Okay, so I don’t know if this song is in my head because it’s fitting this time of year ( as if it isn’t the rest of the year?)! But yesterday I couldn’t quit singing the good ole hymn, Because He Lives. I started to sing the verses…I know…pretty amazing that I can remember the verses! This was one of my mom’s very favorite songs. She would go around the house singing it, lay in her bed singing it, in the car singing it. So how could I not at least know verse one!! 🙂 Yesterday, I was singing the first verse and then the chorus that follows, and realized (a lightbulb went off) just why this was my mom’s favorite song.
You see, Rebecca Odessa Moore Rankin, known to many as Becky, and my sister and I as “Mama”, was in severe pain most of her adult life. She had been in an accident when she was in her late twenties and never recovered from the severe back pain that never went away, even with several back surgeries, chiropratic visits, or painkillers. My mom spent a lot of my childhood in bed hooked up to contraction. She did her ever-lovin best to keep a positive attitude even with the severe pain she experienced. She had other health problems too. Heart trouble, migraines, diabetic, high blood pressure. And the list goes on. There were times when I was older, and the pain only got worse for her through the years, that she would say to me, “Babe, there are just some mornings I wish I didn’t wake up. I wish the Lord would just take me home to him while I am sleeping so I wouldn’t have to hurt like this any more.” But then there were days that she would sing this song. And now I get it. I understand why! So I looked up the song online because I wanted to know ALL the verses. I believe my mom just might have been humming the last verse with a HUGE smile on her face!
And then one day, I’ll cross the river
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain
And then, as death gives way to victory
I’ll see the lights of glory, and I’ll know He reigns
Because He lives….I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, ALL fear is gone. Because I know HE HOLDS THE FUTURE, and life is worth the living just because He lives.
Man, all those years my mom was hurting so bad she wanted to go Home to be with her Savior, and yet even with the pain she was experiencing and fighting through every day, she knew this life here on earth was worth living JUST BECAUSE HE LIVES!
Thanks Mom for the example of perseverence you gave all those around you. I can’t wait to see you again and tell you all the life lesson you taught me and didn’t even know you were teaching me!
Anything we go through here on earth is worth living through it, to experience Christ here. Here while we are walking humanity, and then ultimately in our forever home with our Heavenly Father one day! I am so thankful this season for the sacrifice He made so I could live here and now. Even if hardships are thrown my way. The joy of knowing He is growing me to be more like Him, is worth living through it. I don’t want to miss the Real Life He has for me here.
Of course I look forward to eternity with Him! Come Lord Jesus…until You’re back to take us home…help me to live life to the fullest here on earth!
What’s your favorite old hymn? Is there a reason it’s your favorite? Please share!!!
allyberg's blog 
“Ode to Joy”
Oh Ally, my mom loved that hymn, too. In church when we sing the hymns I can hear her and my grandma singing the alto parts while I sing the soprano. But my favorite song is “Amazing Grace” all the verses, stand on the last. This is what I sang in mom’s ear her last day on earth when no one else was around and even though she was not coherent I believe she could here me though. Still tear up every time that song is sung. Thanks for sharing. You were God’s encouraging words for my day…need them a lot right now.
Oh sweet Julianne, I love that you got to sing to your mother as she was drifting away to be with Jesus! What a beautiful good-bye you were able to have! Love you girl!
Ally,
So sweet! I enjoyed. Your mom would have loved those thoughts. And along that line of thinking—-I think one
of my favorite songs is Midnight Train—-that you & Krista
sang at her funeral. That just inspires me….and I think it is
sort of my Easter song. …..there is a fountain, who is a King.
Victorious warrior and Lord of everything. My rock, my shelter.
Love it! Makes me cry! But, I also love Because He Lives……..
We sang that as a congregation at Daddy’s funeral too.
Your mom would be SO PROUD of you and what a wonderful
wife, mother, friend, and WOMAN you have become. You do
such a good job with the girls and you KNOW how to handle
Blake…..wise lady. I’m blessed to be able to wear two hats…..
Hope you have a blessed Holy Week. Sunday is a ‘comin!!!!
Love you, MOM
Ally, that was such a beautiful description of your mom. Even though I only knew her for a breif time her gentleness and kindness impacted me greatly. I knew she was in pain only because you told me and sometimes you could see it on her face. But she never complained. Her face radiated with hope and now I believe her face shined with the Glory of God. She was in the midst of suffering yet she knew she was completely in the Father’s hands. I could tell how much she loved and adored you and it broke my heart when her life here on earth was over because I knew what she meant to you. But her legacy lives on through you and your beautiful baby girls. I look at your pictures and sometimes I see her face. What an honor to be her daughter. You are truly blessed.
My favorite hymn is “It Is Well” because it was my Grandfather’s favorite but more importantly because I have faced many storms in life and those words have become even more personal and true to me. My faith cannot be shaken by what the world or the enemy throws at me because the Word of God is settled in my heart and It Is Well with my Soul…
Even though we have been miles apart I have never stopped thinking about you guys! I love you.
I sure do miss you sweet friend! I have thought about you so many times as well! Let’s reconnect…can we?!! You were such a blessing to me during the time of my mom’s death! I will love you for that for eternity! When Clay is home for a weekend, we need our families to get together! Miss you girl!
This is beautiful, Ally. And your encouraging words are uplifting to me while I’m dealing with my mother’s breast cancer fight. Thank you for sharing your heart and teaching me along the way 🙂
I have too many faves to pick. By a newer Chris Rice hymn, “Fly To Jesus,” always brings me to tears and makes me remember that being with Jesus is the best place of all to rest.
Eve, I pray for you often! Know that I am here!
This is an incredible post Ally. Thanks for sharing from your heart. It must be a thing about holding on to the hymns of our mothers. Because of my mom one of my favorite hymns to this day is call In The Garden. Every time I hear it I call her and am reminded of how much my mom has influenced my walk. Thanks for sharing.
What a sweet post. Thank you so much for sharing. Singing they hymns scares my girls but always puts me right back in the little church in Woodbury, TN where my Momma played the piano. I sure do miss that place!
My fave hymn would have to be The Old Rugged Cross – without that, I am NOTHING!!!
Hi there. I happened to be looking at FB status updates and saw a link to your blog from Blake’s status.
Thanks for sharing the sweet story about your mom. I have a tender heart for others who have lost their mom much earlier than most do. There’s nothing quite like it. And it’s the memories like this that are so precious and special. It’s been 5 years for me, and it’s still so gut wrenching at times. A memory. Specific days. A regret. Need of advice. A void and just the need for my mommy sometimes…I’m not too old for that! 🙂 And you just have to process and feel those moments however and whenever they come…even though others may not understand…especially if you’re in a movie crying when everyone else is laughing…which is really embarrassing 🙂
My mom loved hymns too. Thanks for reminding me of my ever present need for God in this moment by awakening feelings over my mom for a minute. It’s far to easy to “numb” out and thus push out God sometimes. I hope we get the opportunity to meet sometime soon.
My mom’s favorite hymn as well, Ally! It’s a good one!
My favorite is a really old hymn that I didn’t hear until I was an adult, but the words have sustained me in those really hard ministry days…I couldn’t help but list all the verses! 🙂
Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side!
Bear patiently thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change, He faithful will remain!
Be still my soul; thy Best, thy Heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.
Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.
I think each verse has rescued me at different times in my life when I needed it the most! I love the hopefulness of the song, thanks for spurring me on to think about it today!
Love you–Stac
Ally
God has given me several songs in my life
For Tears I Died,It is Finished,Theres a Sweet Sweet Spirit.Surely & Mercy.Hes Alive,Isnt He Wonderful. I can see how much you loved your mom,I have met Blake @ Crosspoint 7 I see the love in your family pictures that you all have for each other,God is going to bless you & Thank you for sharing your life with us. Your family is in my prayers.
i am more in love with you today than ever before in my life. I hurt when you hurt.
beautifully said ally!!! i am so encouraged by the example your mom gave to you and your sister. fighting through constant pain seems like such a rough road, but knowing she did it and all the while praised Jesus is amazing!!!
thanks for sharing this story. and i have a ton of favorite hymns.
because he lives
old rugged cross
how great thou art
i could go on and on!!!
Ally,
I am sitting here bawling like a baby. All these memories of your Mom came flooding back. Thank you for sharing her with us all.
Love you!
Tricia
i am praying for you today. i love you baby. i haven’t seen your blog have some life in awhile…i’d love to hear what God is doing in your life.
your man,
Blake
Ally:
Thanks for stirring up some embers in the bottom of my heart. Your post and most of the replies have been about long time relationships. From that stance, my favorite would be “And can it be” mostly because of the line that says “Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
My christian life was impacted by a man that I only met once and the impact was only thru the title of an old hymn. “I know that my redeemer lives” It was all the vocabulary a surviver of the Attica prison riots of Sept 9,1971 had left. After serving his time in prison and experiencing that terrible riot he would say over and over. “I KNOW that my redeemer lives”
May God grace us with that confidence, with all else gone we can still rest in the assurance that He still lives.
Blessings
Gene
Hi ally this brought tears to my eyes i have severe headaches everyday and alot of muscle pain, I think of your mother often and remember how much she pain was in.she helps to get thru some of my worst days because I remember the smile on her on her face no matter how she felt.Now she is in heaven without pain and with her good friend my mother.When you mother passed away it made me smile even thou I was sad for you and your family because i knew she was with God and my mother!!!Love you