Rise Above

Track eleven is the centerpiece of the album, and it is the one that costs the most to write. Every other song on Break the Cage diagnoses a cage. This one shows you the wounds the cages left. Three verses, three pulpits. A preacher friend stood behind a mic, pulled my article apart like I wasn't even in sight. A second sermon, about an email I sent, preached like I was the villain. And the third verse, added later because it was the truest - my pastor pulled me out without a word. No call, no talk, nothing spoken or heard.

I will not pretend that did not hurt. The pre-chorus says the quiet part out loud. Betrayal cuts deepest from the friends we had. It is not strangers who can do this kind of damage. It is the men you laughed with and prayed with and trusted. Folks I'd laughed with, prayed with - now gone.

But the song is called Rise Above, and the title is not a slogan, it is a discipline. I lift my eyes when the arrows fly. Let the heartbreak hit but it won't define my life. The bridge is where it finds its footing, and it finds it where I always have to - at the cross. If Christ took blows without a sound, then maybe love is forged on broken ground. That is the only thing that has ever made the wounds bearable. He was wounded by His own first, and He did not stop loving them. Neither, by His grace, will I.