Do you hear that?
The hollow.
The emptiness.
The isolation.
The sound of void.
You look for other things to fill the void.
You search and search, but what are you searching for?
Everything else awakens desire, temptation, anything to fill in that void and it is still not enough.
You were too busy looking for something else that you didn’t see what is right in front of you.
He has been there the entire time.
He can fill that void.
He can bring you happiness, joy, love, and peace.
Look for Him, turn to Him.
Seek Him and you will find exactly what you’ve been needing.

Time and time again I've failed you,
but you have never forsaken me.
You've always been there watching over me.
Your hand extended out to me to offer help,
but I never took the help.
I always wanted to live on my own terms.

But I've changed, through You.
I seek for help and guidance.
I seek for a relationship with you.
Much more than singing words for show,
and attending services to be a good person.

I seek to be more like You.
I seek to grow in You.
I seek to sing with passion for You.
I seek to live a life full of compassion and love.
I seek You.

As I sat down with my friend
To talk we began

One on one
Open conversation

A bond of trust
A must

Expressing her lost
Letting it out like a water fall

I understood and responded with a nod
I will tell her what I saw

Your Choices
Are influenced by someone voices
Or by your free will

So much noise
You can not think clear

The way you feel
You just want life to disappear

When you look in the mirror
You break down into tears

Your life is broken like glass is shattered
Hopeless and in despair

These words I would like to share
Because I care    

I have been there
Confused and afraid

My life I almost took away
A second chance I was given on that day

I fell a sleep that night
When I woke up I felt broken inside


I understood what I had done to myself
That’s when I started crying out for help

I was tired of the way I felt
Tired of being wrapped up in the devil's belt

Tired of being a mess
Tired of feeling depress

For three days I rode the bus
Thinking and to God, I was speaking

In change, I was in search
Invited to go to church

I learned the meaning of the cost of love
That a man came from above

He took all my pain
He forgave

All my wrong were wiped away
I was never the same

He was whipped
He was mocked

They placed a crown of thrones on His head
Hung on a cross unit He was dead

They Pierced His side and He bled
Into hell, He descends

To take back the keys of death
No longer will the devil control our flesh

On the third day, He was resin
To give us all back life’s breath

In Him, we find our rest
In Him, we find new life

This what I told my friend
Come, believe and confess

Put your trust
In Jesus Christ
Amen

You didn't just call me out
But you called me in
Into marvelous light
Not just out of sin

And I can't bear to stay
But I'm afraid to go
God, I don't even know
What it is I'm holding onto
anymore (x2)

Aren't You worth it?
Aren't You worth it?
You're worth all I have
and then some

God, You're worth it
You're worth it
I'll give all I have
and then some

And I don't have to stay
I'm not afraid to go
God take all that I have
all that I've been holding onto
Make it Yours

There's this thing about worship
that I often forget.

You see it's not just this thing
that we do on Sunday.
It's every day;
Every breath and movement of our hands
is done because we understand
that God's grace is not a prize we won.

It was a selfless giving of His only son
that He gave to rend our chains undone
and bring us into relationship with Him
by the victory over sin that we proclaim He won!

Yet somehow life still becomes some kind of rat race
trying to appear holy and saving face
with no admittance that we still need grace
and our response to that grace just kind of...

Disappears.

And then I wonder why I don't see His face,
why I'm not moved by His Word
why I'm not changed by His grace.
I wonder why I don't want Him around,
while my wrists are secretly bound
with shackles I like too much to take off.

But on Sunday morning I pray to be free
to realize that this Jesus did die for me
so that I could be with Him where He is one day,
yet day to day, I almost never say

God, I need you, and I'm not okay.

And I know it doesn't have to be this way!
I know He gave His Spirit, He promised that He'd stay
With me until the end of the age
and even in my deepest darkness His love for me is still the same
But God, oh God, I'm so ashamed
of all the things I've done while periodically praising Your name.

But there is no condemnation from You, You say.
You invite me to turn and run away
Into your arms and that I'll be changed--
That You will give me a new heart
and remove all of this shame
If I'd just confess my sin to You, You'd take the pain.

So I beg, and beg, that every day
My response to You would be the same
To run to You and admit my need
For Your grace, for Your love
above everything.

That I'd never not be responding
with my life, my work, and all my talking
to the Christ that stepped into time
to make me His, and make Him mine.

When the storms rage in my head
When I'm drowning in my dread
When I'm living like I'm dead
There You are

When I have no hand to hold
When I've lost sight of control
When I can't be strong or bold
There You are

And even though I see no sign above
I'm asking You to give me strength to trust

God You say that You're good
but everything I know
seems so out of control
And I can't make sense
of where you are in all this mess
and all I feel is my distress

But you say You're here
Could I know You're here?

Lord, You set the stars at night
You command the sun to rise
And when I open up my eyes
There You are

Oh, You calm the wind and waves
raised a dead man from his grave
with an arm that's strong to save
There You are

And even though I see no sign above
I'm asking You to give me strength to trust

God You say that You're good
but everything I know
seems so out of control
And I can't make sense
of where you are in all this mess
and all I feel is my distress

But You say You're here
Could I know You're here?

Here I lift this knife
Poised to take this life
You say stay your hand
Oh please, stay your hand
There's a better way
I will take your place
And you'll never be alone again

God I know that You're good
Take everything I know under Your control
I don't have to make sense
of how You're using all this mess
with love eclipsing my distress

And You say You're here
And I know You're here

Sixty-six chapters and sixty-six books
(please, Catholic brothers – no ***** looks)
were needed for God to make known His plan:
the gift of salvation and future of Man.

Yet sometimes it seems rather cryptically stated;
poor Israel must wait and will wait (as they’ve waited).

Isaiah took sixty-six chapters to tell it;
for two-thousand years has the Church tried to sell it –
must Christ and his teaching thus languish in mystery,
waiting offstage in the wings of His history?
(Wings of the cherubim, angels, and vultures
now beat down upon us, uniting our cultures
while tech surges up in a dizzy parabola
micro in management, global in formula…)

Sixty-six chapters to say it in Greek
(Aramaic – or Latin;  whatever they speak)
while the somnolent audience scrolls on their screens
in apocalypse trance over zombie machines.
The scrolls are unopened, the parchment still sealed
the slot-machine handle refuses to yield;
as the sixes line up towards the threshold of seven
the virgins sleep late in the Kingdom of Heaven.