Awake My Soul

Awake My Soul 

by Mumford  and Sons

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
My weakness I feel I must finally show
Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall 
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see 
But your soul you must keep, totally free 
Awake my soul, Awake my soul 
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die 
And where you invest your love, you invest your life 
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die 
And where you invest your love, you invest your life 
Awake my soul, Awake my soul, Awake my soul 
For you were made to meet your maker

I really love this Mumford and Sons song. It's a folk song with great heart and deep meaning. I was first introduced to it last fall when Rich Stearns, President of World Vision, spoke at our church about the need of clean water in Africa. I liked it so much, that I put it on my running mix since I was training for a half marathon for Team World Vision. Every time that song played it reminded me that we are called to do something bigger than ourselves. The marathon came and went but the song stayed with me.

Our pastor just did a series on seasons of the heart that we all go through and how they are manifested in our lives. Spring...a time of re-birth, summer....when everything is going your way and you get a glimpse of just how great Heaven will be one day, autumn...a time of harvest of the things and relationships we have sown in our lives and the dreaded winter when everything is cold and dead. But we learned some cool things about winter. Even though the landscape can be covered in frost, there is still stuff going on under all that snow. It is a time of hunkering down, a time of focus of things to come, a time to depend on God to help you through the situation that brought on winter in the first place and most importantly, I learned it can be a rich place to learn just what you're made of. When my son, Brian, was injured and broke his neck in 2007, winter came to our home (that story will have to be a series of post). I had always considered myself a positive and extremely optimistic person but whenever I was alone I would say to myself, "I could just cry" but since I hate crying, I rarely did. My day would be humming along but this little black cloud, okay, sometimes a thunderhead, would follow me everywhere. I thought I would be in winter until Brian walked again but spring came anyway last year. I can't put my finger on one thing. There were lots of good things that happened. Brian continued to make physical recovery and regained tons of independence and my daughter, Kristin, moved out and started her life after a year of searching for a great job. Also, I decided to get healthy and start to look outside myself and committed to start living life as an "epic adventure" as author Donald Miller writes.


The first verse of Awake my Soul...wow really hits home. I've  been a believer my whole life but the world was telling me "lies" and I was starting to believe them. My heart was fickle, my eyes woozy and trying to focus from being hit upside the head with the traumatic injury of my boy. The stanza "the weakness I feel, I must finally show"...gosh I hate that. Here I am, admitting that I am weak. I think weak goes with that crying thing. I just don't do sad very well. I am always in a hurry for the sad to be over and the laughing to begin.


I do believe that "where you invest your love, you invest your life." You can tell what is really important to someone by observing how they spend their time. I can waste so much time. On some days, one would think I own stock in face book or maybe think I get a dollar for everything I google...what a royal waste of time (but just let me add here that face book and google are still on my list of fun stuff). I've decided to love on the people I've met through Brian's injury and to be an encouragement to them. This is going to be a LONG journey and we have met so many wonderful people through all of this. Finally, the line, "you were made to meet your maker" tells of a loving God who created us, and desperately wants a relationship with us...we were made for that!


So AWAKE MY SOUL! Let me be wide awake with the knowledge that spring does follow winter and what was once dead is now alive!