It has been a little while, but I have been busy, and doing a lot of self-reflecting as of late.
Yesterday we had a guest speaker in our chapel service at my college. Lacey Sturm came to share her testimony. If you don't know who Lacey Sturm is, she is the previous lead singer of the hard rock band Flyleaf, and if you don't know her story, look it up.
Go ahead, look up her testimony. I want you to hear it and I will still be here waiting after you finish it.
Now that you took time to hear her story, let's talk about that.
Lacey came to my school and shared what she had gone through and she let us all lean into the discomfort and the pain, not necessarily her pain and discomfort, but the pain and discomfort that we were feeling in that moment while we remembered the hard times of our lives. While we found a place of understanding and common ground of where she was coming from. Waiting for us not to only hurt for her, but also to hurt for ourselves. That doesn't mean that we had to have gone through the same experiences as she had, in fact, we didn't. But it means that we recognize her pain in her depression, her anxiety, hatred for people, her suicidal thoughts, the feeling of meeting God in her darkest moments, and can find those points in our lives. It is letting our minds wander to those darkest places and feeling that pain.
Lacey does a beautiful job of sharing her story in it's rawest form-- she is honest about what she has gone through and the discomfort that she felt. She doesn't try to sugarcoat it and she doesn't try to make it pretty.
She is honest. She is authentic. And she pours into everyone in the audience. She speaks truth, and she shares love.
Lacey shares what her story is and the pain that she felt, but she also shares the story of how God was moving and working in her life. She shares the hope that she felt, and she also reminds us that just because she became a Christian, her life wasn't fixed.
Lacey also performed a free acoustic concert later that night. This is where I bought her book, and then listened to her and her husband perform several wonderful songs. Some familiar, and some new. It was beautiful to hear her share the back stories behind the songs, and why she wrote or loved them. And it was even more beautiful to see her worshiping the Lord.
At one point, she shared a song called "The Mystery" which is about an interaction she watched between her manager and his daughter and she wondered what that is like, because her father was not part of her life. I snapped a picture of her raising her hand in praise where her tattoo that reads, "Daughter" is visible.
This is the picture I took.Her tattoo is faded, but if
you look close enough you can see it.
I love this picture so much because while she is singing about the mystery of what it means to have an Earthy father and the pain that comes with that, she is praising the Lord. She is praising her Heavenly Father. And it just beautifully depicts that she has found her identity in Christ, and being His daughter.
After the concert, Lacey opened it up for a Q&A with the audience and then there was a book signing and she wouldn't leave until she saw and talked to everyone in line.
Lacey's story and how she has found redemption and love from that has inspired me so much. God has used her to touch a deep place in my heart. Her testimony was so encouraging for me to hear, and I know for a fact that others were affected by it as well.
I have faith that, I know that, God used her. He used her testimony. He used her heart to touch the lives of us here at Geneva. He used her to wreck our hearts. Not all of us, but several of us. God used her and her story and her hope and her burning love for Christ to wreck my heart.
I am beyond thankful that she came to Geneva and shared, and poured into each and every one of us. And I cannot wait to get to start her book, The Reason. And I am thrilled for her new album to come out.
Lacey, it is doubtful that you will ever see this, but if you happen to, know that you have touched my life and I want to thank you for that. Thanks so much, Sadie.
