"You are more..."

“You are more
than the choices that you've made,
You are more
than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more
than the problems you create,
You've been remade...”

I came upon Tenth Avenue North's song,"You are More,"and it took my breath away. It said everything I wanted to say to "her" tonight.

Her, is me. And it's you, and him, and her...and so many other girls, women, men, and boys I've met, listened to, shared Scripture with, encouraged, comforted, held, and prayer with.

We are all more.

Accepting the fact that we are more than our mistakes...well, that's not too much of a stretch for the spiritual thinker...right?

But I would posit, that we are also more than our human accomplishments and achievements. We are more than our biggest dreams and our wildest imaginings.

Until we can fathom the infinite range of what it means to be all that God is...we are still more.

And about this "remaking," which Tenth Avenue North refers to...it is ongoing. It is God's constant reclaiming of us, of our right to be "more." It never stops. It is insistent, perpetual, proprietary, demanding. It is a divine imperative that only wants one thing...our hearts. It never stops homesteading, setting up shop, claim-staking its sovereign territory, carving out a kingdom...in our lives.

It is a voice....the Voice, that never stops singing:

"You are more..."

Maya Angelou, in titling her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, references a stanza from African American poet James Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy:"

"I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, 

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, 

When he beats his bars and would be free; 

It is not a carol of joy or glee, 

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, 

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings – 

I know why the caged bird sings...."

And I know why this song, "You are More," is giving words to my prayers today.

The Psalmist, David...the King who wrote most personally about the power of tender mercy and divine promise, of long falls from grace, pinnacles of praise, and of God's restoration of the "soul," once wrote: 

"Create in me a clean heart, 

O God, 

and renew a right spirit within me..."

He knew...

David knew why the caged bird sings, why the abandoned babe reaches to touch the face of love, why the empty womb calls us towards a Romanian orphanage, why the forgotten never stop hoping to be remembered, the imprisoned dream of freedom, the diagnosed refuse to consent, and those believed to carry the smallest promise, have the audacity of hope to think they can make a difference...

I believe it is because we are all more...so much more...infintely more...

with Love, 

Kate