Sloppy Wet Kiss

There is a powerful song performed by Kim Walker called "How He Loves Us". I heard it for the first time around five years ago and I was completely taken by how the music and lyrics portray the exhilarating, breath-taking reality that God loves us. It is still a very meaningful song to me and a fairly popular one among many Christians. However, there is one line in the song that has never quite sat right with me before.

The second verse ends, "...Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss / And my heart turns violently inside of my chest / I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way / He loves us, Oh how he loves us..."

When I heard "sloppy wet kiss" the only image that was brought to mind was adolescences who had not quite mastered the art of kissing. Any kiss I had experienced that could be described as "sloppy" and "wet" had not been enjoyable. Why would we use such an image to describe heaven meeting earth, God's love coming down to touch our hearts? If a kiss was being given from heaven to us, I can only assume it would not be sloppy or distasteful in any way! All of this changed in the last week.

I recently have been trying to teach my 11-month old daughter how to give kisses. For a few weeks I have been saying "kiss", and leaning in to kiss her forehead or cheek, hoping sometime the connection would be made and she would mimic this sign of affection back to me. And finally it happened. As she sat on my lap facing me, her chin was covered in drool and her mouth was wide open, but when I asked her for a kiss, she leaned her little face right into mine and planted her sloppy, wet kiss right on my lips! My heart filled to bursting with love and joy and pride and happiness as I received my first kiss from this dear little girl!

And almost right away I thought of this line from this song. I realized heaven is not the sloppy kisser, we are! Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss as we lean in to respond to God's invitation through grace. And when we get it for the first time, when we hear God's "Can I have a kiss?" and lean our messy, wet faces to kiss His, it is not uncomfortable or awkward. It is delightful! God's heart fills to bursting with a Father's love and He is so ecstatic at our return of His affection. He cheers and claps and swings us around in a big bear hug. When we become aware of His overwhelming love, that He is not evaluating, but delighting in us as we surrender to  Him, our hearts get rearranged. We cannot hold on to sorrow, regret, or our "if only's" because He loves us!

Oh how He loves us!

In the Flow

I've felt it when I'm running on the elliptical in the morning. When just the right song starts to play in my headphones, with just the right speed to match the rhythm of my feet. And suddenly my tiredness goes away, and I no longer feel like I'm struggling uphill. But instead I'm in the groove, in the flow. My body matching the tempo of the music. And for a few minutes, this crazy

All Out of Words

Brian Doerksen has a song on his album It's Time called "More".  It talks about how he needs God more than anything - more than oxygen, food, the warmth of the sun, the passionate expression of song.  It is very reminiscent of Psalm 63:


¹ O God, you are my God;
      I earnestly search for you.
   My soul thirsts for you;
      my whole body longs for you
   in this parched and weary land
      where there is no water.
 ² I have seen you in your sanctuary
      and gazed upon your power and glory.
 ³ Your unfailing love is better than life itself;


Your love is better than life.  I need you more than anything life-sustaining, more than anything beautiful, more than anything that provides fulfillment in life.  I need you and love you more than anything.


This is intense!  But I think a very appropriate adoration of our amazing God.  He sustains our every breathe, He provides the food and water we need to survive.  And His love is better than life!


And then, in Brian's song, there's this moment at the end when he has gone through this wonderful list of things that God's love is better than, where he throws out this line, "I'm all out of words..." And they proceed to go into a sweet instrumental outro to finish the song.


That line defines my worshipers heart sometimes.  You get to a point where you have tried to express in words the beauty and magnitude of God, trying to express through words how your heart responds to this amazing God, and you realize, "I'm all out of words".  And you throw your hands up, and dance, or cry, or just play your instrument with all the passion you can, try to find a way to express the love, the gratitude, the awe that is bursting from the inside out.


Sometimes I have had people ask me why we have to do repetitive songs, just sing the same line over and over.  Or what the point of a high energy instrumental is in worship.  To me, this is why - because sometimes I'm all out of words.  My heart needs to worship but my words just don't cut it anymore.  And I think for me something happens between my own spirit and God's that is outside of the music, that is beyond trying to sing about God's greatness through well crafted words.  My words fail, and my spirit cries out to Him in a way He can understand.

Come, Lord Jesus

I've always been told that when you hear a word or theme repeated it means you should probably start paying attention.  For example, in a Bible passage, if the word Love is in it 10 times, it probably means its pretty important.  Or in my daily walk with God, sometimes the same theme will come out in the Sunday morning sermon, my Monday time of reading the Bible, and through talking to a friend the next day.  Obviously the Spirit is trying to get my attention on the topic.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of new music from a variety of artists and groups.  And a theme has emerged, one that has struck a chord inside.  Here are some of the key lines that have caught my attention:

Aaron Keys:
We are longing, Hope is dawning, Heaven's falling, Come Lord Jesus

Jesus Culture:
My soul longs for you, my soul longs for you
Nothing else will do, nothing else will do
I believe You will come like the rain
I believe You will come like the rain

Hillsong:
I have decided, I have resolved to wait upon You Lord
My Rock and Redeemer, Shield and Reward, I'll wait upon You Lord
As surely as the sun will rise, You'll come to us
Certain as the dawn appears
You'll Come, Let your glory fall as You respond to us
Spirit Reign, flood into our thirsty hearts again
You will come, You will come


The first word that kept catching my attention was "Come."  Usually when I hear the phrase "Come Lord Jesus" it is refering to Jesus return, as in Come back and get us and take us to Heaven.  But these songs are expressing longing and asking Jesus to come to the singer within their present circumstances.  Come Jesus, be present with me where I am, fill me up with you, with hope, with strength. 

Then what caught my attention was the waiting, the longing.  My soul longs for you.  We are longing.  I'll wait upon You Lord.  Right now I'm not going through anything particularily hard myself.  But something inside still resonates so deeply to these thoughts.  The picture of someone facing trouble, facing heart ache but choosing not to loose hope when it feels like God is far away - but choosing to have hope, to long, to pray, to wait, to know that Jesus will come to them.  Jesus will come.  Come like the rain - oh how that would feel to someone living in drought.  Come like the dawn - of how that would feel to someone living in darkness. 

Is it ok for us to express these feelings?  To say to God - where are you?  I need you, please come!?  Are we not supposed to trust that even when we cannot feel Him, He is right there with us?

When I looked for this concept in the Bible, I discovered the Psalms are littered with cries just like this. 

Ps 6:3 - My soul is in deep anguish.  How long, Lord, how long?
Ps. 13:1 - How long will you hide your face from me?
Ps. 22:19 - Come quickly to help me
Ps. 31:2 - Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue, be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress for me
Ps. 71:12 - Do not be far from me, my God, come quickly God to help me

And then this well known promise in Isaiah

Is. 40:31 (KJV) - But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

And Lam 3:25-26 "The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.


So it is good to wait, to hope.  It is good to cry out to Him.  And He will come.

Music Theory is to Playing Music as...

...Israel is to the Reading the Bible.

OK, I admit, I am a nerd because I do like music theory.  My sweet husband actually said this the other night.  And to me it made complete sense... Music theory is to playing music as visiting Israel is to reading the Bible.

Let's start with Israel.  Two friends of ours recently did go to Israel.  And on their return you could tell they just experienced something very significant.  One of the comments from them afterwards was that reading the Bible will never be the same.  That before this, they loved reading the Bible - learning from it, wrestling from the tough parts, gaining comfort and strength from God's Word.  But before the Bible was still black and white words written on the page.  After seeing, hearing, walking, experiencing and learning in the context that the Bible was created in - Now the Bible is alive to them.  Full of colour and action and life.

Music theory is the context in which music is created.  Not nearly as significant as the Bible, but I feel it does apply.  You can listen to music and even play music without understanding why it sounds good.  It can be beautiful and move you inside.  Music theory adds the context that allows you to know why it sounds so good, and I believe that enhances the beauty.  It's the difference between "That sounds cool" and "That was amazing because..."  Music theory also adds the context that allows you to know if and why music sounds bad.  Without theory, if you play something that sounds awful, all you can say is "I hope I don't do that again!"  But with theory you can figure out what just happened and make a new musical choice.  Music theory for a player changes it from needing to be told what to do, to having the ability to think about what music expression you want to make, and give you the tools to do it.

And yes, I just found an online music theory exam to do for fun....

He Loves Us

I'm sitting here at the computer before 7am checking my email and as the newly risen sun is streaming in the window, Kim Walker's song "He Loves Us" is playing on my little ipod shuffle.  And I am struck by the raw and awesome reality of those words.  God loves us - not in a calm, controlled way, not because He has to, but He loves us in a wild, undeserved, overwhelmingly powerful way.  Something in my spirit just feels like bursting with praise and tears and love when I listen and sing along with this song!  Oh how He loves us, oh how He loves us.  I am completely unashamed of how His love can leave me a complete mess!  A mess of gratitude!

If you have never heard this song, or need to again, check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps