Rooted Mobility

I long to be so ready to respond to the movement of the Spirit that I can feel immediately when He is near, whispering my name to draw me close for receiving all I need in Him, or for summoning me to one of the works He has prepared for me to have a part in. 

It is far easier to be ready if I have set my mind on Him for the day, if I have allowed myself to be unwrapped from the heavy drapings of the cares of the world by soaking in His word and truth and being reminded of His love and His power and His purposes.  It is also beneficial if I haven’t succumbed to the tyranny of the urgent and all that would nip for my focus.

There are many gifts that He brings our way for our blessing and enjoyment.  I am not suggesting we need to create a desert for our lives to be in His will.  But I have found that being ready requires a continual stripping down of all the things that would try to grab my heart and entice me to fill the gaps in my life my way and hold those things out to Him, yielded.  The temptations are vast.  I must lean in to really trust that He will meet me in the needs and longings and sorrows.  I must believe for the unfolding of His best in and through my life as I give Him all the room to guide it for His purposes. 

It is in the waiting and yielding of heart, mind, and will that the seeds of joy are sown.  It is in the trusting, when timing and circumstances don’t go as I would choose, that tiny plants of faith are grown. It is in the resisting of anything but what He says is good for the season I am in that strong oaks and fruit-laden trees will be formed, because they have been planted close to the living waters of His promises, nourished there as I can discover  His daily provision. 

As I end this year with many dreams not yet achieved and some hopes not yet received, I know this is the best life I can live.  It isn’t about my immediate happiness or accomplishments.  It is about all the desires that He has for my heart and life and is utterly faithful to produce if I will live a trusting life, if I believe He is profoundly good.  

Eat and See

After Mary’s new baby had taken His first breath, part of the heavenly announcement was that the shepherds would find Him “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  This young new mother had dressed Him in His first earthly apparel, simple and rough though it may have been.  Then instead of being physically wrapped in His mother’s protective arms, He was laid in a manger.  Mary obviously was quick to be in the rhythm of God that her son had arrived FOR the world. 

He seemed to be being offered as food to us right from the start as she willingly placed her precious newborn there in the feeding place of the stable. It was her first sacrificial action after He arrived.  She seemed to be saying, “Here He is; taste and see that the LORD is good.” 

We don’t get nourished by looking at food from afar.  We have to pick it up and chew on it.  The breaking down of our literal food into nourishment happens in the quiet hidden places.  So too with the spiritual food we are offered.   Taste and see.  Maybe that doesn’t just mean “taste and have the evidence”, but “taste and have your eyes opened.”

Carrying Christmas

And on we go from the special Holy-days…celebrated to remind us to hold Christmas close and walk in its miracle.

Continue to be a Mary who receives, a Joseph who believes, one who, though our life inn-box is full, makes room to welcome Him and be filled with the wonder of His arrival.  Let us see that He is the ever-green one who continues to work and bless, the twinkling light of hope in our darkest nights, and the great guiding star, hanging there brightly, waiting for us to look up.  He will be faithful to guide us forward, then finally home.  

He is the wisest man who has journeyed to us from Heaven, hoping to walk with us into each of our days.  He is the tending shepherd and the sacrifice lamb who has already done the greatest work for us and now invites us into new days and new years to continue to feel the effects of His strength and care.  Oh, let’s not pack up all of Christmas.  What He offers wasn’t meant to be seasonal.  

Faith Journey

Faith is a journey we are all invited into.  The first shining moment of it is a gift of the revelation we were given when we first got a glimpse of Him and turned His direction.  Faith is the opportunity we have from that moment on, and begins as baby steps, never being developed into a stronger walk and run unless we get the legs of it beneath us, putting our weight on its promises, and actually begin to travel its road.  A great faith doesn’t get built unless we step into the unknown of trust for real messes in our real lives with all the risks and dangers they hold, believing that He will come through as a good and mighty God, actually doing the part of BEING God.  He didn’t walk up the hill of Calvary, through the now-broken gates of hell, and out of a tomb for less than continuing on as Living God for those who desire a relationship with Him. 

We cannot hold back at the fringes of our circumstance and see Him often come through for us if we prefer to meet all of our own needs and figure out the answers by ourselves.  The blessings of the miraculous are more often the reward of those who jump off the edge of the dock of self-preservation, recognizing both their need and His promise to be the provision, and allow themselves to experience His saving work in the sea of faith.  But it isn’t easy.  I’ve realized that there may only be one lesson in life… “Will you trust Me?” and it comes to us day by day in thousands of variations.

He offers us everything He is and has, all the resources of the storehouses that hold all He has won for us.  We get salvation handed to us as an undeserved gift.  Faith is another matter that is built as we walk together with Him and engage with Him as companion and Lord, counselor, shepherd, strong tower, and King.  

We have just celebrated His arrival on the planet.  A real event in real time and space.  He did what the Father asked of Him through thirty-three years of obedience, with perfect timing and a heart that wouldn’t quit.  But faith He cannot do for us.  He cleared the way for us to have a miraculous life.  Only our choices can give us that adventure.

Unwrapped

We were delighted with the gifts of yesterday, all wrapped in their sparkly papers and crisp ribbons.  We knew that presents purchased for us by ones we love would likely be something nice.  There was probably anticipation as a package rested on our lap and we began to unwrap it to get to the box, then through the tissue to the gift itself.  Ribbon and paper and tape and tissue are not too intimidating, but getting to the Greatest Gift often is. 

To find the Christ, we have to be willing to be unwrapped ourselves, not of ribbon, but of resistance, not of paper, but of pride, not of tape, but of treachery, and not of tissue, but to finally be willing to deal with our trust, deciding if we will offer it to Him or not.  We have to be open to inviting Him into the dung and straw reality of our lives, things we’d honestly prefer not to even look at ourselves.  But that we must as we acknowledge our need of a Savior.  He will come their gently but firmly, then call us from those things.

His wrapping is also an obstacle.  Bloody and ripped He trudged, then hung with robes already torn away and cast aside.  The circlet of blossoms that rightly should have adorned Him had already had the stems handled angrily enough to leave no delicate petals, but only piercing thorns.  He hung there not looking at all like an ornament on a tree, though He was Heaven's finest.  His most victorious moment was utterly unrecognizable because He was so enfolded in our sin.  We thought it was His humanity that made Him look so ghastly, when really it was ours.

We have to be willing both to be unwrapped and to draw close to the powerful heart of who He really is.  And even as we continue through our lives to keep unwrapping this endless Gift (as He unwraps us to increasing freedom), we will find that there is something magnificent and dazzling to continually behold there.  We won’t see it fully until we finish our race, but there are many signs, deep assurances, and golden threads that will miraculously be woven through our lives as we discover His goodness and His strength.  How He does it, I don't understand, but I have seen it over and over again.

For those who stay with the journey of faith, we will find the deep peace and great joy of knowing Him and being known—the gift of Emanuel, God with us, the breach of Eden firmly resolved to allow mankind to walk with God again. 

Back to the Porch

It has been a long time since my writing has surfaced here, but I have been feeling nudges to come back for a while and this seems like the right time.  For those of you who have been reading my posts on facebook and have been encouraged by anything there or asked me to keep at it, this is the next step, so thank you to those who helped oil the gears.

My writing has been a simple way to share with others what God has woven into the lessons of my day.  I write and post them believing that if it is something I need to learn, perhaps someone else is needing the same words. The ride of my life is bumpy sometimes and I trip often; the lens isn't perfect, because I can only see in part.  It always will be that way as I maneuver earth's dips and inclines with feet that are still trying to be well-sandled with grace and love and truth, and eyes that are trying to focus well.  But He also speaks into the real lives and thoughts of human men and women and children, and gives us words and encouragement for the building up of one another.  It is good to share what He is doing in our lives, what we see, and what we are learning.

I will tell you that I am compelled to believe that He truly is God--I've seen enough glimpses of the miraculous to be convinced of that.  I try my best to lean high and far to stay vulnerable and willing for Him to enter my life in any way He wants.  I try to dig deep and hard into facing my own junk and to let Him have permission to clean me out and reshape me to something He can readily use.

I also believe we are to remember what He has done.  This place will be one of several in my life where I keep record of the manna that He brings for my day.  The most significant ones are my regular journals, my charm necklace--a collection of symbols of the major life lessons He has taught me, my "Peace by Piece" journal--a written record of how He brings together the elements of a specific promise He made me, and the collection of my daily writings.  As I've kept these things at hand, they have sometimes been put to use back into my life as crumbs of that precious daily bread that can help me find my way back home when I am lost in darkness or fog or weariness or doubt. Sometimes the crumbs have also enlarged, it would seem, into a massive stone that prods me not to deny His presence, His power, and His provision.  "Remember, I did this amazing thing back then because I love you.  Please trust Me. I have not changed."

So here I will be, a place a little better accessible for those beyond my facebook circle to share the bread that I've found nourishing that day.  If you find something helpful here, please feel free to share the link or invite your friends to visit the porch.