…Blessed be Your nameOn the road marked with sufferingThough there’s pain in the offeringBlessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour outI’ll turn back to praiseWhen the darkness closes in, LordStill I will say
Blessed be the name of the LordBlessed be Your nameBlessed be the name of the LordBlessed be Your glorious name…
(Blessed Be Your Name words & music by Beth Redman and Matt Redman © 2002 ThankYou Music)
“I found this song very difficult to sing years ago when I started to lose more and more of my sight. I moved to Calgary to pursue my ongoing career in Intensive Care nursing. Within a year of this move, I was unable to drive and was off work on disability because my vision was deteriorating quite significantly. I have early-onset macular degeneration. It started when I was in my late 30s. Back then, the treatments used now with such fantastic success hadn’t been invented yet. So, some of the traditional treatments left significant scar tissue on my retina that contributed to poor vision. Then, when the macular degeneration came back again, and I began to lose more of my vision, I found that when we sang ‘Blessed Be Your Name’ in church, it was really hard for me to sing along. Could I really sing those words? The darkness was quite literally closing in on me. Was God really in control? Who would I be if I couldn’t be an ICU nurse? That had been my identity for so long; what was I without that? Would God really take care of me if I did lose all my vision? Would I lose my independence?
I spent some restless days and nights as I struggled with this and was trying to find out if I really could completely trust God. One night, as I was lying awake in the wee hours of the morning, I heard what was like an audible voice in my room, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ I immediately fell asleep, woke rested, and refreshed. I had to look up where that was in the Bible, for I knew that I’d heard that before. Psalm 46:10 has become my life verse since then. Also, since that night, I KNOW that God’s got this. Even if I lose all my vision at some point, He has this. I know I’ll be OK.
I still worry about a lot of things and really struggle with trust in many areas. But, when it comes to my eyesight, I haven’t truly worried about it since then. My eyesight may be significantly impaired, but through God’s grace, I have been able to continue my career as a nurse by doing other things that thrill and excite me. I’m able to serve in several areas of the church. Through the ready availability of audiobooks, my passion for the written word is fulfilled. I’m even able to continue with my hobbies of knitting and quilting. The result isn’t perfect or precise at times, but it fills the creative side of my spirit, and I continually strive to keep going and do better.
I can truly sing out with conviction, ‘Blessed be the Name of the Lord’, even when the darkness closes in. God is good when good things happen, and He’s good even when your path is through some hard times. He’s got you and me.”
Shirley Chandler is an assistant stage manager on the Tech team at the FAC Deerfoot Campus. Thank you, Shirley, for sharing your story to remind us of God’s faithfulness! What’s your story? If you’d like to share how Jesus is renewing you, we’d love to hear from you. Contact Angel Castillo to learn more.
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