Wedding Dress was released by Derek Webb in 2003 on one of my favorite albums She Must And Shall Go Free. The entire album revolves around the church, her redemption, and God’s ultimate love for us even in our failures.
The song itself laments the struggle of the Christian life. We desire to do what is right and be in perfect relationship with God and those around us. However, the reality is that in our fallen state and in this mortal life we are at best an unfaithful bride wrestling with our nature and desire to do wrong. Still God loves us through that and calls us to himself constantly. He desires a relationship with us while still hating our failures.
Often the hardest thing for an addict to do is accept that they can be loved after everything they have done. Progress is often slow and they feel they are robbing God and their loved ones. When in reality true love suffers a multitude of wrongs and will sacrifice all to make one whole again. Thankfully Christ and my loved ones stuck by me even though they suffered much to make me whole again.
I would be remiss not to mention that Derek Webb no longer claims to be a Christian and is apostate. We live in an interesting time where the temptation to “cancel” someone based on their actions or actions we didn’t know about is strong. Can we still love the art of someone we disagree with or has harmed us? I don’t have a good answer for that and it may be a case by case basis. What I can say is that whether Derek still believes the truth that he once put into that album or not is irrelevant to me. It is still true. Also, his story is not over and he may one day find a true faith.
I hope you have enjoyed these five cover songs. I enjoyed recording them and I enjoy performing them live. If any of these songs connected with you and you would like to reach out to me for any reason feel free to use the contact page on my website or hit me up on any of my social media platforms.
Finally, if you are struggling with an addiction hidden or not, please seek help. You are loved by God and created in His image and he desires for you to be whole and healthy. There are many avenues of recovery but I have grown the most, seen Jesus' love for me the clearest, and healed the most in my local Celebrate Recovery chapter. It is a safe place to bring any addiction, hang up, or hurt.