It Is Well With My Soul // Some Rambling + A Playlist {2020 Encouragement Post #4}

Good morning, Readers! The world is still spinning, despite the “pandemic panic.” Sunday brought a new level of weird to my corner of the world: I attended church from my kitchen, with my laptop set up for the church’s first ever live-streamed service. On the one hand, I enjoyed being able to drink coffee while listening to the sermon, as well as spreading out my Bible and notebook on the table in order to take less cramped notes. However, I just couldn’t shake how odd it all seemed. Between the pre-packaged communion elements taken by the elders and few others who were physically present, the lack of activity announcements, even the song selection (which felt abbreviated, but may have just been my perception) all added up to an atmosphere of discomfort.

I decided to take a line from Dr. Alan Noble’s book Disruptive Witness and lean into my discomfort, rather than ignoring it. Granted, Dr. Noble was talking specifically about the discomfort caused when our constant stream of technology-driven information is interrupted, but the practice works just as well here. Instead of letting myself be distracted from my deep-seated feelings of discomfort, I spent some time really looking for the root of my discomfort and whether there was anything I could do to alleviate it.

I won’t subject you to my entire line of thought about this, but I want to share a few things. Ultimately, it should not be comfortable to live in isolation. I’m learning on a deep, soul-feeding level about peace that surpasses all understanding, but having peace does not mean that I am not disturbed by the things around me; instead, it means that when I acknowledge those disturbing things, I remain confident in a bigger purpose for the world than what I see today.

One of the things I keep coming back to is the thought that there is so little that I can do to help. If this drags on much longer, I’ll probably end up writing a post about the ways I’m responding to helplessness. For this post, one of the things that I can do is to keep sharing encouragement and truth. So, here is a fun playlist I put together recently! Since I made it on Spotify mobile, the songs really aren’t in any particular order and it is made to be listened to in shuffle mode.

This playlist is built to be an encouragement when things get crazy, or when you just want something edifying as background noise instead of the constantly dreadful news. I created it first for myself, to be a deep breath and to help me focus on my foundation, and now I hope that it will help you find peace and Truth in the chaos around you, too.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come /  Let this bless’d assurance control / That Christ has regarded my helpless estate / And hath shed His own blood for my soul / It is well with my soul

Until the next chapter,

Jana