The Journey Home

The journey home is always a whirlpool of emotion really. The sense of home yet the struggle or tension to get there. A sense of rest and peace and yet a knowledge of the work that needs to be done. The comfort of the familiar but the apathy that can be found in a place that doesn't challenge us. So the tension creates itself with the themes and thoughts that come from this place we live in go back to and many instances long for.

The question is what is home, for some a place of rest and sanctuary in the familiar, for others home is the place you sleep in. The issue is never home the issue is what do you long for? Do you long for peace? If so... is it home that will provide that? Is home a place that gives that to you? More often than not home is a level of stress and chaos that we are wiling to live with and in that context we are calling it peaceful. The truth of the quest for peace is what is inside you soul? Can you close your eyes, silence the noise and exhale, finding stillness, comfort and quiet in the midst of a day. I see this comfort like putting on your favorite sweater, warm and true over time. Home is where my favorite chair is, where I rest and CAN close my eyes and slow life down.

The dependence of location for peace and rest really leads us to a dependence on external forces we can't control. What if you kids have their friends over, house is mess or a pipe breaks? You see there are too many outside forces, too many variables to really count on. Yet when peace is a gift in the soul, a refuge in the dance where we dance with our maker we find ourselves at peace.

So dance, engage and see Him as the quiet invitation to come and release all to Him.

Prohetic Irony

The previous article I wrote just before a motorcycle accident that has left a huge impact. I didn't know or anticipate any problems on a seemingly uneventful ride. Yet so much more lies under the surface. After a partially crushed foot, compound fracture to the femur, and a dislocated shoulder and two weeks four days and nineteen hours in a hospital and the rest of that time on a couch or a wheelchair well I've had a lot of time to think and listen. Pain and suffering, the handmaidens of deepening character change it seems. Asking why me really doesn't really address the why. It only addresses the lack of character in you heart. The why is found in asking... how will you glorify yourself in this God?

So much of what we think is really short of the fullness of what God wants. There is the promise of God working things out for good for those who are called according to His purpose. I think the question is are we willing to see the fullness of His good break into this present situation. Is it enough to live through an accident or is it the stories told by the people involved saying, how can this be... only God could have spared this life! Perhaps the miracle is in the relationships in the emergency room that tell the tale of the moving of the hand of God to speed a recovery? Maybe it's the tension built in the conversation about amputation and the body is The Body praying for God to move in healing and He does, while the E.R. is wondering and smiling at the wonder of that movement. When there is a disruption of our world, our minds, hearts and lives just get offended. God often offends our hearts, minds and lives to get our souls bare and malleable to His movement and His will, to make us more like Him.

There lies an uncharted country, the realm of brokenness and vulnerable availability that is the realm of super natural impact. That realm is the realm we need to be in. And the concurrent awareness of the hand of God moving thought he situation to fully reveal himself to mankind. So when our world is shaken will you look for the outcomes of the hand moving through the hearts and minds of the people surrounding you? As the issues of your soul and the ache of your heart are brought into a place of light and familiarity can we let God’s gentleness and kindness move us to deeper repentance and grace.

P.S. Read the previous post for the full sense of irony!