Friday, November 30, 2012

Thirsty


I’m so hungry ... so thirsty

This can’t be, is not enough 
                   what I can see with my eyes, 
                   hear with my ears and feel and touch. 
I need so much more, I crave what’s real. 
Like breathing in oxygen, 
    like a cold drink of water on a hot dry day,
         like the first bite of food after a long fast. 

I am not enough
What I think, what I know, what I feel I can do on my own. 
It fails, over and over again
I am not enough.

I run, collapsing, at Your feet

Here I lay, nothing left to give ... fully exposed, vulnerable, surrendered

You are everything, You are all that matters, You are in charge, in control. 
You are my Oxygen, my Water, my Bread. 
You are my Life, my Center, 
      my Everything

I lay here, not moving. 
Slowing my breath, covering my head, laying as a child, a newborn, completely vulnerable to Who You are, what You are capable of doing. Complete trust. This is where I belong, in your Presence, that Holy Place, the Holiest of all that is Holy. My mind tries to visualize, tries to imagine it ... I think I can almost grasp it, catch a glimpse of You.

Oh, to see You, the Creator,
          the Provider, the Judge, the Anointed One,
                my Father, my Lover, my Friend. 
You alone speak, and all of creation pauses, holds it’s collective breath for further instruction, 
              for the chance to hear your Voice. 
The Voice that spoke and mountains burst forth out of nothingness, 
         the One who spoke and teeming waters were formed into seas. 
The Voice who does speak, brings forth life out of a womb, 
          the One who does speak and directs the angel soldiers to fight, protect and defeat the accuser.

You alone control, judge, guide, direct, allow, give, hold, comfort, create, heal, restore, Love! 
You are Love, 
     not mushy, fleeting weak affection, 
but profound, cemented, heart-reaching, heart-changing, centering kind of Love. 
Love that surrenders everything when nothing is deserving.
Love that allows pain in order to bring wholeness. 
Love that breaks, in order to mold. 
Love that hears every voice, every heart’s cry that is in tune with it’s Creator.

I quietly, completely-broken, fully-surrendered, lay at your feet, 
       before your throne, in the midst of your majesty

Sunday, November 25, 2012

I Choose to Believe

The devil is real
Hell is real
Eternity is real

Now you can choose to not believe anything I'm writing right now.  In fact there are days I can choose to not pay much attention to the facts. I'm not looking for a demon under every rock, giving credit to the devil for life's cause and effect. But it's real ... that's a fact!

You may be reading this and assume I'm crazy, that I haven't a clue what I'm talking about and decide this is the last post you're ever gonna read from this delusional woman.

That's fine, but first hear me out.

God is real
Heaven is real
Eternity is real

If you've lived on this planet for more than a day, you've experienced all of this already. You've been in the very midst of eternity. It would be very arrogant to think that what we look at in the mirror is everything ... sadly many days I do think that. It's narcissistic to believe all that happens in our world is up to us, dependent on us. It's not.

Be honest with yourself, you know it's not true.
If you've been present at the birth of a baby, or stood on a pier and watched a pod of dolphins play in the ocean you know there is more to life than just "us."
You've read about, heard about, possibly even experienced evil.
You've sensed fear, darkness, isolation, loneliness. Those are all the schemes that the devil has devised to conquer and break us down.

Eternity - the forever after, beyond what we see, smell, hear right now.
Like cataracts on our eyes. We think we see it all clearly each day, feeling happiness one moment, sadness the next. We go from euphoria to despair. We believe what we see. But like cataracts, our eyesight is fuzzy, what is real is hard to see. What you think life is supposed to look like, isn't true, isn't clear.  There is more, oh, so much more! Forever after will be like that, eye surgery to remove cataracts, laser surgery to correct our vision.
That is the hope we have, the bigger picture, what is to come. How we live today is part of that. Is integral and full of purpose. But it's foggy, hard to see. Not clear to our sin-sick vision.

So now we have two options.
Believe or not believe
I choose to believe,
I choose to realize each day,
       each disappointment, each need
       every celebration, every desire and craving is a part but not the whole
These things are not what our life is about, not the end all, not all there is

The devil is real
God is everything
Hell is real
It's not created for me or mine, but for the devil and his angels
Heaven is real
It is my focus, my forever-after, my eternity