Ode to Revival

My last ode...

Golden Gate | Deborah Tracey - Canon Photography

The Golden City
where red towers rise
to the Paris of the West
they reach for the skies

and over the Straight
Baghdad by the Bay
where the feet of worshippers
offered songs to Sun-day

Of summertime blues
San Fran in her fog
2020 had arrived
to expand her epilogue

She closed herself down
The picture, a sacred cow
to the world watching closely
The City that Knows How

The torment too much
for freedom withstand
a walk on her bridge
became a jumpers dreamland

But along came survival
with guitars in their hands
to preach a revival
o'er this fine motherland

What now was illegal
The Savior of souls
Red, White and Blue
Who held the controls?

Face down in the madness
my heart was torn open
hope was all lost
Then the Gospel was spoken

And floating below
the span of her wings
I outstretched my arms
and saw rebirth sing...

- Ode to Revival | deborah t. hewitt


Dedicated to Sean Feucht and Let Us Worship who saved my soul in 2020 and prepared me to get up and face the death of my dad, and the recovery of my heart.  I never saw it coming, but when I stumbled onto Sean's worship video in the middle of that bridge in July of 2020 and a policeman saying more people were jumping than normal (which the city and media has denied) I just kept quietly following like a lost soul on a deserted island with a radio and one Voice coming over it.  No one could reach me at this time.  Even my husband had a hard time breathing life into my heart.  I have struggled and will remain a struggler with my faith, because that is the hard truth of living in the world.  The noise can be burdensome without the discipline to tune it out and tune into the beauty of song.  It is how I relate to our Creator and all that He created.  The music died inside of me.  I had even turned my back on the birds outside.  

Point blank, I didn't want to live for several months in 2020.  It's hard to say that.  It was a heavy fight.  God won.

Now, all I want to do is lay offerings of creativity at His feet and make my days about prayer, petition and gratitude.  Gratitude for the songs that came to my mind when I woke daily to see my dad.  Gratitude when despair could have ruled during estrangement.  Gratitude for the chariots in the sky that lead me through the whiteout to see dad in hospice.  I saw them.  Gratitude for the hospice and it's staff that let mom and I in, every single day to love on my dad, when others had to stare through a window or try to make sense to their dying loved one on a phone or iPad.  Gratitude for their love and guidance to the bittersweet end.  Gratitude to neighbors who lifted us up at Christmas as dad lay dying, and for the laughter we didn't know we had inside of us as their children performed Christmas songs.  Gratitude for the food and nourishment provided by dad's fellow cancer buddy, who lost his life a year later.  Gratitude for the random emails I never asked for, or ever would have opened, guiding me to recovery from estrangement, when I came home to the deafening quiet and a dying dog.

Gratitude for revival of souls.  You might not know this, but it is happening.  Revival has been the undertow and underground of all that has gone wrong these last four years.  There is HOPE where we do not think it is found.  There is hunger.  There is a radical movement, recently taking off through the university campuses, speaking to the negative movement of hatred towards those who have equal right to be there and I believe God is using that hatred for His good.  Last weekend thousands of students packed a stadium to worship God at the University of Arkansas.  Some went wanting to take their lives and left wanting to live.  There are stories.  These kids walk among us.  They are everywhere.  You can believe in the hope of the future.

History speaks of great revivals.  We are heading straight into the wind of more war and rage, BUT in it there will be a GREAT fresh wind and fire for the people of this nation and world who seek peace and love.  God is love.  It can't be used to man's benefit or demise.  We are not judge and jury for God.  Our calling is only L O V E. 

So thank you for reading or rapping along to my odes.  When you hit the heart button or speak to me through comments, I am so very grateful, however, I've realized that there is only one heart I desire and that is His.

I am so thankful to be alive...  ox

NAMES FOR SAN FRANCISCO:
(where fearless worshippers stepped onto the bridge, protected by police, in July 2020)

City by the Bay
Fog City
The City that Knows How
Baghdad by the Bay
The Paris of the West
The Golden City
The City
San Fran

September 25th 2024

Here for the worship. Always. One year anniversary of dad’s passing - a fresh new snow arrived in his small town telling us it will all be okay -