He Is With You--Mandisa

I had the great privilege of attending Mandisa's concert last night with a great group of ladies who all had "Mommy/Daughter" dates with their girls. These are all women I've done one of Kelly Minter's Bible Studies with and they are all very introspective, honest, real gals. I fully expect that each of their daughters will end up being Bible-thumping, Jesus-loving Christian women.

Needless to say, I didn't have a daughter to take along, though Hooman did suggest, since his hair has gotten so long, that he could have passed as my date.

Nice try, dude. Thanks for the reminder that Dad needs to take you for a haircut.

We were all really blessed by the company and the chance to put daughter's faces with names. Each of those girls is a joy, in her own way. Some are shy as church mice. Some are all smiles and laughter. Some are sullenly pre-pubescent. But, truly, each of them is a blessing to her Momma.

I waited most of the night for Mandisa to get to "the song". You know the one: it's the reason you paid to go to the concert in the first place. For me, it was the reason I fell in love with Mandisa at "Women of Faith" 2009 and cried tears of love for Christ on the cusp of what became the most ridiculous six-month roller coaster ride of my life.

From the first time I heard it, I loved the line "Cryin' God, what'd You do that for?"

Oh, do I love that line.

Why don't we ask that more often? Why don't we cry out to God for explanation, even if there isn't one?

That crying out is what makes us human. What connects us with Him. What breaks our hearts and causes us to want to stick by His side because He is the only One who knows AND understands.

Asking makes us whole again, even if, in the moment, we aren't given a reason why. It makes us whole again because we are communicating to Him in our great grief, even if we never get an answer this side of Heaven.

This song gives me great hope that God is on my side, through thick and thin; that He loves me, even when I don't understand and all I can do is cry out to Him and weep until there are no tears. It gives me hope that my great advocate sees everything that happens in my life and cares about every minor and major pain that I endure.

I hope this song has the same impact on you that it has on me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3CVlv2dz3w


(Sorry about the cut and paste--still haven't figured out how to make the video function work....)