Rachel E. Watson

I am always finding new truths about life, faith and creative pursuits in the music of Brandi Carlile, a Seattle-based folk rock singer-songwriter. (Photo: NPR.org)

I hopped in the car to visit a friend recently. Brandi Carlile’s “Bear Creek” album was in the CD player. The day before, I was listening to it for the first time in a few months. I said to my husband that Track 8, “I’ll Still Be There,” is a beautiful picture of friendship.

Then, while listening to it on the road to my friend Pam’s — holy waterworks — I realized something.

“I’ll Still Be There” is not just a sweet picture of human love. It also describes my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Especially lately, as I’ve emerged from a difficult season. Grief. Shame. Depression. Anxiety. I have a new appreciation for the Spirit’s role as The Comforter and Power-Giver.

To understand what I mean, listen to “I’ll Still Be There”:



I imagine this as a conversation between me and the Holy Spirit. I am talking to him and he is responding.

I tell him, “There never was a better love / to see the light of day” than his. He replies, “If the world should let you down / if the sky should fall and never make a sound,” he’ll be there.

We are both brokenhearted. The world let us down. I am brokenhearted by my suffering, yours and ours.

He is brokenhearted because he never wanted us to suffer. It was a known but not wished-for consequence of giving humanity free will. He wouldn’t take free will back, but our pain breaks his heart.

Otherwise, why would he say this through the Apostle Paul?

“In the same way, the Spirit himself helps us in our weaknesses. … (He) intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26)

Wordless groans. That sounds intense. Does the Spirit of God care for me so much he would put himself through the pain of wordless groans on my behalf?

I am forced to conclude he does. All the evidence in my life points to it. And Scripture backs me up.

I am like King David in the Old Testament. I say to God,

“Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.” (Psalm 6:2)

**Update: I also will throw in a copy of my 2009 essay, "Learning to Love the Abused," which was published in this collection of essays.

Background: I recently plunged into a nearly full-time writing career without a home office. Now that I've had some publishing success — and lower back pain from sitting on the couch all the time — I'm redecorating our study so it can become my office. In the process of reorganizing, I've come across several like-new books I no longer need. They are quite fascinating. And you guys are great readers. So this is Step 1 of distributing my excess as a reward to your high-caliber selves.

More to come: I will give away other books, too, so join my mailing list (at the bottom of this page) to find out when.

Giveaway Contest Rules

1. Find an image on the Internet of a ¡RIDICULO! home office setup, either because it would be crazy expensive to design, or because it’s wildly original or just plain kooky. Photo-finding tools: Try Houzz.com, Pinterest, Flickr or Google images.

2. “Like” my Facebook author page, if you haven't already.

I've got a writing hangover today. What is a writing hangover, you ask?

It's that thing when you worked too long the previous day (or couple days, in my case), and you are too exhausty to function. Headachey, eye-puffy, body-drained Rachel sits at her laptop and tries to write. But nope.



I was going to write a post about how to cure a writing hangover, if I could muster the ability to write it, but when I started googling definitions, I discovered a blogger in the UK had already written an excellent, funny post on the topic.

Here it is: "Writing Hangover Symptom Checker," by Blondewritemore.

Enjoy!