Day 16 - Not For a Moment (After All)
Meredith Andrews
2012
Disclaimer: All perspectives, opinions, and memories in this entry are mine and mine alone. Some content is rugged, raw, and - sometimes - NSFW, but it's all authentic and included with purpose.
Why It’s On The List:
2012 was a rough year for me and Summer. The first non-profit I was working for had to close their doors in July and I was out of work until November. Sum had just started grad school so our income was limited/non-existent for quite a while.
Then there was a day in September where Sum was in an accident that totaled our car and then that night our landlord called us to let us know they were going to put our house on the market.
Brutal.
That felt like rock bottom. We had only been in Colorado for a couple of years at that point and that stretch had us questioning if we were in the right place or not.
Since I was out of work, I would have to leave while our landlord’s real estate agent would come show the house (insult to injury). I would just drive around local neighborhoods listening to this song "Not For a Moment" over and over and over and just pray and cry. Looking back this seems super spiritual and wise but in the moment it was from a place of utter desperation and depletion.
After a while, I started calling them my “Jericho Drives.” Going back to how ridiculous the Israelites must have felt when they had to march around the city of Jericho before blowing trumpets to make the walls fall so that they could take their promised land.
That must have felt crazy in the moment.
Exactly like I felt driving around praying about where we were going to live next with $0 income and a wife in grad school.
Funny enough - we were able to buy a HUD house in one of those neighborhoods I would drive through for next to nothing. A good friend helped us figure out how to fix it up for cheap. 3 years later, we were then able to sell that house for a lot more than we had bought it for and move into the house of our dreams - that we could have never afforded without the equity.
Oh yeah - that HUD house that we bought? The address was 5235 S. Jericho Way.
I used to have this horrific image of God in my head. I thought He would test or trick or drag us through hell just because He could. He was bored and powerful and could step on us like ants because He could.
This song and that time of life forever destroyed that picture.
This world IS a disaster. But He is constant. He is only good. He is sovereign. Man. What a life raft to hold onto in the drowning waters of this broken existence.
I seriously don’t know how you get up in the morning without that comfort.
Not for a fleeting moment will He ever forsake us.
Not once.
Not then.
Not now.
Not ever.
Listen to "Not For A Moment (After All)" here:
Favorite Line:
Then there was a day in September where Sum was in an accident that totaled our car and then that night our landlord called us to let us know they were going to put our house on the market.
Brutal.
That felt like rock bottom. We had only been in Colorado for a couple of years at that point and that stretch had us questioning if we were in the right place or not.
Since I was out of work, I would have to leave while our landlord’s real estate agent would come show the house (insult to injury). I would just drive around local neighborhoods listening to this song "Not For a Moment" over and over and over and just pray and cry. Looking back this seems super spiritual and wise but in the moment it was from a place of utter desperation and depletion.
After a while, I started calling them my “Jericho Drives.” Going back to how ridiculous the Israelites must have felt when they had to march around the city of Jericho before blowing trumpets to make the walls fall so that they could take their promised land.
That must have felt crazy in the moment.
Exactly like I felt driving around praying about where we were going to live next with $0 income and a wife in grad school.
Funny enough - we were able to buy a HUD house in one of those neighborhoods I would drive through for next to nothing. A good friend helped us figure out how to fix it up for cheap. 3 years later, we were then able to sell that house for a lot more than we had bought it for and move into the house of our dreams - that we could have never afforded without the equity.
Oh yeah - that HUD house that we bought? The address was 5235 S. Jericho Way.
I used to have this horrific image of God in my head. I thought He would test or trick or drag us through hell just because He could. He was bored and powerful and could step on us like ants because He could.
This song and that time of life forever destroyed that picture.
This world IS a disaster. But He is constant. He is only good. He is sovereign. Man. What a life raft to hold onto in the drowning waters of this broken existence.
I seriously don’t know how you get up in the morning without that comfort.
Not for a fleeting moment will He ever forsake us.
Not once.
Not then.
Not now.
Not ever.
Listen to "Not For A Moment (After All)" here:
Favorite Line:
I bored Phil EuBank and Amanda Cure to tears for over an hour in a bar once, dissecting the guts out of this line:
“I was held in your arms, carried for a thousand miles to show not for a moment did you forsake me."
How. In. The. World. did the writer of this song get to “TO SHOW” in that line. I legit need an entire documentary on the writing of that line. “TO SHOW” is beyond brilliant. Any one of us uses the word “because” there. 100% of the population uses “because.” “Because” is easy. “Because” is a perfectly boring transition. “TO SHOW” is insane. It’s so active and visual and testimonial.
I want there to be a story where the writer of the song spent decades working on this song and could never get it quite right because that line never seemed quite right. Then there was this magical moment where light shone down from heaven and an Angel gave the writer “TO SHOW” to complete the song.
In all reality, that’s the writer wrote it on the first take because they are a creative genius and regularly divinely inspired.
If You Liked This Song...
Here are some of my other all-time favorite worship songs:
- New Wine
- Living Hope
- Whom Shall I Fear
- Cornerstone
- Christ Is Enough
- Bigger Than I Thought
- Goodness of God
- King of Kings
“I was held in your arms, carried for a thousand miles to show not for a moment did you forsake me."
How. In. The. World. did the writer of this song get to “TO SHOW” in that line. I legit need an entire documentary on the writing of that line. “TO SHOW” is beyond brilliant. Any one of us uses the word “because” there. 100% of the population uses “because.” “Because” is easy. “Because” is a perfectly boring transition. “TO SHOW” is insane. It’s so active and visual and testimonial.
I want there to be a story where the writer of the song spent decades working on this song and could never get it quite right because that line never seemed quite right. Then there was this magical moment where light shone down from heaven and an Angel gave the writer “TO SHOW” to complete the song.
In all reality, that’s the writer wrote it on the first take because they are a creative genius and regularly divinely inspired.
If You Liked This Song...
Here are some of my other all-time favorite worship songs:
- New Wine
- Living Hope
- Whom Shall I Fear
- Cornerstone
- Christ Is Enough
- Bigger Than I Thought
- Goodness of God
- King of Kings
Not to make light of this as it is speaking to a very specific time in my own life right now (seriously ask Liz. We were just talking about it). But, at first glance I got Meredith Andrews and Meredith Brooks mixed up in my head. Merideth Brooks only has one song that I'm familiar with so I'm thinking this was some B side song I've never heard of. I'm reading your post getting more confused thinkink of you crying and praying with this song in the background. I had my forehead slap when I saw the video link. Geesh.
ReplyDeleteAMAZING!!! hahahaha so good
DeleteThis is my favorite post yet! Praise God for Jericho Drives, tears, prayers, and His faithfulness in the dry seasons. What an amazing testimony. Thanks for sharing, Josh.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate that, Joy! Yes, this is one of my favorite stories to tell - glad I finally got it down in writing.
Delete