I wrote days ago about God’s intricate and amazing creativity in putting together the many pieces of His puzzle, and I had to share the awesome way I’ve experienced that in the last couple weeks.

I’m a musician, so I find God speaks pretty directly to me through song. This may seem a crazy coincidence to other readers, but to me it was an intimate love note from a God who is communicating with me in a very personal way.

I could start this story from way back, as I’m just now grasping how all the little pieces are fitting together that seemed abstract or meaningless before. I’m sure as I ponder God’s goodness that even more will come to light to amaze me.

To begin, I desperately wanted to be a camp counselor this year, but it didn’t work out to have both Jamie and I out of the office for the same extended period of time. Honestly, there were days when I felt sorry for myself, but I’ve been truly convicted and am working on taking “captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ”, including those thoughts of pride, self-pity, and resentment. Instead, I lifted up those at camp in prayer and rejoiced over the stories I’d heard throughout the week.

Many people were raving about the worship band that played during the middle school camp–a band called Atlantic. They’d played the year before and the kids came back excited about them. They happened to be in Brookings the weekend after camp, and Jamie strongly suggested I go and bring as much of the team with me as I could.

Things “worked out” so that I was able to attend (which is, in and of itself, pretty awesome). And true to the hype, they were an amazing band, not only for their musicianship, but even more for their authenticity. I was led in worship, and it sparked something in me that had dwindled.

I purchased the CDs available at their booth and one song specifically touched me–a medley of “Here I Am to Worship” combined with the Lifehouse song “Everything”. It was great and I felt like it was feasible for our band to replicate for a Wednesday night youth service. I’d thought about putting it off, but I worked on the song and put the pieces together anyway. Later, in my iTunes Shuffle, the Lifehouse version of the song came on. Then, days later, while taking a drive over my lunch hour to clear my head after a bad day thus far, another version of the same song came on my radio. And to my heavy heart, the chorus You’re all I want//You’re all I need//You’re everything was a soothing medicine, and an anthem I cried from my heart and so wanted to mean. I felt God was using that song to speak to me.

So we practiced it and readied for tonight’s youth service. As we’re practicing, I receive a text from one of my girls who’d been gone too long, a girl on fire for the Lord just months ago. She’d been a part of a drama we’d done to the song “Everything” (This is another church’s performance). The drama, almost a year back, was difficult, meaningful, and personally powerful for her. She texted that she would be back TONIGHT of all nights, after being away for months. And this was the song we were doing. I know that God orchestrated all of that to break her and heal her. I watched it happen as we sang, knowing that God was so personal with her in that moment.

And lastly, this song came about without me even speaking to Jamie about it, not knowing what he was planning to preach. But after that song (the last before the message), he opened his mouth and began to preach on contentedness and the all-sufficiency of God–that He was all we needed…and it was just perfect.

All these pieces, woven together by a common thread of a song…and I am certain that God inhabited that song, those words.

Find me here
Speak To me
I want to feel You
I need to hear You
You are the light
That’s leading me
To the place where I find peace again

You are the strength, that keeps me walking
You are the hope, that keeps me trusting
You are the light to my soul
You are my purpose…You’re everything

How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?
Would You tell me how could it be any better than this?

You’re all I want, You’re all I need
You’re everything, everything
You’re all I want You’re all I need
You’re everything, everything.