Song of the Week #6

Dulce Refugio
You can listen to the song here, (just click on here)

Dulce refugio en la tormenta
Sweet refuge in the storm
Es Jesucristo el Salvador
Is Jesus Christ the Savior
Él me alienta y alimenta
He encourages and feeds me
Con su palabra y su amor
With His Word and His love

Vengo a reposar en él
I come to rest in Him
Él es mi amigo fiel
He is my faithful friend
Una poderosa y fresca unción
A powerful and fresh anointing
Llenará mi corazón
He will fill my heart

Dulce refugio en la tormenta
Sweet refuge in the storm
Es Jesucristo el salvador.
Is Jesus Christ the Savior.



Sarah´s Thoughts:
When we first came to Paraguay this was one of the first songs from the songbook that really came to be "stuck in my head"; while we didn´t face any major "storms", I definitely felt as though some things in my life had been rocked up. At the beginning I didn´t even understand what all the words meant. I wrote the words down in my notebook determined to look them up in my dictionary when I got home. But, what is amazing to me is that this song spoke to me before I even knew what all the words meant. During rocky times in our lives, when life is chaotic and we cannot seem to stand, we forget that our focus is supposed to be on God, not on ourselves -- and that is one thing that I love about this song. It is all about Christ, how Christ is our sweet refuge, our Savior, the one who feeds us and encourages us... it doesn´t focus on us, it focuses on Christ. He is the One on whom we are to focus, like Peter in the boat it is only as he takes his focus off of Christ that his footing falters. In times of chaos and storm it is easier to dwell on ourselves and mellow in our own pity, but this song reminds us that as Christians, as those who follow Christ, our focus needs to be on Christ... not on ourselves.


Ted´s Thoughts: We live stressful lives. Stress for missionaries, ministers, and almost all USAmericans is the baseline, the standard, the rule rather than the exception. If you're not stressed, people think you're a slacker. Trust me, I get this all the time. We are a society, a generation even, who desperately needs to learn to rest. This lesson has been brought forcefully to us here in Paraguay, being in a culture where rest is the norm. They have stress, sure, but they also have a few hours off every afternoon. Businesses close from about 1 to about 3, sometimes longer, and people take that time seriously. Also Sundays bring a noticible change to the usually crowded streets and stores.

When we were (really) learning to speak spanish when we first arrive, this is one of the first songs we learned and we both fell in love with it. Sundays were crazy, sometimes 4 or 5 different churches, long car rides, late meals, never knowing what was next, and by the time we got to Lambare, the last stop on our crazy sunday ministry tour, we were beat, and this song didn't just remind us to rest in God, it actually CAUSED us to rest in God. The line con su palara y su amor reminds me that we can rest in the hearing of the Word of God. This is the kind of rest we need.