broken – Song Dive

Loved By You

The next entry for my Blog is Loved By You, which was written by Paul T. Duncan, Jeffrey Thomas Pardo, and Riley Clemmons. It was first released May 19, 2023. A link to Riley Clemmons singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Sometimes I feel like I’m alone
A bit too broken, unseen, unknown
Sometimes the doubt starts creeping in
So come remind me once again

I am believed in, I am held on to
Don’t have to wonder who I belong to
I’m always wanted, always known
And always treasured, it’s true
I am loved by you

Hmm, it’s in your blood, it’s in your scars
How far you’d go to reach my heart
You call me chosen, you call me yours
And that’s all that matters forevermore

I am believed in, I am held on to
Don’t have to wonder who I belong to
I’m always wanted, always known
And always treasured, it’s true
I am loved by you

Loved by you
Ooh, yeah

I don’t deserve it, I never could
But you’re just that faithful, you’re just that good
How lovely it is to be loved by you
I don’t deserve it, I never could
But you’re just that faithful, you’re just that good
How lovely it is to be loved by you, yeah!

I am believed in (I am believed in), I am held on to (held on to)
Don’t have to wonder (I don’t have to) who I belong to (who I belong to)
I’m always wanted, always known
And always treasured, it’s true (it’s true, it’s true)
I am loved by you

I am loved by you
I am loved, loved by you, oh, yeah
I am loved by you

Do you ever feel as if you are completely alone and almost as if you have been abandoned? Sometimes we probably all get the feeling that we are really alone in this world and no one really cares about us. Maybe we ask ourselves the question, if I died tomorrow, how long would it be before anyone even knew I was gone? Once this doubt gets into our head, we really start wondering about our life and whether or not anyone cares about us. Maybe this feeling is triggered by a bad day a work, an accident, an argument with someone you love, or maybe a broken relationship. The more we think about it, the more insecure we become. We start thinking that perhaps we truly are all alone and always will be. Have you been there before or perhaps even feel this way as you start to listen to this song?

The chorus of this song reminds us that we are never alone and that we are loved more than we can even imagine. In the book of Matthew 28:20, we find this promise from Jesus, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” The chorus of the song reinforces the fact that no matter how we feel about ourselves and others around us, we are always loved. I think the real issue is that although Jesus is always with us, once we have accepted him as God’s son, we seem to forget about him and his omnipresence. Once we stop and take the time to open our hearts again, we feel his love and compassion. We are then reminded that he is always there and that he has never deserted us nor will he ever desert us. I suppose the real question is, why do we seem to forget about Jesus; especially in the most challenging times in our lives? Think about what he did for us; see the scars on his hands and feet from the nails, see the scars on his back from the beating, the scars on his head from the crown of thorns, and remember how he was put into a tomb. What is even more amazing is that he came back from the dead, to provide even more proof that he is eternal and is the son of God. If he did all of this just for each of us, why do we forget him in our daily lives? As the song says, we are always wanted, treasured, and loved by him.

Do we really deserve the love and promises of Jesus, I don’t think so; in fact, I know there is no way we could repay Jesus for his sacrifice for us. The really good news is that all he asks of us is to accept him for who he is, the sacrificial lamb that died on the cross for each of us so we could spend eternity with him. How many times have we turned our backs on him through our actions and words? Although we are unfaithful to him, he is always faithful to us; no matter what we have said or done in our lives. We don’t deserve his love, but he gives it to us anyway. Jesus loves us with an unfailing and eternal love. He will always be there to pick us up and dust us off when we fall. He is there with us in our deepest darkest moments. We are his greatest treasure; we are his children. We are told in the book of 1 John 3:1-2, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

The greatest treasures we will ever have are the love of Jesus and being able to spend eternity with him. Always remember that he is your number one fan, the one who is always with you, and never leaves your side.

Select to Hear Riley Clemmons Sing Loved By You

Who I Thought You Were

The next entry for my Blog is Who I Thought You Were, which was written by Olivia Lane, Jacob Stanifer, and Dustin Lolli. It was first released April 26, 2024. A link to Olivia Lane singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Yeah, they told me that you loved me, then they told me to toe the line
They said I should be scared of doing things I know you don’t like
Saying sorry every day
Cuz I was so afraid

That’d you leave me so I left you chasing dreams I never found
But through these tears here on my knees I’m begging you to come around
Then the God I learned to fear
You showed up and made it clear that

You were there in the darkness
You were there in my pain
You saw me in the valleys and still loved me anyways
It’s so nice to finally meet you
Why was I so afraid?
I have so much left to learn
But thank God you’re not who I thought you were

I always thought you’d be so angry, instead you’re patient and you’re kind
You are for me, not against me, for way too long I believed the lie
That there was only so much grace
But now I can finally say that

You were there in the darkness
You were there in my pain
You saw me in the valleys and still loved me anyways
It’s so nice to finally to meet you
Why was I so afraid?
I have so much left to learn
But thank God you’re not

Way too holy to want the broken
Way too proud to love the meek
Cuz now I know that what I fear
Is not having you with me cuz

You were there in the darkness
You were there in my pain
You saw me in the valleys and still loved me anyways
It’s so nice to finally to meet you
Why was I so afraid?
I have so much left to learn
But thank God you’re not who I thought you were

Who is God? What is God’s personality? Is God really a being full of wrath who is always threatening the world? It seems as if we frequently see God depicted as a being looking down on our world with a look of anger on his face and carrying a spear or trident, similar to a Neptune or Zeus image. Many people strongly believe that God is a vindictive being who has no tolerance for those who do not love him. In the past, there have been some teachers and preachers who tried to scare people into accepting God and they started to fear God instead of loving him.

On the other hand, people tell us how God is filled with love and compassion. So, which personality does God have? Should we be afraid of his anger, should we try to run and hide from him, or should we open our eyes, ears, and heart to his love? With all of the dimensions in God’s perceived personality, we get the feeling that we constantly fail God and need to apologize to him continuously since we all fail in some way every day. It is almost as if we are afraid to love him and also afraid to run away from him. Once we decide to love him, our greatest fear becomes disappointing God and being abandoned, no matter how scared we may be of him. We finally realize just how much he loves us.

I realize this is a quite a gloomy perspective to start this song, but I truly believe that many people live in a fear of a powerful God instead of living in the love that only God can give. This song tells us how people turn from God out of fear instead of running to his love. Once we begin to realize that God is on our side and stands with arms open wide, we come to him on our knees. We realize that in the darkest days of our life, God was there. When we thought we were alone and lost, God was there beside us all the time. It is almost as if we find that long last friend who we had been around for most of our life; we just never realized what they meant to us. Once we realize that we were acting all of our lives in poor judgement, we can’t believe how much we were loved and cared for during every day of our life. We reach a point where we can finally say, “I am so glad I met you and so happy to understand that I could not have lived my life without you.” In the book of Romans 5:8-9, we are told that God sacrificed his only son so that we could spend eternity with him. All he asks of us is that we accept the sacrifice he made. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Let this scripture sink in for a moment and think about whether you would be willing to pay this steep of a price for someone else.

Even though it took us so long to realize how we had misjudged God, he was never angry with us, he was never going to desert us; he always stood there beside us with his arms spread wide. He doesn’t hold our past against us, he wasn’t angry with us, he was not judging us; he was just waiting for us. This reminds me of a song “He Was There All the Time”, which was released back in 1988. You can read about this song in my Blog since it was one of my earlier posts. God started loving us before we were born and he holds no grudges against us. He loves us all, it doesn’t matter if we once hated him, ignored him, or rejected him. He even tells us in Psalm 103:12 that our past and our sins are no longer in his sight, “How far has the LORD taken our sins from us? Farther than the distance from east to west!” Even though God is perfect in every way, he accepts us just as we are. He goes from someone we fear to someone we love and can’t live without. Isn’t it amazing that we can have someone in our lives that will always love us and never fail us? We have no debt to pay to God, we only need to fall into his arms and thank him for not being the God we thought he was.

Click to Hear Olivia Lane Sing Who I Thought You Were

You Will Be Found

The next entry for my Blog is You Will Be Found, which was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. It was first released December 16, 2022. A link to Natalie Grant and Cory Asbury singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

You Will Be Found

Have you ever felt like nobody was there?
Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?
Have you ever felt like you could disappear?
Like you could fall, and no one would hear?

So let that lonely feeling wash away
Maybe there’s a reason to believe you’ll be okay
‘Cause when you don’t feel strong enough to stand
Well, you can reach, reach out your hand

And oh, someone will come running
And I know, they’ll take you home

Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you
And when you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in
‘Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
Lift your head and look around
You will be found
Yeah, you will be found
Ooh (hmm)

There’s a place where we don’t have to feel unknown
And every time you call out, you’re a little less alone
And oh, if you only say the word, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
From across the silence, your voice is heard, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Even when the dark comes crashing through
When you need a friend to carry you
And when you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So let the sun come streaming in
‘Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
If you’ll only look around (look around)
You will be found (you will be found)
You will be found, yeah, yeah

Out of the shadows (out of the shadows)
The morning is breaking (the morning is breaking)
All is new (everything is new)
Yeah, all is new (everything is new)
It’s filling up the empty
And suddenly, I see that (and suddenly, I see)
Everything is new, hmm

Even when the dark comes crashing through
And when you need a friend to carry you
And when you’re broken on the ground
You will be found
So when the sun comes streaming in
You’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
If you’ll only look around
You will be found

This is such a powerful song that reflects experiences that most of us have probably encountered at some point during our lives, even for only a brief period of time. As I listened to this song a few times in preparation for this entry, I started thinking about experiences I may have had, those I have heard about, or perhaps those I have witnessed. Take a moment to think about a time in your life when you felt as if you were all alone and that no one cared about you. It was a time when you may have truly believed that no one really loved you or wanted to be with you. For many people, these are feelings they have had in the past, or perhaps are having today as they are reading about this song. It is almost as if you enter into a bad dream of being all alone in the middle of nowhere and then you start to believe it is all true. You start thinking about whether or not people would even know you have disappeared. The thoughts like this continue to overwhelm and totally consume someone as they fall deeper into the bit of depression and despair. I believe the most descriptive example I can come up with is being stranded on a small deserted island all alone with no hope. I know there are many comics that depict this setting, but this is a real issue for many people. You truly feel as if no one really cares about you and would never miss you if you disappeared.

At some point, people give up all hope and fall to their knees in despair. This is perhaps the lowest point in someone’s life and the song states we just need to raise up our hand and know that it will be taken by the hand of God. He is always watching over us and is always there to help us in times of need. He doesn’t force us to do things, but once we turn to him and ask for this help; he grabs our outstretched hand and begins to bring us peace, love, and comfort. It doesn’t mean all of our problems go away, but it does mean that we do not have to face our problems alone. He is the ship that will rescue you from the island of despair and help bring love, joy, and hope back into your life. Once you have God in your heart and holding your hand, you can be lifted out of the deepest darkest pit or the smallest deserted island. He is the friend that perhaps you never had, a true friend you can depend on at all times. There are times when you have fallen flat on your face into a world of hopelessness, but he reaches down and brings you into his arms. He brings the sunshine back into your life and regardless of where you fall down or how often you fall down, he is there to put you back on your feet and fill you with hope. We can find the comfort we seek in the parable of the lost sheep in the book of Luke 15:3-7. “And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

We are the sheep that God protects and he never wants us to be alone and he doesn’t want us to be lonely, depressed, or discouraged. He knows we will have dark times in our lives and that we will stumble and fall in our lives, but he wants us to know that he is always there to bring light into our lives and always has his hand extended out to each of us. When you see that bright ray of sunshine breaking through the deep dark clouds, that is when you know God is there. The darkness of this world will continue to try and overcome us, but nothing can overcome the love and light that God brings. The more we call out to him, the less lonely we become, and the stronger we become as we face each and every day. We are never out of his sight, he is always there with us. He alone can lift us out of loneliness, addiction, despair.

Does this song describe the world you may be living in? If so, it is time for you to turn to God for hope, love, and direction in your life. You need to find a supportive church, you need to develop true friendships, and you may need to seek medical guidance. Just know that God will be with you every step of the way and will pick you up whenever life fails you. God doesn’t have to find you, he is there beside you. He promises us this in the book of Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Select to Hear Natalie Grant and Cory Asbury Sing You Will Be Found

Truth be Told

The next entry for my Truth be Told, which was written by Matthew West and Andrew Pruis. It was first released October 18, 2019. A link to Matthew West singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Lie number one you’re supposed to have it all together
And when they ask how you’re doing
Just smile and tell them, “Never better”

Lie number 2 everybody’s life is perfect except yours
So keep your messes and your wounds
And your secrets safe with you behind closed doors

Truth be told
The truth is rarely told, now

I say I’m fine, yeah I’m fine oh I’m fine, hey I’m fine but I’m not
I’m broken
And when it’s out of control I say it’s under control but it’s not
And you know it
I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit it
When being honest is the only way to fix it
There’s no failure, no fall
There’s no sin you don’t already know
So let the truth be told

There’s a sign on the door, says, “Come as you are” but I doubt it
‘Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowded
But didn’t you say the church should look more like a hospital
A safe place for the sick, the sinner and the scarred and the prodigals
Like me

Well truth be told
The truth is rarely told
Oh am I the only one who says

I’m fine, yeah I’m fine oh I’m fine, hey I’m fine but I’m not
I’m broken
And when it’s out of control I say it’s under control but it’s not
And you know it
I don’t know why it’s so hard to admit it
When being honest is the only way to fix it
There’s no failure, no fall
There’s no sin you don’t already know
So let the truth be told

Can I really stand here unashamed
Knowin’ that you love for me won’t change?
Oh God if that’s really true
Then let the truth be told

There’s no failure, no fall
There’s no sin you don’t already know
So let the truth be told

This is a very thought-provoking song. It directly challenges the honesty of each of us. I think most of us are likely to get offended when someone tells us we are not being honest, but in this case; I believe the writers are telling the truth about all of us. When someone asks you how you are doing today, what is your typical answer? Maybe we say I am fine, life is wonderful, never been better, and these types of responses seem never-ending. Why are we so reluctant to be completely honest with everyone? I know there is a litany of reasons, but I think the main reason is we just really don’t want to talk about it. We believe our problems are our problems and no one else needs to know about them. We basically put on our false façade and go on with our lives.

We are also of the opinion that everyone else’s life seems to be perfect, at least the piece of their lives that we see. Our view is that they don’t need to know what we are going through. Why do we take this approach? Maybe deep inside we are envious that their lives seem so perfect and we believe our lives are a mess when compared to theirs. So, once again we put up our façade and life goes on. We many times struggle to tell the truth to our friends and our family, even though they are perhaps the people who can help us the most. As I listened to the words of this song, it was a very sobering moment for me. I understand not wanting to share every intimate detail of our lives and also believing that my issues are my own and no one else’s business, but this mentality only hurts us more. Friends are actually our family in so many ways and they are the ones who are willing to listen to us, help us when they can, and not be judgmental. If your friends can’t meet these qualities, perhaps you need to evaluate the people in your life that you call friends. These are the people who love you and are not there to judge you, but are there to lift you up whenever you fall. I can understand that opening your heart and soul to true friends is a real challenge, it requires us to let our guard down in order to share our hurts. It requires us to let things go and realize that our friends are there to help us carry our burdens and give us the love and support we need.

With all of the comfort that our friends can offer, they still come short of giving the true inner peace that only God can provide. He is really the first place we should turn. It is great to have friends we can talk to who know us and care about us, but the true inner peace we are looking for can only come from God. He is the only one who truly knows our heart and our soul and is perhaps the only one who casts no judgement upon us. He is also the only one who can give us an eternal life of joy and happiness and unconditional love. He created us, he knows us, and all he asks of us is to accept his son Jesus as our personal savior. Once we accept Jesus, we are guaranteed that one day we will live in complete peace and harmony that far exceeds anything in our dreams. He is also the one who puts friends and loved ones in our lives so that we will have people who love us and want us to be happy and free from sadness and pain. Another positive in accepting Jesus as our personal savior is that we are then indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there to help bring us peace and help us to feel the love of God within us. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us we should not worry about anything and to put everything in God’s hands, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Maybe, one of the most disturbing thoughts in the lyrics, is the reference to “come as you are.” I believe there are some places you can go and no one cares how you look, the status of your clothes, or even perhaps your cleanliness. There are various entities that truly do reach out to many people that perhaps some churches may reject. Is it really true that churches are sometimes not the welcoming place you would expect them to be? If you attend a church today, and I hope that you do, I sincerely hope that your church has its doors open to all. Just like God accepts us as we are, we should let people come into our church who are seeking help. Maybe they are wearing ragged clothes, maybe they are unkempt, and maybe they know nothing about Jesus; are they still welcome? Jesus judges us by our hearts and not our appearance, his arms are open to everyone at all times. This is reinforced in perhaps one of the most quoted scriptures, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God let his only son die on the cross for us so that we would have a path to heaven. Once we accept Jesus as our personal savior, our past is gone and forgotten by God. So if our church is based on the gift of Jesus dying on the cross for all of our iniquities, shouldn’t our churches welcome all who wish to come in?

So, there are perhaps things we don’t want to share with our friends, and that is perfectly fine; but we still need someone we can talk to about everything going on in our lives. Jesus is there to listen to our words and our inner spirit, to wrap his arms around us, and to love us unconditionally. Truth be told, there is no one else but him who can truly listen, understand, love, and judge.

When is the last time you took the time to share your heart with Jesus and bared your soul to him? Let the truth be told.

Click to hear Matthew West sing Truth Be Told