We Will Sing!

I started this blog on my facebook status today. For those of you who didn't get a chance to see my status, don't worry! You'll be filled in by the end of this blog.

The idea for this blog came from a song that played on my Pandora Radio (Brian Free and Assurance Station) this morning. The song was "We Will Sing." I love this song. It is one of my favorite BF&A songs. It always makes me think of Heaven and how I will get to see my loved ones who are already with Jesus again.

But before I get ahead of myself, I need to fill you in on some stories.

I go to music school every summer. I absolutely love it there. I honestly think most of friends are people I know from music school. Two weeks out of the year, I get to spend all day and night with the people I love so dearly! We make the two weeks count, too. We always have so many memories to take home! The hardest part of music school is leaving. Although we keep in touch the best we can, and try to get together periodically throughout the year, life still manages the get in the way and we become too busy to talk on the phone every night, text or even Skype each other.

Another summer event in my life is the Carolina Mountain Youth Retreat. This is a church youth retreat that our church holds each summer. Even though this event is only a weekend long, I always manage to make some life-long friends. It's the only time of the year I get the opportunity to see my best friend, Breanna Lewis! The weekend that we spend together is full of laughter, fellowship and worship. It's one of my favorite times of year. I hate that it ends just as quickly as it started!

November 25 of 2010 and November 25 of 2011 were two dates that altered my life forever. 11/25/10, my best friend, Jessi Patrick, passed away from cancer. My world fell that night. I couldn't believe after all the prayers we prayed that the Lord decided to take her home. Then, exactly a year later, the Lord saw fit to take my Nana Nix from this Earth. She, also, had cancer. Although I miss them very much, I have the assurance, by their testimonies and by mine, that I will get to see them again! The best part is that they will be cancer-free! (:

In Africa, there lives a special girl. Her name is Corina Anne Spinizzola. Although we always fought and never saw eye to eye while she was in Blairsville, I miss her very much. Corina felt God leading her to Africa to be a missionary for Him. I have my days where I miss her a lot, but her absence is ALWAYS felt. I am praying for her, as should you!

May 25, 2012. Graduation Day. The day that my friends and I became 'adults' and would move on to college. So now, the friends that I've spent my whole life with, are all across the country.

And finally, this past week, two VERY important things happened.

First, I found out that the McGaha Family is moving back to the North Georgia area and are coming back to church. They moved when Gerald (the father of the family) accepted a Pastoral job HOURS away from Hayesville. Gerald, Sheila and their two boys, Jordan and Peyton, were a big part of my life. I spent all the time in the world with them. They were always there for me. So when I heard that they were moving back, I was super excited! I had missed them so much.

The second major thing that happened was that our church found out that our Associate Pastor, Randy, was going to be pastoring another church. He announced it Sunday night. I'm not gonna lie, I was upset. I love that family very much. I know I probably drive them crazy, but it is because I love them so much. They have always helped me, prayed for me and they have always made me laugh. Although I was upset, I knew that they had to go where God was leading.

As you can see, I have friends and loved ones who are spread all over the place.

There is a line in "We Will Sing" that says: we shed our tears from sad goodbyes, joy disappears as we search for reasons why. I always thought of death when it referred to sad goodbyes. But the older I get and more experiences I have, I realize that there are different types of sad goodbyes. There are goodbyes when we leave a summer camp or church retreat, deaths happen, graduations, and when people follow God's call.

Like with the McGahas, God may bring some people back into our lives, but others we may not get a chance to see again due to our busy lives. Which brings me to the next line in "We Will Sing": but glad reunion, oh what harmonies will blend. Better now than ever and the song will NEVER END!

While we're on Earth, we may be too busy or too far to get to see each other as much as we want, but one day, if you are saved by God's Grace, we WILL be together again. There will be no separation for eternity! The older I get, the more I long for that time. I am ready to go to Heaven and be with everyone I love forever! We will sing and worship God together! I am ready to sing the song that will never end!

We Will Sing

Brian Free and Assurance

 

There is a choir now being formed,
White robe attire with harps, and tambourines and horns
From every nation listening for the trumpets cue,
The only thing they're waiting for is me and you.

Chorus:
Then we will sing, yes, we will sing,
While tiers of angels gently fold their wings,
Bells will ring, we will cast our crowns before our LORD and King,
When death has lost its sting, we will sing

We shed our tears from sad goodbyes
Joy disappears as we search for reasons why
But glad reunions, oh, what harmony will blend
Better now than ever, and the song will never end.

Chorus

Tag:
Not one voice is trembling, no one will miss a note
No other song resembling, for it's a song redemption wrote.

Chorus

I Can't Keep From Singing!

This past weekend, I got the chance to spend the whole weekend with two of my best friends: Katie Duncan and Ashlee Gormer. Katie and I have been planning this weekend for at LEAST 3 years. When the weekend finally came, I was beyond excited! We had so much fun. We rode around Monroe, played Wal-Mart Bingo, danced to Payphone, and went to church. Katie and Ashlee go to Bible Baptist Church in Monroe, Ga. This is also the church that our music school teacher, Stephen Butler, holds the position of Choir Director. He had NO IDEA I was there, we were planning on surprising him. To be honest, I was surprised that we had kept this a secret! When we walked into our Sunday School room (he taught our class), he freaked out. I was so happy that he was happy to see me! haha. To some people, that would've been a horrible surprise.

I ended up staying til the night service and sang with Stephen and Ashlee. We sang Justin and Jason Myers' song "I Love To Sing." Man, they didn't know when they picked the song, but I needed to be reminded of that fact alone: I love to sing! We rocked it and then I had to head back to little ol' Blairsville shortly after.

While I was "on the road again," a song came on my iPod entitled: "Remind Me of The Cross" by Brian Free and Assurance. This song talks about whenever we feel like we need to complain, that God would bring the Cross back into our minds. Well, that Sunday afternoon, I took it a totally different way.

While listening to the song, all I could think about how truly blessed I am, and how much I don't deserve anything I have. My mind travelled through the weekend. I had so much fun and many memories were made. I just couldn't understand why Jesus would go through all that pain just so I could have blessings like Katie, Ashlee and Stephen (just to name a few of course). So, being the emotional person I am, I cried and prayed. I prayed for Katie and her family, Ashlee, Stephen, their church, and their choir. I prayed and cried until I had to look at my GPS on my phone.

Now that car ride home was an experience on it's own. God showed me so much in that car ride, but little did I know that I was gonna need that weekend later through the week.

This has been a trying week. We have no money. At all (the man daddy was working for wouldn't pay him...). I saw my daddy cry because he didn't know how we were gonna make it. I decided it would be better to go and work this semester instead of going to college to save for college and pay my way through and help the family. And today mom just told me that we may not be able to drive to Hayesville to go to our church anymore because we can't afford it. That was a hard blow.

After knowing most of this story, I just didn't know what to do. I texted Katie Duncan and told her most of what was going on, and she promised that she would be praying. After that conversation, I decided I was going to go to bed. I laid down and was listening to my iPod. I put it on shuffle and listened for a while.

I was about to take my headphones out of my ears and go to sleep when this song I had never heard came up. I looked at the song title and artist. It was "I Can't Keep From Singing" by Sisters. I decided to listen to it because I love Sisters and it seemed like a song I would like. The song talked about how they knew that life wasn't a bed of Roses but they couldn't help but sing because of all the things God has done in their lives.

As I laid listening, I thought about the weekend I just had (before I knew all about the stuff at home). It was the BEST. I knew God had orchestrated the whole weekend to remind me that He loves me. Even if I am going through a valley, I still have a song to sing (which reminds me of another Brian Free and Assurance song)! Everything will work out the way it's supposed to, but until then, I have my family, my friends, my music school family and church to lean on. "I can't keep from singin', dancin', gotta tell the world about the freedom that I've found!"