Songs to Live by: Come Alive by Mark Schultz

As I've said before, coming up with blog topics during the pandemic has been rather difficult without seeming insensitive or disingenuous, which is one of the reasons why my posts have become more sporadic as of late. But now that the vaccination is available, and the restrictions are beginning to unravel, we're slowly inching our way back to normal.

I still remember the beginning of 2020. Before the virus came to town, that was the year I was finally going to publish a book. But after Corona cost me my job, I like many others went into survival mode. What good were dreams and ambitions when the rug was being yanked out from under us? Priority one was reclaiming stability. But now that things have settled down, it can be difficult to fully return to what we had before. Like a house that's been robbed, that sense of invincibility has been shattered, and we wonder if we'll ever be the same again. In his song, Come Alive, Mark Schultz addresses a similar mindset and encourages others to reclaim the joy in their lives.

Whatever happened to your childlike wonder? Whatever happened to your heartfelt faith? You used to live your life with such a hunger. What happened to those days?

We've all had these moments. Whether it's blind ambition or youthful optimism, we all remember when we wanted to change the world. My sister wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and then an Olympic swimmer before finally settling on a navy midshipman. I went from pianist to video-game designer and then settled on being a writer. But as it often does, life finds a way to wear down those ambitions and quell that optimism. The man voted most likely to succeed in high school spends the next seventeen years as a cashier at a lousy burger stand. The girl who dreamed of being a star of stage and screen ends up wasting her talents on gum commercials. Dreams get crushed and mashed into complacency and contentment in mediocrity. And eventually, we look back on those dreams as foolish prattlings of an immature child that never had a chance of being real.

Your smile used to tell a beautiful story. But every life will make a few wrong turns. And now you hide your heart afraid that you're too far beyond repair. Oh but I am His.

The feeling of too far gone can sink in fairly easily regardless of how much time has actually passed. The temptation to give up assaults us every day. In my case with my writing, those doubts and fears came in the form of statements like:

"Your first story was a complete mess. What makes you think you're any better now?"

"Do you really think you're adding anything new to the literary world? Someone else can do what you're doing twice as good and twice as fast."

"Stop kidding yourself. You're the guy who can't finish anything. So why are you wasting your time?"

That's the big one. The feeling that you're wasting your time. For artists like me, it can take a long time and a lot of work just to get a sprout growing, much less the fruits of your labor. And it's very easy to feel like you're just spinning your wheels and not making any progress. Another temptation that comes around is to do something that would be more productive in the short-term instead of giving up completely. Like the proverbial seed that falls on rocky soil, as soon as the hardships starts, you give up too easily. And soon, you're wondering why you even started to begin with. So what do you do?

So bring your broken heart to me. Lift your heart and you will see. That love can make a heart that's barely beating...Come Alive! Come Alive!

There are multiple verses about the healing power of God. But the simplest one is Isaiah 40:29. "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." God can restore that lost drive and passion. He can renew your will to live. He can give you the hope and endurance to survive life's struggles and pains. That doesn't mean it won't hurt, but you can withstand it.

My love is stronger than your weakest moment. My grace is greater than your worst mistake. No matter where you've been, I'm waiting at the end of every road.

God knows everything you have done, are doing, and ever will do, and He's more powerful than all of it. No matter how far you fall or how high you fly, He's always there for you. Psalm 139 says, "If I ascend to the Heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol (Hell), you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle by the farthest sea, even there Your hand will guide me; Your right hand will hold me fast." And if God can indeed wipe away all of our wrongdoings, then there are no excuses for giving up on dreams.

Close your eyes. Let Me love you, I'm by your side. X2

Healing is difficult to go through. It's raw, painful, emotional, and wearing. Because of that, there are some people out there that deliberately resist any attempt at doing so. They avoid therapy, they avoid emotional support, and they avoid trying to repair themselves in any way. They do that because it's easier to just ignore whatever's wrong with them and stay content in their mediocrity. That's why so many professionals will tell you that admitting that you have a problem is the first step to solving it; because a lot of people are too miserable, too prideful, or too stubborn to even go that far.

And even when it all goes wrong, there's no such thing as too far gone, and love can make a heart that's barely beating...Come Alive! Come Alive!

As long as you're still breathing, there's still a chance to heal and a chance to live. Take it.