Marie's Prayer: Bebo Norman's "How You Love Me"

The thing that hits me in this song is the line,

"and fear has run the other way."

One of my biggest issues is that I'm afraid. I'm afraid of living, I'm afraid of losing, but the thing that scares me most is loving. I find it hard to believe in unconditional love that can never go away no matter what. I always have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something will go wrong because that's the way it's been for me most of my life.

I pray that fear might run away. That there's some love out there that's big enough to scare away our biggest fears. Hope is all we have and even though we may not see it, we have to trust that it's there. Don't let fear keep you from living life and make you miss out on love that is all around, even if you don't think it is.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Bebo Norman's "How You Love Me"

the first thing that caught my attention with this song was hey i actually know this one! but then i was like...hm...i don't recognize these words. which is because ive never actually listened to the words before. i listened to it a few times and two things came to me. The first was immediate: it is awesome to me that Norman was able to capture all of these emotions and truths into a such a short and simple song. There is no hesitation or "what-if"s, just plain and simple that God loves us.

The other part didn't hit me so immediately. the line that says:

"words are weak, i don't know what to say."

was powerful to me because even though i am a writer and words are my main outlet of expression, i often can't find the words to pray with. I know what i want in life at this moment in time and i know what i should want and i sort of know what i need and putting them all into some sort of verbal order is almost impossible for me. I was just praying last night, after the end of a pretty bad week, "Jesus, i know i need you, but honestly i don't know where to begin or how to say it." so i just remained in His Presence and it was calming. so the song today was good because i realized two things. One, i'm not the only one with this problem - always a comforting thought, and two, words aren't the only form of prayer. somewhere in my mind, i knew that. but i completely forgot until today.

:)

Megan's prayer: Bebo Norman's "How You Love Me"

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is when things are unorganized. I love having things planned out ahead of time, making “to-do” lists, and knowing what is going to happen next.

As much as I try to keep my life in order, plenty of times things go wrong. Last night, for example, I planned to spend the whole night finishing up some papers for school and not going to bed until they were done so that today could be a day of relaxation. But instead, I found myself with a severe case of writer’s block and went to bed early without finishing what I had planned on finishing.

I was so frustrated that things didn’t go how they were planned, but today’s song really put it in perspective.

“And should my dreams fall through, I will be safe with you.”

This isn’t just referring to one night when things don’t go my way, it’s talking about entire dreams not working out as planned. And still, we don't need to worry. God doesn’t want us to stress out over the big stuff, and especially not the little stuff. No matter what, God will be there in the end, and everything will be perfect.

What a wonderful message to start my day with!

Chris' prayer: Bebo Norman's "How You Love Me"

I've had a little while to think about this song, the first song in my journey. The playlist I'll be going by was created about two weeks ago, so I've known that this will be the first song for about 14 days...far longer than I'll get for any other song.

I've spent that time thinking of what I was going to say about this one, one of my favorite songs right now. I've thought of about 20 different directions I could take this prayer in, and decided on one this morning on my way to work.

Then I began the prayer and everything changed.

The word that caught me, the word that changed everything for me, is there in the first line, repeated to make sure that I caught it.

Hope came home, home to me today...

Hope belongs in every one of us. It is a part of us. It is in our nature. As Norman says in the song, hope is at home when it resides inside of our very being. And when it finally returns home, no matter how long it has been gone nor where it has gone, it replaces the troubles that have been on our heart. Whether that be impending finals, wondering if you're going to have a job next month, issues between you and a family member or friend, or, in my case, an all encompassing, possibly irrational fear that my car is going to break down and not knowing how I'm going to be afford to fix it. None of these fears, none of these troubles, is at home in our hearts.

Only hope.

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