Life Verse

Sunday, June 03, 2012 Posted by Joline

On a wintry January evening, morning, day, evening, and morning, back in 2001, I was struggling through the birth of my first child.

My "plan", (as in my meticulously thought-out birth plan), was not going according to, well, plan.

I'll spare you the particulars.

During one highly memorable excruciating point, I asked George to put on my favorite Hillsong worship CD. "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" was on that CD, and while I'd heard the song before, it had never caught my attention as it did during that moment.

This time, the song made me honkin' infuriated as it played because I couldn't quite make out a lyric. In the midst of a contraction I yelled, "WHAT?! He's taken me from WHAT?! I can't understand her!!! WHAT IS SHE SAYING?????!!!!!!"

Yes, it was that intense.My apologies to Darlene Zschech.

George answered gently, "Jo, He's taken you from the miry clay. Like, out of destruction and filth. And set your feet upon a firm rock."

"OH!!!!!!!!!! Well, OK THEN!!!!"

At the time, that lyric really didn't sink in. However, after Harper was born, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" became my worship song for us: mother/daughter. I sang it to her over and over and over, for God had indeed taken me from pain, back into life. And that life now included another new life. My precious newborn.

Thus, Psalm 40:2 will always stand out to me as a life-verse. I encourage you to read it in several translations - but for now, I give you the New American Standard to chew on. Enjoy.

"He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the ^[a]miry clay,

And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm."