To This I Hold is a music devotional project created and recorded solely by musicians at Grace Polaris Church.
Each video and devotional invites listeners into the journey of what it means to suffer well as a Christian.
The songs and the devotionals don’t seek to provide easy solutions or quick fixes, but to turn our eyes onto Jesus, our suffering Savior who promises to walk with us until we arrive home.
Your Will Be Done
David’s Secret Chord
I think Jeff Buckly wrote better than he knew when he sang of some secret chord that David played that pleased the Lord. There’s something about certain musical or lyrical progressions that stir something warm in us. Music, like nothing else, can reach into the inner corridors of our souls and draw out something ineffable, something of another world. It’s nostalgia mixed with relief and topped with a warm hug. We all have a longing for a world to which we’ve never been, like a song we’ve forgotten. I think this song evokes that.
Intercedes
The Vanity of Performance
Not to get all “in my day” about it, but I’m thankful to have grown up in a time largely before social media. To quote comedian Nate Bargatze, “whatever I did in high school is a rumor, it can’t ruin my life.” By now it’s probably obvious to all of us that, whatever positives social media can bring, it can be equally cruel and damaging to take finite human brains and make our lives, actions, and decisions perpetually public and open to vicious scrutiny from virtually infinite peers.
Be Still My Soul
A Lullaby for My Soul
I have three children all very close in age. Even though we’re entering the teenage years, I still treasure the memories of holding them as little babies in my arms. I loved those quiet evening moments after bathtime and a final feeding, when my baby was fresh and clean, nestled in my arms as we rocked together by the glow of the nightlight. He would sigh deeply, not from weariness, but from contentment — fully at rest, feeling safe and secure.
To This I Hold
I’ve always had a very sensitive saccharine meter. What I mean is I have no patience for sugar coating, empty promises, or an imaginary view of what the world is actually like. I’m insufferable to watch TV with because at every commercial break I annoyingly comment on the ways the advertiser is lying to us. Unfortunately, fuzzy-feeling commercialism can bleed into Christian art and media too, which then spills over into some bad theology. Sometimes mainstream Christian art sells a feel-good brand that seemingly prioritizes profit over faithfulness, and record sales over reality. An unfortunate chunk of the artistic content that has come out of the current evangelical mainstream reeks of an overoptimistic triumphalism that finds little basis in the average Christian’s Tuesday morning.