By Sheryl Manoharan
IF you love Christian contemporary music, chances are you know and appreciate DC*B: The David Crowder Band. Over the years, I’ve stood silently in worship with tears streaming down my face as the poetry of songs like How He Loves Us echoed around me, reminding me of the depth of my Saviour’s love:
He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
And we are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
This past week, I heard that DC*B was disbanding. After 11 years, six albums, 7 Dove awards, and a Grammy nomination, just a quiet blog announcement – no drama and no regrets. As I read the story of the band’s journey since its beginnings in 2000, I was drawn to the what-next in the story: None of us is sure what’s next, but we’re not afraid. We’re, in fact, really, really excited!
It was a moment of hope amid uncertainty that reminded me of Hebrews 11: 1: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
It’s a common predicament for the believer: we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but because of our yesterday, we know that God always comes through. And what does that mean for our today: a bit of a fight as the apostle Paul instructs, in I Timothy 6:12, Fight the good fight of faith.
I often wonder why Paul used ‘fight’ in relation to faith and get my answer in moments of confusion: because faith is fragile – you have to fight to keep the faith. That’s probably why Jesus says all we need is faith like a grain of mustard seed – and why it’s also the most difficult.
Faith is a way of seeing things. Simple enough – all you need is perspective – but in the darkest valley, that’s easier said than done. When our tomorrow is begging for God’s surprises, we stop asking Him too much because we’re afraid things will come up short. And in that lies our greatest struggle – our perspective is often skewed not by the devil or the world because Christ assures us that He has overcome the world. Our greatest enemy remains our own self – it is what is in our heart, our fears and our tendency toward sin, that shakes the foundation of our faith.
What then must we do? We practise faith – much like everything else that we want to excel at. We fight on in the power of the Holy Spirit knowing that in all things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Romans 8: 37). When we stumble, we pick ourselves up and fix our eyes on the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Whether everything around us is in chaos or so still that the silence is deafening, we yield to the Holy Spirit’s conviction about the One in us being greater than he that is in the world (I John 4:4). Even when we don’t feel that way, we simply believe: that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (Romans 8: 38,39).
For we know whom we have believed and are convinced that He is able to guard that which we have entrusted to Him (II Timothy 1:12). To paraphrase one of David Crowder Band’s songs: In joy and pain, in sun and rain, He’s still the same, He never lets go.
The writer lives, works and worships the Lord in Canada.
