Underneath Your Skin

I remember it like it happened yesterday. This song brings it all back. Yet these events happened 18 years ago. Funny how the time flies.

It was at Lifest (a Christian music festival in Oshkosh, WI) that I heard this song for the very first time. A friend of mine, the one who had led me to Christ, had invited me to hear and experience this strange new music.

We were at the Edge Stage, a concert venue reserved for some of the harder rock bands of the day like Disciple, Skillet, and Seventh Day Slumber.

The leader singer of that last band I just mentioned, Joseph Rojas, was giving his testimony - that of a recovered drug addict. He was saved out of his addictions and wrote this song for those who still remain trapped there.

The chorus goes like this:

No one knows you anymore

You're lost inside the walls you've built

No one knows you anymore

A prison deep within your soul

But there is One who sees it all

He'll give you life you never dreamed

He can see the pain underneath your skin

Right then and there I was presented with a opportunity. It was like God was asking, "So, what are you going to do about it, Bob?"

Youth ministry can be a wonderful thing, but it does come at a cost. Some of my young friends have taken their own lives due to the pain that lay hidden, out of sight, underneath their skin. Others still struggle to this day. 

The song continues . . .

Your addiction is just a symptom of a lost and dying soul

And without Jesus there's no hope at all

Thankfully God has rescued many from this deadly trap.

One particular young couple (the woman of which was a youth group kid at church) had both been arrested for dealing in meth. The woman reached out to me and asked for help.

Alive and well now, they have both turned their lives around and have four children and good jobs. Two that made it out, all by the grace of Almighty God.

One truth still remains. "There is One who sees it all." His name is Jesus.

Do you have something hidden "underneath your skin?" Reach out and trust in Him. "Without Him there's no hope at all."

[This story is dedicated to Jesse, Kameron, Austin, Muffy, and all the rest who didn't make it]

Missing Pages - Seventh Day Slumber