SEA by Mer

I’ve been so excited to share this new album with my friends and family, and also those I haven’t met yet! It is available on all streaming platforms, but may be a bit difficult to find if you type in only my artist name, “Mer,” and the EP title, “Sea.” If you type in, “Mer Sea Forget What’s Behind,” you will have much more success in finding the 5-song album!

This project was birthed out of turmoil, and even hope, and great pain, and yet greater joy. I’ve been through a fair share of quite precarious inner storms, unfair and ridiculous external challenges, and seemingly insurmountable social/relational/occupational pressures that are too difficult to carry. To say it simply, I have known anxiety, fear, panic, and demonic manifestations in ways I will never want to know again. These experiences have come (in the last 8 years since my father’s passing) in the form of nightmares, pounding heart, anxiety attacks, whispers in my ear at night, invisible hands around my throat, demonic voices in my presence, convulsive encounters with fear, overwhelming sensations of claustrophobia in a wide-open room, crying for no apparent reason, temptations to sin in ways I’d never thought of, being angry at very small things, and the list goes on. At the same time, I would experience such deep hunger and thirst for the things of God. I would lay on my floor in the middle of the night, after suddenly awakening from a terribly demonic nightmare, sweating, crying out to God for help. Anything. I pursued purity, honesty, transparency, love, and freedom throughout these rotten experiences, and I bet you have, too.

I say that to encourage you, if you too are battling demons, anxiety, fear, depression, external and/or internal hurricanes of sorts, and taking all your frustrations out on things and people that don’t deserve it. I, too, know what it’s like to be so troubled on the inside that I cannot cope with normal everyday sights & sounds like a pen being clicked more than three times in a row, or my five year old chewing bread with his mouth hanging open. I can laugh now! But, OH what a dangerous and unhealthy place it is to LIVE in the land of anxiety and overstimulation and to feel as if there is no hope for escape.

But there IS hope for escape.

So, there’s a HOPE for escape. There’s a GUARANTEE of a better city, a better land. It’s right here, right now. You don’t have to search for it. It has already been found. You don’t have to earn a spot in this kingdom, because you can’t. I can’t. We can’t! Our place in this glorious landscape of the Kingdom was FREELY given to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ. So, where can we find that HOPE and GUARANTEE of a better land?

One place.

One face.

One voice.

One heart.

One fire.

One company.

One mountain.

One river.

One love.

There is only One.

Only One.

There is but one countenance, one face, one heart, one voice, one love we can go to that will satisfy all of our anxieties, fears, stresses, and rages. This One countenance, this One heart, this One voice, this One will take away the burdens, remove the desire to sin, satisfy the cries, still the rage, quiet the inner storms, bring lightness to the heart, rest for the mind, peace for the spirit, and everything good and perfect in between. One encounter with the One King will assure you that you have been rescued from darkness, and permanently grafted into His kingdom of light, blessings, glories, healings, wholeness, peace, tranquility of soul, renewed mind, invigorated conscience, and many more gifts. Living in a land of ultimate perversity and evil means we are filthy without Christ- our “righteousness” is filthy rags. We have nothing good to offer God in exchange for a transfer into His Kingdom.

This One will invite you to His holy mountain and His river of delights. He, in His perfect purity, His undefiled heart, His honest and humble eyes, will encounter you there in the quiet. He will invite you into the forest of wonder, and He will build a fire for you and Himself there. He will calmly call your name, and you will go to Him. You will hear all the nasty whispers and shouts of dread along your path, but they will lose their power when you see His face, when you hear His voice calling to you, when you encounter His warm presence by the fire.

You will share your fears with Him. He will smile. You will cry and scream out your anxieties, and all the reasons why the other person needs to change, and what you can do to help that. You might pound your fists, or you might be so overcome with conviction that you cannot say anything at all. You will encounter the One, True, Only God that exists in this sphere of reality. Even in the unseen sphere of existence, what we call the spiritual realm, you will find that HE is also King there. He is, of course, the King of both realms. Of course He is. But which reality are you living from?

I know I like to challenge myself often to remember which realm I am living from. The seen? This is the world that the enemy of our souls performs his works in. He tempts us to sin. He coaxes us to control or attempt to control other people, especially our family members. He tempts us with all the sensual experiences like having more and more money, having applause from other humans, eliciting a sexual relationship with someone you aren’t in covenant with, lying to your friend about your past, or any other handful of sinful acts. The enemy tempts us to be afraid of disease, to begin expecting to be sick because that person was sick, or to be afraid of the future of our child. When we believe any of these lies, and we act on that lie, we have given the enemy power. Sometimes, we give him so much access into our God-given territory, that demons begin to build towers (strongholds) of lies on the landscape of our hearts. When we FEAR anything, we are sinning. Our King Jesus is very clear that anxiety, fear, and worry are sins and we are commanded NOT to do those things.

Do I remember that the world I can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch in this world will fade and pass away? Do I remember that all the things I might fear, worry about, get angry about, get upset about will ALSO pass away? These circumstances are not eternal realities. They are also not present realities. Because of the cross of Christ, His shed blood and His broken body, we have been delivered from ALL the powers of the enemy, and given TRIUMPH over every work of the evil one: sin, sickness, and bondage.

Yes. I am often challenged, in real life situations, to REMEMBER which realm/kingdom I am living from. Oh, I could go on for ages, but that will be for another day of writing.

I digress!

This album is all about, “purposely engaging in the unseen realm, in the reality that I say that I believe, and that is the spiritual realm where my God’s kingdom is VERY visible, real, tangible, and alive.” It is also about, “Learning to live in the reality that I can engage with GOD in this ‘seen’ realm because He exists in both. His spiritual realities come to life in this world we experience with our natural senses, and they especially do so when we tune in our hearts to this realm and engage with Him with our imaginations. Not that He is fantasy, but that our minds cannot see the heavenly realm and so therefore we must disengage our natural imagination and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal heavenly realities- He uses our incredible imaginations to do that. He shows us pictures of the crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascension, although we didn’t see that with our eyes. He shows us pictures of heaven, although we can’t quite grasp it with these natural minds. He shows us pictures of our children as grown ups, and what it will be like to play with our own grandchildren. He shows us pictures of our dreams becoming reality. We have to use our imagination to walk with God, to sit in a room all by ourselves with Him. We imagine Him sitting on the floor in front of us, or even in the arm chair across the room. We might imagine Him in the passenger seat of our car. We use these God-given intricately imaginative minds all the time without realizing it! Wow, what a life we would live if we couldn’t think in pictures. I thoroughly believe that even a blind man or woman is given the gift of imagination, to somehow think in pictures, and even in colors.”

What I want most out of this album, is the knowledge that it helped stir up stagnant imaginations. I hope the nature sounds, and the beauty of all the instrumentation captured here will provide a breath of fresh air, a hope, a peace, and a desire to seek Him with fresh imaginative eyes.

He is so wonderful.

He is so handsome and beautiful.

He is so powerful, truthful, and sits on a throne of righteousness and justice.

He is to be revered, honored, respected, and most importantly worshipped!

But, if we don’t know how glorious, kind, welcoming, perfect, serving, humble, and powerfully loving He is, we won’t revere, honor, respect, or worship Him from a place of joy. We will do it out of fear, pressure, and “supposed” obligation.

Forget What’s Behind illustrates that He is a welcoming God. He serves us wholeheartedly. He initiates love, relationship, power, authority, and all good things in our relationship with Him. He is THE best Bridegroom there ever was, is, or will be. He is the most Wonderful Counselor of all. There is NO ONE, NO HUMAN that can compare to Him. When I bring my burdens to Him, I often hear, “Forget what’s behind,” in my mind as I release those anxieties to Him. When I come to Him, I really can forget those worries. When I am enraptured with His presence, His warmth, His humble countenance, His welcoming smile, His pure and honest eyes, His voice of many waters, and His inviting heart I can easily forget my care.

We have a HOPE for escape from this seen, sensory, physical world we live in. We have a GUARANTEE of freedom from this seen world, even when we’re still in it. It is in this world, full of suffering and pain all around us, that we can engage in the sphere of His counsel and warmth and solitude, at any moment we desire.

(Again, this rebirth & transference into God’s kingdom only comes through believing that Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins, to cleanse you from all your unrighteousness, and to give you the opportunity to be transferred into His kingdom.).

The reason why we have HOPE for escape from inner storms, anxieties, fears, bondages, demonic attachments, overstimulation, stress, rage, desire for control, and the list goes on, is that His Word tells us in Hebrews 7:22 that, “by the same extent Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” We have HOPE because Jesus has become the GUARANTEE of a better covenant with better promises.

We are GUARANTEED that He will give us solutions, wisdom, counsel, knowledge, and understanding in exchange for our burdens. James 1 says in verse five, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” Reproach means to, “address (someone) in such a way as to express disapproval or disappointment.” This Wonderful Counselor does not condemn us before He shares the solution to our problem. He doesn’t say, “Well, if you’d just stopped doing this…” or “Well, if you’d known about this, we wouldn’t have to have this conversation…” or “My goodness, how many times are we going to talk about this?” or “Can you just do what I asked you to do the first time? Gee whiz. Okay. I’ll tell you this ONE LAST TIME what to do.”

No. Remember? He is gentle and humble in heart. We will find the REST for our souls that we are all looking for. But look no further! Your rest, peace, wisdom, counsel, understanding and guarantee is in Him! He has it all! He owns all of those things. He IS those things.

When we accept His invitation to come sit by the fire, and stare into His countenance, His eyes of fire, we can sense our mind relaxing and are heart calming. When we hear His voice that sounds like peace and feels like power, and when we feel the heat of the fire, we can step closer into rest on the inside. When we notice His love when we read His Word, we are more sure of His guarantee. When we stop for a moment, as often as we’d like, we can know that this world we see with our eyes isn’t it. It isn’t all there is.

There’s more. There’s more to the unseen, spiritual realm than we can imagine. We could go on and on about how nasty, disturbing, and perverse Satan’s portion of that realm is, but that would be a complete waste of time right now. The heavenly realm, where only God’s kingdom dwells, is buzzing with life and overflowing with the most bewildering sights, smells, sounds, wind, waters, and creatures our earthly imaginations could dream up. Didn’t Jesus tell His disciples that only the child-like can “enter” His kingdom? I wonder if He was emphasizing the NEED to engage His kingdom reality through imagination, through a renewed mind. What do you think about all of this?