Beauty will rise

Sean Lucas
This is an amazing interview with Steven Curtis Chapman about his new album, Beauty Will Rise. Written as "personal psalms" in the aftermath of the tragic death of his five-year old daughter, Maria Sue, this album (to which I'm listening as I type) is overwhelming with sorrow and hope. My favorite part of the interview was this:

I'll refer again to the Psalms, specifically those where David is crying out, God, how long before you take away this pain, before you right these wrongs? And then almost in mid-despair, you get this sense of David literally making the choice, again, in saying to his own soul,Why are you so downcast within me? Remember this. Hope in God. Trust in God. This is your anchor. I've used that analogy, too, so many times--having this hope as an anchor.

We have absolutely questioned God and had our doubts and said, "Is this whole thing true? Is this real?" I sat on our tour bus last summer and called Scotty Smith, my pastor, after spending a very difficult night of wrestling with God. We were getting ready to go do an interview with People magazine or Larry King or somebody, and I was just in tears, calling my pastor and saying, "Is it really true? Is it really true? Can God be trusted?"We've come to realize dropping that anchor has been, and will continue to be, a daily, sometimes an hourly, process. It's not a one time thing: I've dropped that anchor. It's, man, wait a minute, I'm getting blown away here by the hurricane of grief and questions and doubt. What am I going to do? Am I just going to drift out to sea? Or am I going to drop the anchor again?

[HT: Justin Taylor]