing His provision for her . . . which she recognized was her “Only Hope.”

As soon as I heard this song, I knew she had wanted me to find this C.D., and how precious that it was in time for Valentines Day-- (Just like she managed to do last year! But that story will be for another time!)

What a sweet Valentines gift for her mommy!

A gift that met me in the crux of my heart's cry for her.

An answer to her mommy's prayer...

Here are the lyrics of "Only Hope," just one of the songs that was on Merry Katherine's home-made C.D. that showed this grieving mother what was really in her heart toward her sweet Savior and Shepherd:

My Only Hope

Caedmon’s Call

(Found 2/10/09 on a cd Merry Katherine had made for herself)

Depth of mercy, can there be

Mercy still reserved for me?

Can, my God, Your wrath forbear—

Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

It's my only hope,

You're my only hope!

It's my only hope of Heaven—

At the cross forgiven!

I have long withstood Your grace,

Long provoked you to Your face,

Would not harken to Your calls,

Grieved You by a thousand falls,

It's my only hope,

You're my only hope!

It's my only hope of Heaven—

At the cross forgiven!

There for me the Savior stands,

Shows his wounds and spreads His hands,

Face to face before the Son

And like Isaiah I'm undone . . .

Depth of mercy, vast and free,

So much deeper than the sea,

God of love, You heard my cry,

Now into Your open arms I fly!

It's my only hope,

You're my only hope!

It's my only hope of Heaven—

At the cross forgiven!

Jesus was her "Only Hope" of Heaven (just as He is my only hope of Heaven). With Him in her heart and crying out such songs to Him, I know my precious baby is now safely nestled in her Heavenly Father’s arms where I’ll someday see her again. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for such a precious Valentines Day gift, sweeter than anyone could ever give to me!

Exerpts from my blog post of February 24, 2009

Merry Katherine’s Valentines Day Present For Me, 2009

Wednesday's Woe - Grief and Trauma Overwhelms

Grief & trauma overwhelms & energy is often depleted~

Keeping a head above the water can be a struggle...

~Danielle Helms

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Please click the link below, and watch the video.
(If you are not already my Facebook Friend, I would love to have you join me!)

Get some tissues; you may cry - I did...all the way through it! So touching and precious.

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=1276806040&k=Z4BZQ5Q2Q5TFWBMIQBY4Y5PQVQJAX22E&oid=1256075279362

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Grief Is Like Despair, Sucking Our World of All Its Air

(Jesus) will reply,

"Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these,

you did not do for Me."

Matthew 25:45

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

Charles Dickens

Help me Lord to faithful be

To open the eyes of the blind, to help them see—

Oppress-ed souls bowed down with grief

Blinded by pain, burdened down with hurt, finding no relief—

Father, Grief is like despair,

sucking our world of all its air,

It’s so hard to breathe:

Gloom so heavy sits upon our souls—we cannot function with no reprieve.

Come Lord Jesus, send Your compassion raining down,

Refreshing our soul, soothing our frown.

Draw closer into Your bosom our grieving, bleeding hearts—

To breathe in the comfort Your sweet Love imparts;

Seal the many gaping holes of our Death-ravaged hearts,

Pierced through repeatedly with Satan’s poison-laced darts.

Anxiety overtakes us in Death’s dark wake

As we see visions of violence our loved ones did partake

On the night of their death-watch, their bodies were left—

Bereft . . .

As their precious bodies, their spirits were forced to

Forsake.

Our bodies too are restless—from so many nightmares we awake

As we’ve been thrown into the harsh realities of this sin-riddled world

That ravaged and destroyed our precious boy or girl—

Our souls are sent reeling, pulled under into Death’s down-sucking eddy

Where no relief seems possible as our souls sink

Further

And

Further

Under

Grief’s

Drowning

Lead.

Folks say—But life goes on. . .

But we say—Oh yeah? How?

As our souls drop deeper and drift out farther

Sucked out into Death’s deep, darkened water

As if trapped in a runaway, sinking ship,

Our souls clutched in its death-hold grip

In Grief’s cold, stark bow,

Dragged further and further from shore, our anchor finds no bottom now.

Lord, we’ll go completely under unless Your Spirit rescues us—now.

Save us

in the clutch

of Your Death-defying,

Life-restoring

Spirit—

Come, Lord Jesus, some way, somehow,

..Save us.............................................................Now.

.........From......................................................Lord

.................... Sorrow’s...........................Please

.............................Seemingly Bottomless Waters

http://twitpic.com/ebsxy Picture by Danielle Helms, Fellow Grieving Mother and Friend

Poem - Grief Is Like Despair, Sucking Our World of All Its Air - Written 7/15/08 - Angie Bennett Prince