Choosing the solid rock.

I do not raise my hands when I sing in church.

There. I said it. I don't. I grew up in the Bible Belt in a sweet church that still feels like home when I walk in the doors but the most charismatic thing we did was to hold hands on Sunday night (every Sunday night) while we sang "Sweet Sweet Spirit." (I am smiling just thinking about it!)

But sometimes, I need you to know that I NEED to raise my hands. Worship music moves me in ways that I can not begin to understand or explain. God uses it to change my spirit more often that I care to admit my spirit NEEDS to be changed. And I firmly believe that sometimes, the truth just washes right over me through music allowing God to speak to my heart.

Oh, I love that.

Yesterday, I didn't think I had any big looming issues that God needed to confront. (Please smile. I always have issues.) My hubby was working, my oldest daughter was serving in the special ministries and my baby girl was in her Sunday School class, so it was just me and my boys.

The service was celebratory -- the 50th anniversary of Scottsdale Bible Church -- and the mood was jubilant throughout. My heart felt full as we sang the final song. But about half-way through, I almost choked up.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

The day before, I had just been questioning how a girl completely in love with the beach and the ocean could end up in the desert. I had just been voicing my dream of a beach house and wondering how that changed to a desert house. I had just been whining.

But the beach is not compatible with my boys. The wheelchair doesn't turn easily -- or at all -- on sand, so Benjamin is left on the edge of the action without a special beach chair that gets him to the water but doesn't allow him to be independent. Mason's power sticks sink in the sand making walking a challenge at best.

And so as we sang, I had the most beautiful mental image of what sinking in the sand looks like. How utterly incapacitating it can be. I was immediately grateful to God for knowing the needs of my family and placing us RIGHT where we need to be.

But it was more.

I was wanting to raise my hands. Wanting to scream to the rafters. That I have seen what it looks like to sink in sand, that I have experienced the inability to move an object through sand....I know how challenging any ground other than ROCK can be.

Please don't miss the mental image.

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness veils His lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand. 

No matter the landscape outside my window. No matter the storm of circumstances this life presents.

I wholly lean on Jesus' name.