Add to the Beauty...

'I don't want to leave here, I don't wanna stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
And the places i long for the most are
the places where i've been,
They are calling out to me like a long lost friend

I've been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacks
Because the future feels so hard and I wanna go back...
But the places that used to fit me cannot hold the things
I've learned, and those roads were closed off to me
while my back was turned...'

It's funny--not really funny ha ha, just more like amazing to me how much mercy can be found in just one morning. Yesterday, I was feeling a bit down about the month in general. I'm a bit homesick and it's been a slow month. Regardless of the reasons, I found myself picturing myself back in places where I longed to be, and that wasn't here... but this song came to mind. 'I've Been Painting Pictures Egypt' Not that where I used to be was bondage or Egypt, by any means, but maybe it was because He called me from there and I didn't want to leave at first, it was too comfortable...but it wasn't and isn't what He has for me right now...so I'm called to be here inside and out. I pondered over those words yesterday only to find some redemption in a strange place this morning...another song by the same artist (Sara Groves). I can't help but wonder if she has felt some of the emotions that I have felt over the course of this crazy but beautiful journey. Because in the light of a new sunrise and some prayer and some fresh mercy this morning, I'm feeling like 'Adding to the Beauty' here in this place and I'm ready to do it. These are the words to the song I listened to this morning:

'Redemption comes in strange places,
Small spaces calling out the best of who we are
And i wanna add to the beauty...
I want to tell a better story
Shine with a light that's burning up inside

And this is grace, an invitation to be beautiful,
And this is grace, an invitation...'