This is Why...

When the first strum comes in on this song, my attention is drawn.... 
and then these lyrics.  This is the very word, the bread, my soul needs to live:     


"I am tangled up in contradiction
I am strangled by my own two hands
I am haunted by the hounds of addiction
Hosanna, Hosanna"


This is the song, the word for why I am a Christian. 


Matt and I have deeply delighted in this song, Hosanna, and this whole album Resurrection Letters Volume II from the greatly enjoyed Andrew Peterson.    If you're looking for a gift to give, I can't think of a better one....


Plenty of friends have told me, tried to encourage me, that I don't need to focus so much on my sin.  I don't need to worry about it. I'm really not so bad.... just look at how good I want to be.  That's good!


But that doesn't save me.  My sin is a reality.  I know it.  My kids know it.  My husband and the neighbors I pass by when I'm late.  And it's not ok.  It doesn't just evaporate.  God is holy and this is not.  I am not.  


But.... Salvation!  It is coming and not from within me.  Salvation that is flawless, changeless (how often am I at all like that?) is sure and promised and living and true.  Salvation has come!  (Merry Christmas!)


Since Hosanna isn't Enlish... it's worth sharing what the word is about:

It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board.. like when somebody pushes you off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: "Help, save me . . . Hoshiya na!"

But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can't keep it in.

So "Hosanna!" means, "Hooray for salvation! It's coming! It's here! Salvation! Salvation!"

(quoted from...)

A few more lyrics for you:

"You have crushed beneath your heel the black serpent

You have carried to the grave the black stain

You have torn apart the temple's holy curtain

You have beaten death and death's own game

Hosanna!

Hail the long awaited King come to set his people free!

Won't you tear the temple down, lift it up on holy ground!?

I will lift my voice and sing you have come and washed me clean!

Hosanna!"

Hail the long awaited King.... born in a manger.

He has come!  He will come again!  

May this be the glad anthem of all our days...

Hosanna!