Sorry Nichole...

Yes, I am about to plagarize... I have been talking a lot about how we as Christians don't talk about the things that we struggle with, while we're in the midst of the struggle. I was on Nichole Nordeman's website today, reading through some of the awesome stuff she has out there (click here to check it out) and I came across this. This is the inspiration behind the song called "We Build."

Christians are an odd group.

We model our lives after this total revolutionary, a rebel who
turned the whole system of religion on its ear. We follow the teachings of this
man who pulled people out of the closets where they hid, and singled out the
most broken and unlovely, the lowest of the low, to make a point. God loves
every last corner of your dark and terrified heart. We write books about coming
clean before God. We write songs about not pretending anymore. We use words like
intimate and vulnerable to describe the way we should interact with one another.

And then. We hide. We go home and shut the door and hide the
worst of it from God and each other. Have you ever noticed that nobody stands up
in church and says, “I have bulimia. I can’t stop. I don’t know how.”

Have you ever noticed that nobody looks across the table from
you at lunch and says, “I have a real problem with internet porn,” or “
Lately, I can’t stop lying. I lie about everything.” But you will hear about
all that later. You’ll hear it about each of those stories and more on the
other side of deliverance. It’s okay to stand up and say, “I used to have a
problem with bulimia/internet porn/lying, but God has freed me from that
bondage and I’m here to testify about it.” And then everybody has a big
Hallelujah moment and claps for you.

Not too long ago, my husband and I hit a really rough patch in
our marriage. Not the “go to bed not speaking” kind of rough patch, but more of
an “I don’t know if we’re going to get through this” kind of crisis. It had been
building for some time, and the issues were deep and painful for both of us. I
sat down to write a song about us, and what love requires. I wanted to write
about staying (because neither of us felt like it)…and building something
(because we both were systematically tearing it down). I wanted to remind myself
that I made promises that weren’t attached to emotion (because neither of us
“felt” anymore). I wanted to tell the truth about the situation as it was, not
after it was better.

If I had waited, I probably would have written a far more
beautiful song. It would be an inspirational song, probably with a bunch of
imagery about how our love, with God’s help, can weather any storm, blah, blah.
Maybe people would have sung it at weddings, I don’t know. But it felt better
not to hide this time. It felt better to come clean to our friends during the
crisis, and not after. It felt better not to wait until we could give a
testimony about it, until God had saved the day (Which He did). Marriage is
hard. It is also a total joyride. But it’s hard. Errol and I have both said that
we wished somebody had prepared us a bit more. They probably tried, and we were
too busy picking out dishes. Maybe this song is a step in that direction. Any
roof worth living under is gonna take some work to build.

www.NicholeNordeman.com