How Sweet The Sound

I love the song Amazing Grace. I was my grandmother's favorite song. My cousin, Anna, sang it at her church a few weeks before she was killed in a car accident. My mom had it played at her wedding, even though it's generally not a wedding song. In August, as it played Brandy and I walked into the sanctuary holding hands, getting ready to stand up and give our mother's eulogy. She and I had just stood in the bathroom looking at ourselves in the mirror and saying 'I am my mother's daughter and I can do anything'. And at the end of the service we sang a different version, as my brain tried to figure out what to do next. I find it difficult to listen to it without tearing up, and yet I would listen to it every day.

I just watched the movie, Amazing Grace. When I put it on my Netflix cue I thought there was a movie out about the person who wrote the song and assumed that was it. While it does have the man who wrote the song in the movie, it's more about someone who knew him and the abolition of slavery in England. And it's nothing short of amazing.

As I watched it I found myself wanting to find out if William Wilberforce (a name I had never heard of an now am amazed by) saw all his work come to pass or if slavery wasn't abolished until after he died. Which made me think of the fact that we all want that, don't we. We want to know that what we've been working on and striving for means something. And we want to see it. Galatians 6:9 says 'And let us now weary of well doing, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.' It almost confirms that we are going to see the results of our good works if we keep working. And yet, reality says that is not always the case.

Which brings me to what I've been pondering recently...perspective. I've truly realized that all of life can be changed by perspective. My favorite phrase to keep me from going insane with something that feels like it is taking forever is 'this is just what I am doing today'. Instead of looking at it as something I need to get done before I move onto the next thing, I look at it as what I'm doing that day. Then when it's over I move onto the next thing in line. It's a matter of perspective on my day. I've also been working on perspective on my life. If I believe that there is a heaven (and I do), and if I believe that I'm going there (and I do), then this life, no matter how rough it seems right now is a really, tiny, ity bity slice of the big pie of life. The big pie of life in eternity has me on this earth for (let's be REALLY optimistic on life span) 100 years. If I put my perspective on eternity then, these 100 years on earth don't seen all that large.

And it brings me to the next thing I've been contemplating recently (notice I've been doing a lot of contemplating and not a lot of blog writing). What am I going to do with these 100 years that is going to be worth something from the perspective of eternity? I would love to do something that matters in those 100 years, but I have finally come to the point where I care more about doing something that is going to last much longer. And it's very possible that in order to do that I won't necessarily see the result with my eyes. Which brings us back full circle to William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery. Something that I think was really impressive about his life was that he seriously contemplated leaving politics in order to serve God. But what he realized was that God had placed him right where he was - in politics - to serve Him. God has placed me in a specific spot, given me a specific set of skills, allowed me to have a specific set of experiences, and has planned for me a specific grand purpose, which He says in His Word is beyond anything I can imagine. My job is to listen close enough to him, and persevere long enough with Him that I can make a difference in both this world and eternity.

The trick is making my brain wrap about that and accept it because it is far easier to contemplate than to life out...but then again aren't most things? So I will leave you with what has become one of my favorite stanzas in Amazing Grace, a stanza which I didn't actually notice until just recently...it's amazing what you can miss if you aren't looking...talk about perspective.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures,
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

And the version we sang at the end of my mom's service.