I’ve decided that all of my posts are going to relate to musical terms. Let’s see how long this lasts. I’ll just use them up until I run out. I’ll be grasping for straws when it comes to terms like “tonic.” I’ll try and avoid that one altogether. I just googled musical terms to find that one, by that way.
In elementary school music class we had a song that had a refrain and every time it came around the whole class would shout “REFRAIN!” although obviously you don’t shout refrain when there’s a refrain… You just sing the refrain.
How many times can a person use the word refrain in one sentence? It turns out, 5 times. Way to go, Hailey!
A refrain is the chorus, by the way. For those of you not so… musically inclined. I consider myself a solid 2% musically inclined. I also googled the exact definition to make sure I was correct…
Anyways, I’m actually here to talk about a refrain… a Biblical refrain… that is.
As most of you have already heard or seen, I was at training camp earlier this month. It was intense. It was also… in tents. I did not know what a sleeping pad was before training camp. Nor a rain fly nor a footprint. I thought these terms were quite arbitrary.
Now I see their importance.
Never buy a tent that doesn’t have a rain fly (the thing that goes over the tent and straps into the bottom) or a footprint (the thing that goes under the tent to protect you from rain seeping into your tent while you’re sleeping!!!) (fancy word for tarp!!).
Whilst at training camp, I learned a whole lot. Many of these things will probably come out in future blogs because today I am here to talk about REFRAIN.
Now every time I type refrain I picture this guy from that elementary music class shouting that word. He always shouted it the loudest. You know who you are, Walter.
Walter and I are unfortunately not in touch at this current time so he will never see this. Not because of anything bad that happened between us, we were just never really friends in the first place. He was too cool for me. Where are you now, Walter? The readers of haileydallas.theworldrace.org need to know!
He’s out there somewhere, shouting “REFRAIN!” every time a chorus plays in a song.
I apologize for how pointless this blog is seeming thus far. I promise we are getting somewhere. Thanks for making it this far.
We had a night of prayer at training camp that went from 12 – 6 am. I took the 5 – 6 am shift because I’d been feeling like the Lord wanted to watch the sunrise with me. And I had been so stubborn up to this point. So basically it was for selfish reasons that I took this time slot. It was an easy way to obey. Sad, but true.
So I’m there praying and doing some reading. And then prayer time ends and I go to the back porch to watch the sunrise with the Lord.
And I’d been thinking through a lot at that point.
I’d been thinking about how, my whole life, I’ve had this desire to be good. And I think I know where that comes from (you can ask me directly if you really want to know).
I’ve just never wanted to be someone who got into trouble or broke the rules. (I used to be quite the chatterbox when I was younger and I can still think back to the times that my teacher called me out in class for talking. It was like three times but wow are those moments burned into my brain.)
But even as I got older, I did my best to obey my parents. I waited until I was 21 to drink. I never cursed. I did all the “good” things.
It got pretty tiring. Trying to be so good all the time.
The prideful part of me is like “oh I was so good all the time cause I LOVE the Lord. My hearts desire was just to obey 
and love Him 
.”
Maybe sometimes that could’ve been the case. I do believe my love for the Lord is sincere and I do believe I wanted to be righteous because He is righteous.
But the other half of the time, I know it really wasn’t. It was because I feared the repercussions of what would happen if I acted wrongly.
The thing is, even the “little” sins I commit won’t get me into heaven without Jesus. Even the things I think are “no big deal” aren’t gonna cut it.
I can’t plead my own case for why I deserve Heaven. Heck no. I don’t deserve Heaven just because I did the “right things.”
I don’t deserve Heaven at all. Jesus, for some reason, feels like I do. Like, what?
I can’t get over how sweet that is. Jesus wants to be with me. So He willingly forgives me, takes my place, and lets me into where He is. He doesn’t withhold one precious thing from me.
He loves me so stinking much its insane. I wanna cry thinking about it. Lets cry together cause He loves you so stinking much too.
It seems like the blog should end here, doesn’t it? Too bad, I haven’t even GOTTEN TO THE REFRAIN YET.
There was this verse that the Lord brought to my mind as I was watching the sunrise with Him.
(Also, disclaimer, I couldn’t even really see the sunrise from where I was sitting cause there were too many trees but regardless it was a beautiful moment.)
The verse was Isaiah 51. And this is going to be my verse for the race. Cause the Lord has brought it up FOUR TIMES now out of NOWHERE. He keeps asking me to read it. Like a refrain! And also like a refrain, you just obey it. You don’t talk about how the refrain is coming nor announce its arrival. You just listen and make it come alive. The song is not a song without it. (I don’t actually know that for sure, like I said, NOT A MUSIC MAJOR, but for the sake of this analogy…)
There’s a lot of great scripture in this verse but I’ll point out what was significant for me.
It’s entitled “The Lord’s Comfort for Zion.” (I have had issues in the past with anxiety, for those of you not aware.)
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
…the Lord comforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar —
the Lord of hosts is his name.
And I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
So there you have it, the Lord’s refrain that He’s singing over me in this new season of my life. Isn’t that beautiful!? Isn’t He just the best!?
I hope y’all find out the refrain He’s singing over you, too!
It all came full circle! I am done! Congratulations for making it to this point! And thank y’all so much! Jesus is alive!
