Today was one of those rough days for me. Not because anything tragic happened but just because it was a Monday morning, I had to get up at 4AM, I was on an airplane heading away from home, my allergies were acting up so my eyes were itchy and my sinuses were so bad I had trouble hearing most of the day, and my weekend was so wonderful that the contrast of a 14 hour day of work seemed unbearable. By the time I got in the rental car I felt purposeless, lonely, like a hamster on a wheel, and just generally down-trodden.
At that moment my phone buzzed and I fully expected the buzz to be a reminder of some high-priority work-related task I’d forgotten about but, to my surprise, it was a text from my dear friend Drew – all it said was “I Corinthians 16:13 & 14“.
I was about to call my wife and commiserate with her as I knew she was feeling lousy too and I thought it might cheer me up to hear her voice. I had her read Drew’s verse to me and it brought a smile to my face. After I got off the phone with her I received a couple more texts from Drew letting me know that he was praying for me, specifically for “Hope for you and the ability to stand”. Those words were timely for me and made me feel a little more hopeful. Drew’s texts started a series of “coincidences” that continued to bring joy and peace and hope back to me and launched off a barrage of reminders that God loves me and that even my depression can bring glory to Him if I let Him be the one to strengthen me when I’m feeling down.
I won’t detail all of the “coincidences” because some of them were just for me and would be hard to explain anyway but I do want to share one of the “coincidences”. I turned on the radio in the rental car and a song called “Better than a Hallelujah” was on the radio. I searched for the song tonight using the lyrics on Google and found out it is a song written by Sarah Hart and the version I heard was performed by Amy Grant. This song summarized perfectly what I felt like God was trying to whisper to me. I hope that it will bless you the same way that it blessed me today. Blessings, Anthony
Here is the song from YouTube:
