Hold the Light...

I suppose I should be blunt to begin with and state that I've set an unhealthy precedent for myself with my first two posts. Needless to say, this (in all likelihood) will not quite match their near-monumental lengths. I feel I should also warn that my wit may not be up to par today, so I ask your forgiveness.

I've always felt that my taste in music was pretty unique. I'm one of those people who isn't really into mainstream music. My all time music-love is Caedmon's Call. I suppose they could be described as an indie Christian group. I consistently relate and draw inspiration from their music, and there is very rarely a situation or stage of my life for which there is not a song that is astonishingly relevant. So, again to my obligatory statement: I've seen God in Caedmon's Call.

So, I thought I'd talk about a couple of songs that are particularly close to my heart.

I suppose I may as well begin with the most apropos (to undeniably borrow a word from a dear friend) song for me at the current moment, and the song that is the title holder for this particular post. "Hold the Light" is part of Caedmons's most recent album (Overdressed). On the large scale, I always felt like it related to the relationship between all those who met for Prayer and Share because it tells the story of a group who met weekly and shared the doubts and trials they faced in light of living a Christian life, and the support they drew from the group. But it is also much more personal than that.

In one stanza, they sing:

"And I stay up late/because I cannot sleep./ I don't want to face the quiet/where it's just God and me./ I'm waiting for the gavel/ handing me the sentence down,/ because I don't believe forgiveness/ or even repentance now."

I think that most people have experienced this at some point or another, when life has become too much, and it feels as if you are beyond all God's love and compassion. It feels unbearable to face God from the shame at "failing" to believe as you know you should. The song then continues:

"There was no judgement in your eyes/ just the silent peace of God,/ that felt so real in you./ Will you hold the light for me?"

There are times in life when beliefs are so challenged or so weak, or you feel so lost and far away from God, that it doesn't seem possible to have faith on one's own. But with the right person (or people), I think it is possible to entrust your faith to somebody else. You simply have to have faith in your friend's faith. I don't think that God minds this, and I don't think this makes you weak. He wants us to be a community of believers, and sometimes that means depending more on others than perhaps your pride would like. But it's necessary. The truth is that there are those who won't judge, and, as the song so beautifully puts it, offers the very real "silent peace of God."

I think, at different points, we are meant to ask others to hold the "light" for us, and conversely, to be holders of the "light." It is give and take, and the duration of either is completely dependent on the individual situation. All it takes, I think, is to ask, and to be asked. For, "Better two than one alone, for thus their work is truly rewarding. If one should fall, the other helps him up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). We are, beyond all doubt, called to "Carry each other's burdens; that is how to keep the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2).

It may be hard to confide something you consider to be such a "shortcoming" to another, but I think it makes you all the stronger. Even when you don't feel it, depending on somebody else's belief is good enough, because, after all, what are feelings? In bad times, faith goes beyond feeling, and it becomes believing despite all feeling. Share your faith, and if need be, allow the faith of another to be enough if you can't do it on your own. There isn't anything wrong with that. Allow yourself to be helped up, and maybe even be carried for a while. I know that I certainly have.

To be quite honest, I feel like this song alone should be enough to convince you of their greatness, and I've also written much more than I intended to. So, convinced or not, listen to them, and I'll leave you here. Perhaps I will elaborate on another song at a later date, but something tells me that this is enough for now.

Take the message of this song to heart, because I don't think you'll go wrong. Trust me.