In The Presence Of My Savior
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders….. You may recognize those words from the popular song “Oceans,” by Hillsong United. The first time I heard that song, it called deeply to something in me. The need for adventure, the desire to follow God anywhere, the passionate call to something more… and I wasn’t the only one.
Turns out that song spoke strongly to my daughter too. She was in her first year of college, a place I wanted her to be, in a season where she wanted to be somewhere else. She had completed several mission trips over the previous year and a half and she was hungry for more. To love people, to change the world, to follow Jesus unconditionally. The problem was, both her father and I desperately wanted her to finish school first, and if I’m honest, we were advising from our own “knowing what is best” instead of asking God what she should be doing.
Before too long, we were at a crossroads, she wasn’t doing well in school, simply because she didn’t want to be there, and she had applied and been accepted for a position with a missions organization in San Francisco. Her heart was full, and she was excited. I had concerns, I had fear, but I was also incredibly proud of her beautiful heart for people and her courage.
It wasn’t long before we were packing her up and sending her off. As I helped her pack, bought airline tickets to fly us out, connected with old friends and set up meetings so she could have a safety net, should something go wrong 1500 miles from home, she told me God had been speaking to her through this song. I’m not sure I remember the early details, but throughout her application & interview process, this song had played notably several times. The point at which she told me the story, we had just completed a sending off prayer & worship time with some close friends and mentors, and that song had been in the set. Just a week later, the song played again in the shuttle bus to the airport, again in the fast food restaurant we ate lunch in, and again in the rental car as we drove away from the airport into her new adventure.
We spent several days in California together and heard the song so many times in unexpected places. The last time we heard it together, was when we visited the church closest to her new work location to see if it could be a good fit for her, and it was part of the worship set. God had chosen this song for her, to remind her that she was on track, to encourage her when she doubted, to combat fear of the unknown. He gave it to me too. To remind me parenting adult children is a act of faith and trust I never expected, that His plans are better than my plans, that she was His first and He’s got her. When I left her at her new home, and flew back to mine, with tears streaming down my face, the lyrics were my prayer.
Both for her and for myself.
“Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start nowSo I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mineSpirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior”-Hillsong United
Over the course of the next several months, God would use this song to remind her and to remind me that He was ever present. When she felt lonely and out of place, when she questioned her choice to go, we remembered His promises. When she called and told me about the shooting that occurred just down the street, I clung to His promises.
Even just last week, years after that initial journey, she called to tell me that God used the song to speak over her current situation. Over the last 2 years, as God has led me out of a ministry that I loved, and into this ministry that I love, I have cried and celebrated and prayed with this song more times that I can count.
As we wrap up a month of talking about the different ways God speaks to us, can I challenge you not to keep Him in a box. There is no one way God speaks. Sometimes it is loud and clear, sometimes it is a hint of something that we have to pursue to understand, sometimes it is through the voice of others, or the nature around us, and sometimes it is simply a knowing, an understanding. Scripture, songs, teaching, the touch of a stranger, visions, dreams, a feeling of warmth… God speaks.
And today, as you lean into Him, it is my sincere prayer that he lead to where your trust is without borders and you walk upon the waters, that you go deeper than you ever dreamed, that your faith would be made stronger and you would know the presence of your Savior.
