Monday Musings: Chaos Into Beauty

I apologize for the lateness of this week's post. With the unpleasantness of time change weekend, I must confess to being rather groggy this morning. I was half way to work before I remembered I had not posted the song.

I had not decided which song to share this week until the rewrites for Wither came back from the editing team...then, one song in particular leaped out at me. Not because of how much it relates to the story, although it does, but because it relates to what aspect of the story process I am working on right now...the REWRITES.

Rewrites, to different people, mean different things. Some people see them as a challenge. Some people actually find them enjoyable. I find them a necessary evil. Like the Stepmother in Cinderella, or Sauron in Lord of the Rings, or the Witch of the Waste in Howl's Moving Castle. I don't hate rewrites because I think my story is good enough without them. Quite the contrary, I am well aware of the flaws and overwhelmed by the chore of trying to mend them. Sometimes, it is easy to lose sight of the goal when bogged down with the unpleasantness of the moment.

Although I must take responsibility for the rewrites on my story, I am so thankful that it is not up to me to mend the mess of my real life. This week's song from the Playlist is "Already There" by Casting Crowns:

From where I'm standing

Lord it's so hard for me to see

Where this is going

And where You're leading me

I wish I knew how

All my fears and all my questions

Are gonna play out

In a world I can't control

When I'm lost in the mystery

To You my future is a memory

Cause You're already there

You're already there

Standing at the end of my life

Waiting on the other side

And You're already there

You're already there

From where You're standing

Lord, You see a grand design

That You imagined

When You breathed me into life

And all the chaos

Comes together in Your hands

Like a masterpiece

Of Your picture perfect plan

When I'm lost in the mystery

To You my future is a memory

Cause You're already there

You're already there

Standing at the end of my life

Waiting on the other side

And You're already there

You're already there

This is such a great reminder that all the pieces will fall into place. I don't mean just in regards to my rewrites, but to life in general. All the pieces of our lives, the ones that don't seem to fit, the ones that plague us with their uncertainties, the ones that break our hearts and drive us to distraction--they are all part of a grand design. This morning in church, Pastor said something about the life of Joseph that struck me. He said something about how we forget that the people in the Bible were real people. Real, live people. Just like us. We get so caught up in the story, in the plot, in the commentary in the margins we often forget it was REAL. He said, "In real life, we do not have a commentary. We have faith." If you were to put yourself in the place of Joseph...sold into slavery by your own family...falsely accused and then imprisoned and forgotten...what would you have felt? Would I have kept my faith? Joseph didn't have a commentary on his situation to take comfort in. He had to live in the moment. And in the terrible moments of his life, he kept his faith. He set such an amazing example for the rest of us.

My favorite line in this song is "To You my future is memory." It is so strange for us to picture the future as the past. Our view of time is limited: we see backward and we see now, but we can't see the future. To think about the future being a memory for someone who already knows how it is all going to turn out...that really boggles the mind, doesn't it? I find it encouraging. I can't imagine a world without a great Designer to take the chaos and tragedy and unpleasantness and somehow form them into a masterpiece. Into something beautiful. Into a life that honors Him.

I hope you find this song as inspirational as I do!