Photo: Britni – Birdcage Release (granddaughter of Dr. John Bisagno)
My dear friend, Steve Seelig, has experienced way more than his share of health challenges over the last several years but none of us was ready to hear the news of a brain tumor. This was far more than any of us imagined Steve and his family would ever have to endure. As many of you know, God has been giving him songs in the morning, songs in the evening and songs in the night throughout his cancer journey … how beautiful is that? He called me a few days ago to say, “Guess what I woke up singing this morning?” I was curious, of course. He said, “Welcome to Delaware,” with a little happiness in his tone.
It’s so beautiful how a song written so long ago can come and flood you in a new season of life and you are able to remember the faithfulness of God all over again! I’m so grateful that songs are what God often uses to hit us right smack in the soul … right where we need it. As I began to think of the lyrics and melody and sing it over in my mind again, I thought about Steve singing it. It made me smile. What a place of surrender, in the middle of the darkest night of his soul, to be able to sing and say “God I know that You led me here. I’m not sure what You’re doing and it’s colder, darker and more unfamiliar here than I ever thought possible. But I know that You, my God, are with me and all that I really need is You!”
That’s what “Welcome to Delaware” means … welcome to the bitter, cold unfamiliar season of the soul… but welcome to a chance to see things like you’ve never seen them before. To the degree to which we surrender ourselves fully to God in this kind of season is the degree to which we begin to experience a sweeter joy somehow than we’ve ever known. In times of suffering, in my own story, like the wintry season that I lost two babies from back-to-back miscarriages, I can remember the strange tension in my soul … that somehow it was both the hardest yet one of the sweetest times of my life. That is the comfort of our Father in times of deepest pain. Somehow even through our fear and the dread of the unknown we know to breathe in deeply because His presence is especially near. That somehow through the pain He forms places of glittering gold in our hearts … through the fire of troubles and trials we come out shining for His glory, on display for Him!
Whatever season of the soul you are in, I pray that You have eyes to see that God has led you right where you are! He is with you and is longing for you, even on unfamiliar soil, to settle where He’s led you so you can watch Him work. So many of us are familiar with Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” However, I think it’s pretty amazing that a few verses before that, God gives His people (whom He led from Jerusalem into the foreign land of Babylon) some very specific instructions. Jeremiah 29:5-7, God says, “’Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.’” God is basically saying “Settle here, put down roots and increase… seek the prosperity of the city. Wow! He’s saying, even look beyond your own needs to the needs around you. That is powerful!
Even though we may not understand it or even like where He has led us, by “settling” on foreign soil we say with our lives, “God, I trust You in every season of my soul … that You are for me and You are with me.” Sometimes it takes Him stripping away all that is familiar, every comfort and solace of home, even sometimes the health of our bodies, for us to see that He is truly all that we need. The best part is that just when you don’t expect it, He shows up and says, “Welcome!” He says, “I know this isn’t what you planned, but I know the plans I have for you.” He says, “I know you can’t quite grab onto anything familiar, but reach out for me because I’m here and I really am all that You need.”
-Christy Nockels
christynockels.com
You can listen to Nathan & Christy’s “Welcome to Delaware” here
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