What's your 10 out of 10?
What is that experience so perfect that everything else in that category gets compared to it? Your favorite vacation? Your best boss? That one conversation that actually changed your life?
I once had a 10 out of 10 meal involving a pizza that I still think about 20 years later. While that meal was out of this world, I think even more about the 10 out of 10 anniversary trip I took with my wife a couple of years ago.
Those moments set the bar for everything else that follows. They can provide surprising insights or influence future decisions. Those experiences can also help us find words to articulate deep longings.
Sometimes, music can capture these longings perfectly, putting into song what we struggle to express on our own. Aodhán King and Abbie Gamboa had an incredible experience, as they went to work describing the love God has for them and the love they have for God in return. The pair spent six days outside Dallas, Texas writing and creating the “Throwing Paint” album. It’s rare for an album to come together so fast without any pre-work. It’s even more rare for the product of that kind of process to be profound.
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The songs on “Throwing Paint” are unique, including “DEEP” - a synth-driven pulsing beat with catchy lyrics. Talking about the album’s creation, King said, “I honestly had no idea what to expect going in. All I knew was I had six days to make an album with someone I’ve never written or worked with before.”
With “DEEP,” King and Gamboa created a song describing a 10/10 experience - the unconditional love God has for His people. “DEEP” focuses on themes of the many ways God shows love to us and offers an invitation to respond to God’s love, including accepting His invitation to press that love deeper into our lives.
In the middle of the song, King sings about the role God places in his life.
“You are my safest place
You are my sweet escape
You are the lover of my soul.”
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King and Gamboa’s lyrics echo Psalms, the songbook of the Old Testament. For instance, the concept of God being our “safe place” also expresses the truth of Psalm 23, David’s most famous writing.
“Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.”
This famous passage describes David’s real experiences with God’s love and comfort. Yet, how many times have we looked to people rather God, or experiences and even substances for comfort instead of God? Scripture clearly tells us that there is no one who offers us comfort and refuge like God does. The refuge that God offers us is unlike any other we will pursue.
Psalm 91 opens with these powerful words about God’s unique role in our lives.
“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
He is my God, and I trust him.”
After an unorthodox creation process, Abbie Gamboa is hopeful that songs like “DEEP” meet people in crisis and help experience God’s love in a deep way. “I really hope these songs touch places that we can’t even imagine. Like any music that you put out into the world, I feel that because of the nature of this project being that we just created something intentionally, but kind of blindly, we don’t really know what we’re doing,” Gamboa admits, “and I really feel like the Lord is going to use that to touch on places in people that are unexpected.”
We often meet God in the most unexpected places, especially times of pain. Rick Warren knows that kind of pain well, having lost a son to suicide. In a social media post, Warren wrote, “Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days- when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great - and you turn to God alone.”
Your struggles might be the very place where you discover your 10/10 experience with God, as His love becomes more real than any earthly comfort you've known. So, if you feel like you’re drowning, perhaps God is drawing you deeper. If you feel afraid, maybe God is inviting you to run to Him for comfort and security. What if the struggles and suffering are an opportunity to discover how loved you are by God and love Him in return?
Scott Savage is a pastor, author, and speaker with the best last name in the world. Scott’s writing helps people transform difficult circumstances into places where they can thrive. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona, and loves watching movies with his wife and three kids. You can begin Scott’s life-changing project, The 21 Day Gratitude Challenge, today.
