Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Stuck in Wintertime A Must Hear Sermon- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:22Speaker 1: Do you remember where you were when you first realized
- 0:25Speaker 1: that life doesn't work out the way you want it to.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Can you recall your initial encounter with deep disappointment? Your
- 0:37Speaker 1: parents divorced, your spouse cheated, your health never returned, your
- 0:43Speaker 1: friend never came back, Promises broken, innocence taken, idealism shattered,
- 0:52Speaker 1: And in that moment, you felt the cold chill of winter.
- 1:00Speaker 1: You're in. Cold settled over your life, and your world
- 1:04Speaker 1: became an arctic circle of dark days and long nights
- 1:08Speaker 1: and bitter weather. And you began searching for springtime, And
- 1:14Speaker 1: you wondered, didn't you wonder if you would survive this?
- 1:20Speaker 1: Perhaps you're wondering still. The winter seasons of the soul
- 1:27Speaker 1: can be dangerous. We're sitting ducks for despair and defeat.
- 1:33Speaker 1: We turn away from others, we turn our backs on God,
- 1:37Speaker 1: we turn inward, and we turn into fearful, cynical sour souls.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Winter time can be a dangerous time, but it can
- 1:49Speaker 1: also be a developing time, a time in which we
- 1:54Speaker 1: learn to trust God, to lean into him, to depend
- 1:59Speaker 1: on his word, to rely on his ways, and trust
- 2:03Speaker 1: his character. Seasons of winter make us either better or
- 2:09Speaker 1: bitter and the choices ours. The Book of Esther helps
- 2:15Speaker 1: us understand how to survive a season of winter. Today
- 2:22Speaker 1: we conclude a twelve week study in this wonderful, fast
- 2:27Speaker 1: moving ten chapter book called the Book of Esther. The
- 2:33Speaker 1: story is situated in fifth century b c. Persia. Four
- 2:40Speaker 1: main characters King Xerxes, Hayman, the equivalent of a prime minister, Mordecai,
- 2:47Speaker 1: and Esther. King Xerxes is the overlord of one hundred
- 2:52Speaker 1: and twenty seven provinces. But for all the power that
- 2:57Speaker 1: he's supposed to have, the one thing he can't control
- 3:00Speaker 1: is his wife, Queen Vashti. And when he demanded that
- 3:03Speaker 1: she come and strut in front of his drunk buddy,
- 3:06Speaker 1: she refused, he kicked her out. Enter Mordecai. Mordecai was
- 3:12Speaker 1: a Jew who worked in the palace. He had a
- 3:16Speaker 1: cousin by the name of Esther. He convinced her to
- 3:20Speaker 1: enter the equivalent of a beauty pageant, and she becomes Queen.
- 3:26Speaker 1: Neither Mordecai nor Esther tell anybody that they are Jewish
- 3:31Speaker 1: until the king demands that everybody bow when his right
- 3:36Speaker 1: hand man, Hayman, walk past. Well, it turns out that
- 3:40Speaker 1: Hayman is a Jew hater, and Mordecai he just can't
- 3:45Speaker 1: bow in front of Hayman, and he stands Ramrod straight.
- 3:51Speaker 1: His secret is out, his identity is disclosed, and Hayman
- 3:55Speaker 1: responds by declaring not just punishment for Mordecai, but for
- 3:59Speaker 1: all Jews. Mordecai turns to Esther. The queen urges her
- 4:05Speaker 1: to put in a good word for her people, but
- 4:08Speaker 1: she's hesitant. The consequence is one of the great verses
- 4:12Speaker 1: in the Bible, and certainly the key verse in the
- 4:15Speaker 1: Book of Esther. It involves a declaration and a question,
- 4:21Speaker 1: both offered by Mordecai. At this point in the script,
- 4:24Speaker 1: he stripped himself of his Persian disguise for fear of
- 4:29Speaker 1: the death of his people. He is a picture of anguish.
- 4:33Speaker 1: He wears sackcloth and ashes, and he cries out to
- 4:37Speaker 1: Esther to intervene. She initially resists the request. She doesn't
- 4:42Speaker 1: want to risk her life, she doesn't want to disclose
- 4:45Speaker 1: her identity. Mordecai's reply to her was surprisingly sober. He said,
- 4:51Speaker 1: if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance
- 4:54Speaker 1: for the Jews will arise from another place. But you
- 4:58Speaker 1: and your father's family will pair it. And who knows
- 5:01Speaker 1: but that you have come to your royal position for
- 5:05Speaker 1: such a time as this. As we wrap up this
- 5:09Speaker 1: study of this wonderful book of Esther, we need to
- 5:12Speaker 1: go back to this key passage at the heart of
- 5:16Speaker 1: the book, which really is the heart of the story.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Mordecai here is not engaging in this empty, raw, raw rhetoric.
- 5:24Speaker 1: He is deadly earnest, and he delivers a message that
- 5:28Speaker 1: has a one to two punch. The first punch is
- 5:31Speaker 1: simply this, Relief will come. Relief will come. He came
- 5:37Speaker 1: to believe that the Persian king was no challenge for God,
- 5:41Speaker 1: and evil despot cannot escape the hand of the of
- 5:45Speaker 1: the sovereign Lord. This was Mordecai's message to his cousin
- 5:51Speaker 1: and dear friend. This is God's message to you and me.
- 5:57Speaker 1: Relief will come. God's got God's got this. How do
- 6:03Speaker 1: you survive this winter? You shift your focus away from
- 6:06Speaker 1: the struggles, and you ponder the hand and power of
- 6:11Speaker 1: your almighty God. Your problem is not that your problem
- 6:16Speaker 1: is so big, but that your view of God is
- 6:19Speaker 1: too small. Are you aware of his immensity? The scripture says,
- 6:23Speaker 1: the Lord your God is the God of God's and
- 6:27Speaker 1: the Lord of hosts, the Great, the Mighty, and the
- 6:31Speaker 1: awesome God. Think of the Old Testament promise of a
- 6:36Speaker 1: son to Abraham and Sarah. This required a miracle because
- 6:40Speaker 1: both were well past child bearing age. Sarah initially laughed
- 6:44Speaker 1: at the thought of bouncing their newborn on her knee.
- 6:49Speaker 1: Look at this, And then the Lord said to Abraham, Now,
- 6:52Speaker 1: why did Sarah alive? Why did she say I'm too
- 6:56Speaker 1: old to have a baby? Is anything to hard for
- 7:01Speaker 1: the Lord? There's the question. There's the question. Is anything
- 7:06Speaker 1: too hard for God? Does he ever give up because
- 7:11Speaker 1: the problem is just too great? Does He ever throw
- 7:14Speaker 1: up his hands at a prayer request and say, oh,
- 7:17Speaker 1: my goodness, they finally asked me one that I cannot handle.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Does he ever shake his head and say, man, I
- 7:24Speaker 1: have no solution for that problem. The answer from the
- 7:28Speaker 1: Book of Esther, the answer from every page of your Bible,
- 7:32Speaker 1: is no, nothing, absolutely nothing is too hard for our God.
- 7:40Speaker 1: Dear friend, you must start here. You must start here.
- 7:48Speaker 1: Don't measure the height of the mountain, ponder the power
- 7:52Speaker 1: of the one who made it. Don't tell God how
- 7:56Speaker 1: big your storm is, tell your storm how big your
- 8:00Speaker 1: God is, except the invitation of the Psalmist, who said, Oh,
- 8:05Speaker 1: magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his
- 8:09Speaker 1: name together. Magnify. When you magnify something, you make it bigger.
- 8:14Speaker 1: To magnify is to expand, to enlarge. Our tendency is
- 8:19Speaker 1: to magnify our fears, to magnify our struggles. We place
- 8:24Speaker 1: the magnifying glass on the diagnosis, the disease, the debt.
- 8:29Speaker 1: Stop that, stop that. Meditate less on the mess and
- 8:35Speaker 1: more on the Master, less on the problems, and more
- 8:39Speaker 1: on his power. Sometimes I'll wonder, I really wonder if
- 8:47Speaker 1: the church is forgotten the immensity of God. Were you
- 8:53Speaker 1: to visit a congregation on a given Sunday, you'd likely
- 8:58Speaker 1: find a group of people hitting in comfortable chairs, hearing
- 9:02Speaker 1: a comforting message about God who keeps us all comfortable.
- 9:08Speaker 1: If we understood how big God is. I've sometimes wondered
- 9:13Speaker 1: if we wouldn't enter the sanctuary wearing hard hats and
- 9:16Speaker 1: body armor because we know the glory, the fire, the
- 9:22Speaker 1: power of our great God. Do we know him before
- 9:25Speaker 1: whom we gather? Do we understand that demons fear and
- 9:29Speaker 1: flee at the sound of His name, that angels have
- 9:33Speaker 1: been singing Holy, Holy, Holy since the dawn of creation,
- 9:38Speaker 1: and still haven't sung it enough that a glimpse of
- 9:41Speaker 1: God's glory caused Isaiah the Prophet to beg for grace
- 9:46Speaker 1: and Mosiah the Patriarch to duck beneath the protection of
- 9:50Speaker 1: a rock. Are we suffering from a lack of awe?
- 9:56Speaker 1: And if we are, what are the consequences? Here's what
- 10:00Speaker 1: I think. When God is small, problems are large. A
- 10:06Speaker 1: wimpy God makes for a wimpy heart, but a great
- 10:10Speaker 1: God makes for a solid saint. So let him be big,
- 10:16Speaker 1: God said, to whom then will you compare me? Or
- 10:20Speaker 1: who is my equal? Says the Holy One? Let him
- 10:24Speaker 1: be big, consider the great work that he has done,
- 10:29Speaker 1: and as you do, you'll consider your problems smaller. They
- 10:33Speaker 1: will come into a manageable size. An artist apprentice went
- 10:39Speaker 1: to his master with the problem. He couldn't capture the
- 10:42Speaker 1: shades of a sunset. His teacher was at work, so
- 10:46Speaker 1: the student spoke, again, I can't paint the colors of
- 10:49Speaker 1: the sky, he insisted. The master still did not respond. Sir,
- 10:54Speaker 1: the student continued, the hues of the sunset are too
- 10:58Speaker 1: difficult for me to pain. I need your help. Still
- 11:01Speaker 1: no reply. The student was growing exasperated. He said, Sir,
- 11:08Speaker 1: I'm out of solutions, nothing but silence. Won't you help me?
- 11:12Speaker 1: The master lowered his brush, removed his smock, and looked
- 11:15Speaker 1: at the student and said, I just did, and he
- 11:18Speaker 1: walked away. That's when the apprentice saw the master's work.
- 11:23Speaker 1: And during the time the student had been describing his struggle,
- 11:27Speaker 1: the teacher had been painting the solution a beautiful sunset.
- 11:33Speaker 1: By studying the master's work, the student found his answer
- 11:38Speaker 1: by studying our master's work. By studying our master's work,
- 11:43Speaker 1: the same will occur. Please, my friend, the next time
- 11:47Speaker 1: you feel the weight of the world, just talk to
- 11:51Speaker 1: the one who made the world. Consider the work of
- 11:54Speaker 1: his hand. Look at this passage from the Book of Job.
- 11:58Speaker 1: But as the beasts and they will teach you. The
- 12:01Speaker 1: birds of the heavens and they will tell you, Or
- 12:04Speaker 1: the bushes of the earth and they will teach you.
- 12:06Speaker 1: And the fish of the sea will declare it to you.
- 12:10Speaker 1: Who among all these does not know that the hand
- 12:13Speaker 1: of the Lord has done this. In his hand is
- 12:16Speaker 1: the life of every living thing, and the breath of
- 12:20Speaker 1: all mankind. As your perception of him grows greater, the
- 12:26Speaker 1: size of your challenge grows smaller. This is the point
- 12:30Speaker 1: to the Book of Esther, don't you agree? I mean,
- 12:33Speaker 1: if God can sway the heart of a Persian monarch,
- 12:38Speaker 1: can he not reserve reverse the challenges that you face?
- 12:43Speaker 1: If He can take certain death, a declared holocaust, and
- 12:48Speaker 1: turn it into a life and an ongoing holiday, can
- 12:54Speaker 1: he not do something similar for you in your situation.
- 13:00Speaker 1: One of my most spiritual accomplishments in my whole life
- 13:04Speaker 1: has been teaching each of my three daughters how to
- 13:07Speaker 1: ride a bike. In each case, it was a solemn
- 13:11Speaker 1: Saturday when we removed the training wheels and she mounted
- 13:16Speaker 1: the oh so easy to tip over to wheeler. The
- 13:22Speaker 1: procedure was the same with each of my three daughters.
- 13:25Speaker 1: The dialogue went something like this, Dad, I'll hold the
- 13:30Speaker 1: back of the seat and push you, daughter, but I
- 13:34Speaker 1: will fall. Dad, No, you won't. I've got you. Daughter.
- 13:39Speaker 1: After a long pause, looking at the bike, then her dad,
- 13:43Speaker 1: then the bike. I'm not sure you can do this, Dad,
- 13:49Speaker 1: What do you mean, daughter? You are too A word
- 13:54Speaker 1: would be selected that would fit my age state of health,
- 13:57Speaker 1: like clumsy, old wheel slow, close to death. Ouch, Dad,
- 14:06Speaker 1: here's what you need to see. I can lift this bike,
- 14:09Speaker 1: I can carry this bike. I can run with this bike.
- 14:13Speaker 1: I can handle this. With my hand on the bike,
- 14:16Speaker 1: you will not fall. And the conversation would see saul
- 14:21Speaker 1: back and forth and back and forth, until finally the
- 14:25Speaker 1: little Lookato girl had enough faith in her mighty, strong,
- 14:30Speaker 1: powerful Locato Dad and convinced that he was up to
- 14:35Speaker 1: the task. I call this my most spiritual event, because
- 14:39Speaker 1: I think that's probably the nearest I ever come to
- 14:42Speaker 1: imitating the divine hand. What my kids asked me is
- 14:49Speaker 1: exactly what some of you want to ask God. Are
- 14:55Speaker 1: you up to this? Are you up to this challenge?
- 14:59Speaker 1: Can you handle this? His answer, Friend, his answer never changes.
- 15:05Speaker 1: He says, I got you. I got this. Relief will come.
- 15:11Speaker 1: There's no question as to God's capability. The only question
- 15:16Speaker 1: is will you get on the bike? Will you trust him?
- 15:23Speaker 1: Will you rely upon his strength? Will you believe in
- 15:26Speaker 1: his promises? Will you trust him to redeem you and
- 15:29Speaker 1: to rescue others through you? This was the declaration of
- 15:32Speaker 1: Mordecai to Esther, he said, and who knows but that
- 15:37Speaker 1: you have come to your royal position for such a
- 15:39Speaker 1: time as this, who knows, But if you'll just get
- 15:43Speaker 1: on the bike, you'll be in for the ride of
- 15:45Speaker 1: your life. Now, the construct of this question is really interesting.
- 15:50Speaker 1: It appears elsewhere in the Old Testament, but then it
- 15:54Speaker 1: appears slightly differently. Let me show you what I mean.
- 16:00Speaker 1: When the people of Nineva fascet in sackcloth and ashes,
- 16:03Speaker 1: they asked the similar question. They said, who knows God
- 16:07Speaker 1: may yet relent and with compassion turned from his fierce anger,
- 16:11Speaker 1: so that we will not perish. David fasted and begged
- 16:17Speaker 1: God to heal the child that was born to him
- 16:20Speaker 1: in Bathsheba. He explained his actions by saying, who knows
- 16:25Speaker 1: the Lord may be gracious to me and let the
- 16:29Speaker 1: child live. In the same manner, the prophet Joel urged
- 16:33Speaker 1: people to pray and to fast that God would rescind
- 16:37Speaker 1: the barrage of foreign armies that they were facing. Here
- 16:40Speaker 1: was his question, who knows He may turn and relent
- 16:43Speaker 1: and leave behind a blessing. So the structure of Mordecai's
- 16:49Speaker 1: question is not uncommon, but look, the object of his
- 16:53Speaker 1: petition is unique. Jonah, David and Joel raised a question
- 16:59Speaker 1: about God. Who knows God may yet relent. Who knows
- 17:04Speaker 1: the Lord may be gracious, who knows God may turn. However,
- 17:09Speaker 1: Mordecai raised a question about Esther. He said, who knows
- 17:14Speaker 1: but that you have come for such a time as this.
- 17:18Speaker 1: The emphasis of the book of Esther is on the
- 17:23Speaker 1: person who receives the assistance. The question is not is
- 17:28Speaker 1: God up to this? The question is are we going
- 17:31Speaker 1: to trust him? Esther could have refused, she could have
- 17:36Speaker 1: cowered in fear, but she spoke, and God used her
- 17:41Speaker 1: to save the nation. It is not hyperbole to state
- 17:45Speaker 1: that their courage changed the course of history. Nor is
- 17:51Speaker 1: it an overstatement, my friend, to say that God will
- 17:56Speaker 1: do the same with you. For many years I kept
- 18:02Speaker 1: an X ray hanging in my closet.
- 18:06Speaker 2: Odd.
- 18:07Speaker 1: I know other people hang calendars and pictures, but as
- 18:13Speaker 1: I would sort through socks and underwear, I would see
- 18:17Speaker 1: this framed X ray hanging on the wall. The picture
- 18:23Speaker 1: is an axial view of a decimated hip. A jarring
- 18:27Speaker 1: car crash left the hip broken in two places, and
- 18:31Speaker 1: even an untrained eye like mine can spot the quarter
- 18:35Speaker 1: inch gap between the bones. The breakage was just one
- 18:40Speaker 1: of several that the victim had suffered, and doctors feared
- 18:45Speaker 1: feared for the life of their patient, but even more
- 18:51Speaker 1: they feared for the life of her child. An unborn
- 18:56Speaker 1: seven month old infant occupies the center of the X ray.
- 19:01Speaker 1: He floats amidst the fracture, blissfully unaware of the destruction
- 19:06Speaker 1: that surrounds him. Doctor Michael Wirth, who gave me the image,
- 19:12Speaker 1: was on call the night that the mom was brought
- 19:14Speaker 1: into the emergency room. The er team discussed can we
- 19:19Speaker 1: save both the mother and the baby? Can both the
- 19:23Speaker 1: baby and the mother make it? If not, do we
- 19:26Speaker 1: take the mother and lose the child, lose the mother
- 19:28Speaker 1: and save the child. They never had to make the choice.
- 19:32Speaker 1: The mother lived and the infant was delivered, and Michael
- 19:36Speaker 1: kept this X ray as a reminder. God delivers life
- 19:40Speaker 1: through brokenness. God delivers life through brokenness. Yes, this creation
- 19:46Speaker 1: may be fractured, Yes his children may be wounded. But
- 19:50Speaker 1: he is a capable He is a capable physician, and
- 19:54Speaker 1: a new birth is coming. I'm very sorry, my friend,
- 19:59Speaker 1: for this season of winter. I really am. I'm sorry
- 20:03Speaker 1: for the deep wounds and the weariness. I'm sorry that
- 20:06Speaker 1: you so quickly understand the meanings of words like pain
- 20:11Speaker 1: and fear, and sadness. I know that springtime seems like
- 20:15Speaker 1: forever from now, but it isn't. It isn't. The story
- 20:22Speaker 1: of esther dares you to believe that God, though hidden,
- 20:27Speaker 1: is still active and he brings life out of broken things.
- 20:32Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul was summarizing our study when he wrote
- 20:35Speaker 1: these words. And we know that in all things God
- 20:40Speaker 1: works for the good of those who love Him, who
- 20:44Speaker 1: have been called according to his purpose. You know, there's
- 20:49Speaker 1: so many things in life we don't know, but the
- 20:51Speaker 1: Apostle Paul says, we do know four things. Again. We
- 20:56Speaker 1: may not know what the economy is going to do.
- 21:00Speaker 1: We may not know what our children are thinking. We
- 21:03Speaker 1: may not know why our spouse is in a certain mood,
- 21:06Speaker 1: but we can know for things for certainties. First, we
- 21:10Speaker 1: know God works. God works. We know God works. Paul says,
- 21:16Speaker 1: He's ever busy behind the scenes, above the fray, within
- 21:20Speaker 1: the fury. He hasn't checked out, he hasn't moved on.
- 21:23Speaker 1: He is ceaseless and tireless, and he never stops working
- 21:28Speaker 1: for our good, for our good, not necessarily for our comfort,
- 21:32Speaker 1: not necessarily for our pleasure, not for our entertainment, but
- 21:36Speaker 1: for our good. And since He is the ultimate good,
- 21:41Speaker 1: would we expect anything less? And to do this, he says,
- 21:46Speaker 1: God uses all things, all things. In Greek, the word
- 21:51Speaker 1: is pa nta panta like panoramic or panacea or pandemic.
- 22:01Speaker 1: God uses all things all, not just the good things,
- 22:05Speaker 1: not just the pleasant things. But God uses all things
- 22:09Speaker 1: for good and for the good of those who love him. Yes,
- 22:13Speaker 1: good things happen to those who trust God. Good things
- 22:19Speaker 1: happen to those who trust God. Be clear, this promise
- 22:23Speaker 1: is not extended toward the hard hearted and the evil.
- 22:26Speaker 1: It's not extended toward those who reject God and refuse God.
- 22:30Speaker 1: But to those who love God. We can be sure
- 22:34Speaker 1: that all things work together, all things work together for
- 22:39Speaker 1: something good. The story is told about a visiting pastor
- 22:44Speaker 1: who attended a men's breakfast in the middle of a
- 22:47Speaker 1: farming area way out in the country. The group had
- 22:51Speaker 1: asked an older farmer decked out in bib overalls to
- 22:54Speaker 1: say grace for the morning breakfast. The farmer began his
- 22:58Speaker 1: prayer like this, Lord, I hate buttermilk. The visiting pastor
- 23:05Speaker 1: opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wondered
- 23:08Speaker 1: where this prayer was going. The farmer continued praying, Lord,
- 23:12Speaker 1: I hate Lord. Now the pastor was really concerned. Without
- 23:18Speaker 1: missing a beat, the farmer continued, Lord, you know I
- 23:21Speaker 1: don't care much for raw white flour. The pastor opened
- 23:25Speaker 1: his eyes again, looked around, and realized he wasn't the
- 23:28Speaker 1: only one beginning to feel uncomfortable. But then the farmer said,
- 23:33Speaker 1: but Lord, when you mix them all together and you
- 23:36Speaker 1: bake them, I do love warm, fresh biscuits. So Lord,
- 23:42Speaker 1: when things come up that we don't like, when life
- 23:45Speaker 1: gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us,
- 23:48Speaker 1: help us to just relax and wait until you are
- 23:52Speaker 1: done mixing. It will probably be even better than the biscuits. Friend,
- 24:01Speaker 1: our heavenly father is not done mixing. He's not done mixing,
- 24:07Speaker 1: and you're going to be better because of this. Earlier
- 24:12Speaker 1: this week, I was at a workout class visiting with
- 24:14Speaker 1: a friend who broke her foot last summer. A plate
- 24:22Speaker 1: has been attached to the broken bone, allowing it to
- 24:25Speaker 1: grow back together, and next week she's scheduled to go
- 24:28Speaker 1: in for surgery and have the plate removed. I asked
- 24:32Speaker 1: her how the doctor's visit went. She said, well, I
- 24:35Speaker 1: was really surprised because the doctor showed me the X
- 24:38Speaker 1: ray and where the breakage occurred, there is a callous
- 24:43Speaker 1: of calcium, and the doctor said, see, it's stronger in
- 24:48Speaker 1: the broken place. Friend, You'll be stronger in your broken place.
- 24:57Speaker 1: You'll be better because of this. You'll have more faith
- 25:03Speaker 1: on the other end of this storm. You'll have more
- 25:07Speaker 1: wisdom on the other side of these questions. But please,
- 25:11Speaker 1: for Heaven's sake, don't give up. You got to get
- 25:15Speaker 1: on the bike. You gotta trust that God is mixing
- 25:18Speaker 1: and working all things together for good. You've got to believe,
- 25:22Speaker 1: like Mordecai told Esther, who knows but that you have
- 25:27Speaker 1: been placed in this situation for such a time as this. Yes,
- 25:33Speaker 1: relief will come. The question is will you be a
- 25:38Speaker 1: part of it. Let's pray together, our gracious and heavenly Father.
- 25:45Speaker 1: We bless you, We bless you. We thank you for
- 25:48Speaker 1: this story that you have given to us that has
- 25:51Speaker 1: truly been a guide during the last few difficult, challenging months.
- 25:57Speaker 1: Thank you for this story and others like it in
- 25:59Speaker 1: the bile that remind us that you're ever present, even
- 26:03Speaker 1: though we cannot see you. You're ever strong, especially when
- 26:07Speaker 1: we are weary, and you have solutions when we have
- 26:11Speaker 1: so many problems today. Heavenly Father, grant that we could
- 26:14Speaker 1: lift up our eyes and let our focus be more
- 26:17Speaker 1: on you and your power and less on our problems.
- 26:21Speaker 1: You're a good Godfather, and we are so very grateful
- 26:25Speaker 1: that in those seasons in which we are searching for springtime,
- 26:29Speaker 1: we are sure that time is coming through Christ. We
- 26:34Speaker 1: pray and all the Church said.
- 27:01Speaker 3: You know, you don't have to stay close. As long
- 27:13Speaker 3: as you're somewhere out there. That's enough for me.
- 27:23Speaker 4: I don't need to hold you near me, don't need
- 27:27Speaker 4: promises to keep.
- 27:30Speaker 3: Just the thought that.
- 27:30Speaker 4: You are breathing somewhere in this world. I see, even
- 27:37Speaker 4: if I'm not beside you, even if you never know,
- 27:43Speaker 4: there's a quiet kind of comfort just in knowing you
- 27:47Speaker 4: still glow.
- 27:51Speaker 3: I don't need forever. I just need you to exist.
- 28:01Speaker 5: You don't have to stay with me, You don't have
- 28:06Speaker 5: to be the same, just as long as you're still
- 28:11Speaker 5: out there, calling softly through mondays.
- 28:15Speaker 2: You don't have to look my way, you.
- 28:18Speaker 4: Don't have to be my home. It's enough to know
- 28:23Speaker 4: you're living in the world. I'm not alone. I won't
- 28:32Speaker 4: chase it through the distance won't disturb your chosen life.
- 28:38Speaker 4: I'll just keep you in my silence, like a star
- 28:42Speaker 4: that shines at night, through the darkened, through the blue,
- 28:53Speaker 4: I still think of you.
- 28:57Speaker 3: You don't have.
- 28:58Speaker 2: To stay with me.
- 29:00Speaker 4: You don't have to feel the same. Just as long
- 29:04Speaker 4: as you're still out there, calling softly through my days.
- 29:10Speaker 2: You don't have to look my way.
- 29:14Speaker 4: You don't have to be in my home. It's enough
- 29:18Speaker 4: to know where you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
- 29:39Speaker 3: I don't need to be your light. I don't need
- 29:43Speaker 3: to cross your mind.
- 29:45Speaker 4: All I need is just the truth that you're somewhere,
- 29:51Speaker 4: still alive.
- 29:54Speaker 2: You don't have to stay with me. You don't have
- 29:59Speaker 2: to feed you know the same.
- 30:01Speaker 4: Just as long as you're still after, calling softly.
- 30:06Speaker 2: Through my days. You don't have to look my way.
- 30:12Speaker 2: You don't have to be my home.
- 30:15Speaker 4: It's enough to know you're living.
- 30:21Speaker 1: In the world. I am not alone.