Your Pain Has Changed Me

I posted this video some time ago, but when I saw it on my sister's Facebook profile recently I knew it was time to put it up again. Having made 2 trips to Rwanda in the past year and change, this one hits me right where I live. I've seen those sights, shaken those hands, seen those smiles, laughed with a boy on a wooden bike, and cried silently in the back of a Land Rover.

It speaks to me beyond Rwanda though. In our Linwood House/Delta House/whatever/gang of friends community it seems like we adopt "theme songs" for a while. Most recently, it's been Kathryn Scott's Will Justice Reign. Sue and Jen have been using that song in their Human Trafficking presentations for a while now. Well, just before our LHM board meeting on Saturday, I told a few of the crew that I thought I had found our next song, and played this video for them.

The lyrics speak directly to our philosophy of mission. Oddly enough I had a similar conversation with someone at school last week. My friend asked me what I thought of taking a group of young people to the downtown eastside. I told her that if she thought they were going to "help", then not to bother. But, if they were going to see for themselves, to have their world view broadened just a little, to look for Jesus in the faces of those they would meet, to make friends, then I was all for it.

We don't go to change the world. We go to be changed. And then, we change the world. See if what I'm saying makes any sense:

I Saw What I Saw
Sara Groves

I saw what I saw and I can't forget it
I heard what I heard and I can't go back
I know what I know and I can't deny it

Something on the road, cut me to the soul

Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I am afraid of
And what I know of love

We've done what we've done and we can't erase it
We are what we are and it's more than enough
We have what we have but it's no substitution

Something on the road, cut me to the soul 

Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I am made of
And what I know of love

I say what I say with no hesitation
I have what I have but I'm giving it up
I do what I do with deep conviction

Something on the road, cut me to the soul

Your pain has changed me
Your dreams inspire
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I am afraid of
Your courage asks me what I am made of
Your courage asks me what I am afraid of
And what I know of love

And what I know of God

Their pain has changed me, and what I know of love, and what I know of God.
Thank God.

Comments

[david]

Man, you can say that again...

Great words.

[stephanie]

Thanks for the reminder of this truth today Mike.

[wilsonian]

Undoes me every single time.