Alive and Breathing
This week I came across another wonderful song which seems so appropriate to today. It is "Alive and breathing" by Mat Maher. The words are below and you can listen to it on You Tube.
What spoke to me was the fact that if we have the privilege of being alive and breathing today we have a lot to be thankful for. It is easy to be brought low by the loss of loved ones, our own fear of Covid 19 (or many other things) and the restrictions on our circumstances which are still part of life at the moment. Too often we (myself definitely included) can tend to focus on the negative.
Life itself is a gift. As well as grieving for those who have died, we should value the fact that we are still able to enjoy the gift of life.
The song asks "What holds your heart, What stirs your soul". I heard these words as I was driving to Red Rock, between Wigan and Chorley. Red Rock is the site of Bridge 63 on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal - a place that stirs my soul. On a sunny summer morning it felt good to be alive and heading to somewhere I enjoy being so much.
My attachment to the Canal goes back to 2013 when I first walked from Liverpool to Leeds as part of a Sabbatical. Actually, as I looked back, there had been connections with the Canal for many years. It was as if God had been drawing me there all my life. At that stage in my life, in 2013, I was aware that I was always looking forward to my holidays - especially the ones in Malta - and sometimes life in between seemed lacking in enjoyment. Discovering the delights of canal walking gave me something that sustained my spirit. I have found that I often experience God on my walks.
The song says that "years roll by" and the seven years since I first walked the Canal have gone quickly. Yet the Canal still feeds the "child inside" mentioned in the song. This week, when I walked from Red Rock to Chorley and back, the passing cyclists were unusually polite and considerate and even the shower as I sat eating my lunch couldn't dampen my spirits. The words that I had heard on the way were proved true "joy still comes in the morning".
This joy comes from Jesus, and the song reminds us that "there's still good news worth repeating".
I hope you can find joy and hope even if you are hurting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJt-PYiu_-c
What stirs your soul
What matters come to mind
The cares you keep
The thoughts you think
It's not all wasted time
Seek and you will find
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you're still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don't stop dancing and dreaming
There's still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord
We wonder why
We lost our way from home
Our Father finds
The child inside
We had left for growing old
Awake, awake, awake my soul
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you're still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don't stop dancing and dreaming
There's still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord
My sister and brother in law own a small canal boat and would endorse everything you have written about encountering God in the quietness of the waterside and nature season by season. Clive's family tree is rooted in Black Country boat-people and they count their blessings that his heritage is now a source of such leisure and pleasure. They were banned from visiting the mooring for a long while in the early days of lockdown and the joy of being allowed back on board mirrors the delight you describe.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback. The Canal is certainly a place of spiritual blessing for many
DeleteThanks Peter words that very much help me in GCSE and A-Level results week. A walk along that canal sounds just the ticket relaxation wise too. Hope youre well :-)
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how the modern songwriter can echo what is at the heart of so many Psalms. These are beautiful words you have shared. The one I return to most often is Blessed be Your Name by Matt Redman.
ReplyDeleteThank you again for inspiring words.
Dave