I leave for training camp in less than two weeks and I have begun to wrestle with some of the deeper realities and some rudimentary theology. I am learning to reconcile all of this with our good King. Yesterday at 23 I realized …again, or maybe for the first time what freedom in Jesus really is. So here it is:

 Not my Own

  • You’d think because I’m 23
  • A graduate of university
  • And I have a bible degree
  • I would know what it means to be free 
  • To be set free
  • To live a life of freedom
  • Void of anxiety
  • To hold fast to Jesus
  • And to lose worry 
  • But something in me didn’t understand
  • Didn’t comprehend
  • The formula required
  • To set my soul free 
  • I kept telling myself
  • This freedom is my own
  • This life is my own
  • This mission I am on
  • These goals have
  • My own 
  • When I was six I was set free
  • I was born in sin
  • Born in bondage and slavery
  • Born not my own
  • Born a product of the fall
  • But one lone night as a little girl
  • I was set free from the torrents of this world
  • A king forgave me of all my wrongs
  • Past present and future wrongs 
  • So when I was young
  • I was forgiven
  • I gave the king my heart of stone
  • As haggard decrepit sinner I approached Him
  • In my talons grasping what I thought to be my own 
  • This stone I carried
  • I thought it gave me control
  • I thought it meant I was free
  • I was holding on to what made me-me
  • This dark stone that was MY own
  • But he took my heart of stone
  • As I laid it at his feet
  • I released my grip
  • And as the blood pumped into my heart
  • Through my veins
  • And as my grasp relaxed
  • By little body at his feet collapsed
  • And he picked me up
  • My life not my own 
  • And I arose a princess free from sin
  • The filthy rags fell off of me
  • And I danced in a field free
  • With my king
  • His daughter
  • My life given to him
  • Not my own
  • Like a bride clothed in a white gown
  • On my head flowers made a crown
  • So at 23 I realize what it means to be free
  • It means letting go of what I desire
  • Letting go of my life that’s not my own
  • Giving up what I thought was control 
  • And letting the King
  • Set me free 
  • Because if I carry a stone
  • A stone that’s not my own
  • I’m weighted heavy and not free 
  • My mind is strapped with burdens
  • My heart impoverished with worry
  • Because I’m carrying a stone that’s not my own
  • So at his feet I leave my stone
  • And the King kneels down
  • and pick up the daughter who is His own
  • I rise free
  • And dance with my king 
  • Freedom is giving up
  • What I want to control
  • And being allowed to be free
  • Means giving a king
  • What He paid for
  • And is not my own