I Still Love You

As I was cleaning the house this past Thursday morning, I was jamming to an old tape I love: Bryan Duncan's the last time i was here. When I heard the third song, on Side one, I thought to myself, "I have to post these lyrics for my Valentine post!" (yeah, yeah, I know! Easier to post someone else's words than to come up with my own!)

I looked up the lyrics on the computer and copied them. Before I got a chance to paste them into my blog, I began to wonder what Bryan Duncan is up to these days. The last time I heard him sing was at a recovery conference of some sort about a decade back (we were all recovering from a variety of addictions and dysfunctions). It was a wonderful evening and I felt so fortunate to hear his testimony and more of his songs. At the same conference, I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Brennan Manning speak (his talk was about Don Quixote and was exceptional, also).

I discovered his most recent release in September of 2008 with a band called The NehoSoul Band . As I skimmed the lyrics and the credits, I began to realize that Bryan has moved into a new chapter in his life. I read that his marriage ended.

Immediately, I thought, "Do I still post lyrics from a song written by a guy whose marriage has since collapsed?" Just as quickly, I thought, "Yeah, I do, because those words ring true for me right now. Who's to say whether my marriage will still be intact ten years down the road. It looked doubtful as little as six years ago."

That is the beauty of this journey of life. In some ways, I wish I could see what tomorrow holds, but in a lot of ways, I'm glad I can look at life from the perspective of this day only. What Satan means for evil, God can and will use for good. That doesn't mean all marriages will be restored and we will love perfectly, as He loves us. But it does mean that God will redeem whatever we hand to Him.

I handed him my marriage a long time ago. For a while, it seemed (perplexingly so) that God wasn't going to redeem it by restoring it, and yet, here we are, one year away from our 20th anniversary.

So here are those lyrics to the chorus of Duncan's song, "I Still Love You - Simple as That":

"In all we've been through
I still love you
Simple as that
Simple as that fact
No regret and no revision
I'm not looking back
I'm not looking back, no
I'm sayin' I made the right decision
And I'm gonna stand by you
As long as you'll have me, too."

It is interesting. I always thought that the chorus ended with, "as long as You'd have me to," directed at God. I don't know anything about Bryan Duncan's marriage or divorce. I feel bad because divorce always brings pain. He has my best wishes.

You can check out his blog and read about what he's doing these days (some pretty funny comments - laughed out loud about his pastor's name and his "Dear God" letters). As for me, on this Valentine's Day, I'm thankful for my marriage relationship. Even more, I'm thankful that God is absolutely perfect and faithful!