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!

Electricity

There comes the clouds, then the flash and the crack of sound the jolts your core, left in wonder and shock, the toxic combination arises in you, how close was that and I hope it doesn't hit me, yet, all the while you crave to see it again! As intoxicating as the moment is caught in the beauty of power and disturbed by the power that can kill we always sit, in awe and wonder. It’s the uncontrollable, the un-manageable, maybe not wild but certainly “bigger than who I am”, that we are in awe of. There is and has always been and surely always be a super natural engagement with things only God can do or control. There’s the intoxicating tension, can God do, and will he?

PERSPECTIVE
We operate under conviction that God can do the extraordinary, until it comes into our world. Crisis invades our situation and we believe for other situations but when it comes to our specific context we hesitate, stutter in our response, our faith is the issue in crisis. So how do we respond? In obedience and say God you can do it. In faith saying God you can. In love saying God I trust you. In hope saying honestly God, only you can.

That is the truth of perspective, from where we sit and see life only God can, only He can do the intoxicating wonders bigger than our life and our need. That is really a God, a God that can, and will. He wills to do the powerful the earth moving because He is by nature good, He is so good.

What have we become?

Right now there is genocide in Darfur, a ten-year-old child has just been abducted as a soldier or a prostitute in South East Asia. In Africa genocide of a different sort is happening, as many die each minute from AIDS. These issues though are out of sight out of mind. Yet children go to sleep hungry in the U.S. everyday. Even more tragic is this, Brittany Spears and Anna Nicole Smith have been the headlines while the true tragedy was going on... go figure! Yet before we get too upset at the media for not alerting us to this injustice, it's their job to make money by telling us what they want us to hear, think about this...

The greatest tragedy is this, while all those horrible things were going on, the very heart of God was breaking. Breaking for those that are victims of all this global injustice and of course all those in need going hungry here. There must be a deeper under current though, heartache that only a father can experience when his sons do not care about each other. As this father has left all the resources to his children to resolve all the need from war, and starvation to depression and loneliness his heart must be breaking. We have been given all things and some of the solution lies with us and within us.

The solution lies with us as we see the things we have as tools in the hands of a visionary, powerful, and compassionate God. Do you think that God has the vision to see that the things you have can be used for more than your pleasure but to for the very change of soul in another.

The solution within us is to lean on the very father that deposited His spirit within us to speak and guide us in all the "moments" we face in the day to day, or the overwhelmingly important. This whisper that guides our heart is what we need to resonate with the heart of the AIDS victim or the child prostitute and make a compassionate response with action or prayer.

So take the moment to respond, listen, and move with the whisper of His Spirit.

Repentance, Restitution, Rehabilitation

Forgiveness seems so cheap these days, the simple I'm sorry followed by the ever more trivial- it's cool. I feel like the depth is gone, left to a people that would rather"move on" than walk through it together. Forgiveness is a sacred priviledge, a moment that man gets to experience an attribute shared by God and God alone. No other creature has an opportunity to comprehend the magnitude of the act of forgiveness. We are conscious of all the offenses and consequences, we are aware of the depth of pain and still we are asked to say in essence, your relationship to the person is more important than the wrong done to you. We are expected to value others more than ourselves and our situation. We are told to love. This seem so unfair till we realize that there is an expectation that is often overlooked or passed over. The responsibility of the one who caused pain, the forgiven one, to repent, bring restitution, and rehabilitate- now we have a sacred and just balance.

To repent, turn away from a previous path, implies a heart switch. Once headed in a direction now your heart has completed the 180 and is going in the opposite direction. If your heart is now set in a direction to restore a relationship and set that course you must then move to pay back, make right what damage you physically cause in order to restore that person financially, physically, even their reputation, if your heart is right about going all the way the effort will seem right- not easy. Then the final step, rehabilitation, an on-going process to make a new life habit in the direction of obedience. This part continues on till it is a part of you and your character. No longer a cause of pain and strife but to be a giver of hope and life. A true redemption of your entire being.

So now we see the theft of true restoration through forgiveness in the " I'm over it and move on" model. We are left empty of the move of God. We rob our brothers with the simple "move on" or "I'm over it" there is really so much more, so much on both sides of the equation that we are shorted because we lack courage, and truth. No wonder we cry out like Isaiah- woe to me for I am undone. Our process of reconciling as brothers and sisters is too shallow, too instant- just add water and mix, and very, very undone. I guess God knew best... we need time to heal and process to finish and leave it done and right.

Relative to what?

What is truth is the question that Pilate asks... What is truth is also the question culture asks today, and what is it? Is it a physically reproducible expression of intelligence or process? Is it a meaningful analysis of an observation? Or is it an observable universal that is far beyond us? Is there an overarching truth that means more than our opinions, observations or pontificating? If there is a truth that is larger than us then is there a story bigger than us? Is there a meta-narrative that spans the story of man and the universe that is absolutely true above and beyond our observation and scarier beyond our comprehension? Is truth merely a sign that there is something bigger than us. A force or being so much larger and too big to control. Is this truth along with this being absolute- final in authority and infinite in knowledge? Then if it exists we must answer to it and measure our knowledge and our souls against it.

Then comes the big question, what if I fall short? What if I answer to this ultimate truth and my answer is I am just so small, too small and I must yield to this truth? If I yield will this truth move me into a greater depth or place of understanding? Will it make me more compassionate? Will it make me a better spouse or father? I believe that the answer to our soul cravings is this very question. Is God bigger than me and all of my shortfall, questions and pain? Well if I am that small and insignificant my answer doesn't matter. God's answer has been a resounding yes. I trust that yes to be bigger than me and my need, as big as the universe.

Sacred Space

It seems to be that bashing has become a pastime in our lives. So many rants, really reveal more of the content in our souls I think than we care to reveal. Think about it- why would you bash a gay? Because there is an issue in you. If you consider the fact that the gay lifestyle has a shorter life expectancy, and higher suicide and drug use, a reasonable compassionate person would have heart ache not condescension or hate as a response. In the same vein it amazes me how Christians will bash the church. The simple fact is the church is the bride of Christ- right? How would you like it if people were running around saying how much they love you but your wife's a witch! Friendship- over! Yet the entity that is intended to be a sacred space for meeting with God. We have heard it taught (out of context) that the body is God's temple. 1 Corinthians 3 16 is speaking of the body of Christ (not your body) and that the gathering of believers is a Holy Moment a sacred space intended for God to meet His people and His people to worship him. The verse speaks of heaping destruction upon the temple. That pauses my thoughts, and pontificating, it makes me ask, am I a destructive force in this? Do I build up the temple? Lastly, is God's presence so valuable that I am willing to die to myself for the sake of His body uniting? It all boils down to the simple fact that we have agendas, expectations and needs that we bring to the table every time we gather. The question is what do you do with those things? If you expect what is pure and true you build the house. If you don't bring that you are a tool to tear it down. So what do we die to today?

Ashes to beauty

Saying good bye to a dear friend today I saw the power of a life well lived. Connie James, a faithful servant was given a going away party as her friends an family remembered the moments and times that best described the moments of Connie's life that were well lived. Working with children and wondering how to more effectively display the love and wonder of Jesus. Passionately and relentlessly being a model of love, truth and grace.

I saw the tender balance of love, grace and truth most on the mission field. The tension of the desire to reach people by sharing moments of love and giving in compassion, and firmly correcting an American kid from our team in a moment of selfish indulgence. So often a scene so contrasted by the selfless giving of the Mexican Nationals and the other team members. Connie would always bring people to a place of "centering truth" - a truth that brings you back to yourself, an awakening. I learned from her as we all have, to be that factor of right perspective and grace. I still am learning and I am thankful for the insights to grace tempered by discipline that she taught me. So I know that Connie is now looking in the eyes of the most majestic being in all the universe. The One whose breath gives life and healing; takes away pain and makes us whole.

Grace and peace to you.

The story of us...

The challenge of faith comes to us in one vivid picture, in a very difficult question... How can you be a relevant and hopeful expression of the church to a despairing world; full of the power of God, compassion and grace impacting your community and living out the kingdom of God? As a community's need cries out, there needs to be a response. An awakening truth needs to be spoken. A truth that brings people to a place of this realization, God can meet me here.

Another challenge is the challenge of the moment... How do I get through this_______! A timely verse, word or thought could well be the awakening God has for you.

We are a people on a Journey, seeking God and moving towards the light into agreement with heaven. These "posts" are hopeful expressions. Words of encouragement, words of care to support you through the day.

Welcome to the trellis!