Showing The Way Out
I remember when I tried to write my first real song. With the perspective of a High School teenager I took pen to paper and sat in my room for hours writing around the title “Even Superman Bleeds”. After I had I finished I took it to my father who told me I was not quite done yet.
He looked at the pages carefully and told me something that I have never forgotten.
My father scanned the pages several times and when he looked up he said, “Josh, you’ve done a great job painting the picture of the situation and the emotion that surrounds it. But it’s missing the most important part. You need to show a way out.”
My Dad went on to explain that people needed to know that there is hope, healing, mercy, grace and salvation in this life. I think it’s something we know but sometimes when a situation brings us into a strong emotional state we run the danger of trapping ourselves and others within.
I know this because I’ve been there.
As I watch so many people cope with the disaster in Joplin I know the same challenge is set before us. We must remember “the way out”.
We have two opportunities following this tragedy. We can be a reservoir of pain or an avenue of Hope.
I know one can certainly seem easier than the other. But the problem with assuming the role as the reservoir is that it produces nothing more than destruction. Not only for for yourself but for those around you. Imagine you are in a burning building with a group of people. Is it better to focus on the hopelessness or how to get everyone out?
The reality is that there is an exit.
I hope you choose to be an avenue of Hope. We are watching so many people rise up and show that path to recovery and healing. There certainly is a time for grief and sorrow. I have no doubt about that. But its a place we were not meant to stay. When we know “the way out” I believe we have that responsibility to share that with others.
I believe that healing is happening in this moment. I know that there is a God who loves us. I know that if we reach out for that redemption it is within our grasp.
With some help from my father I did finish that song. And thanks to help of a Godly man an avenue of Hope was placed in the lyrics and in my life.
2 Corinthians 4:5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all‑surpassing power is from God and not from us.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
P.S.
Below is an amazing song written for the city of Joplin. Mark Laperle did a wonderful job of providing that avenue of Hope in his song “Sing Again”.
