Just a few minutes ago I walked back into this apartment after a stroll to dinner & then through the park with a good friend. For a few hours my buddy & I talked about God in our lives, how He moves in every season & all He has seen us through whether or not we have chosen to see Him. All the while offering our best insight, prayers & listening ear to one another.
This is perhaps one of my favorite things in this life; sharing stories with good friends & finding God's work in areas never seen before. Then together giving thanks to a Father that loves selflessly. Be it rain or shine, temptation & trial, He has never let me down. (1 Corinthians 10:13). In these fleeting moments of gratitude & relationship I feel as though I am doing something right, like a child making his Father proud. In these moments I am full & feel so close to home.
Jesus reminds us, as recounted by John, "I am the resurrection & the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; & whoever ever lives & believes in me will never die. Do you Believe this?"
Do I? I am finding each day I do a little more & it reflects in my life. Days where this belief sinks to my bones & deep within my heart I am able to love in ways & to levels I could never before. But only by the grace of God. Only when I surrender myself as a instrument for His love am I able to love well.
I do not have many more words to describe this love that I am feeling & if I did I doubt it would be a very good love at all. The best words we can manifest fall short of a true love. The only way I can explain this all is by saying I feel like I am coming home. Allowing Jesus into my heart is like coming home to a place where I feel I am who I was made to be & am loved as I was made to be loved.
"T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far
and Grace will lead us
home."
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
The Meadow
Each year I visit the meadow, I wish I had a picture to show you. Except for the snowy months you will find at the meadow tiny mountain critters, wild flowers & tall grass up to the edge of it's aspen tree border. If you are here you will be tucked away in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range at over 11,000 feet. If you are here or have a meadow of your own in mind, you will know better whats tickling around in my head.
The hike up to the meadow begins at the outskirts of a small town called Crestone where our family still visit my grandpa's old home. Crestone is known for few things; it's crystal shops, dense hippie population & perhaps most for it's proximity to some of Colorado's most beautiful & dangerous mountains. A few miles of switchback trails will spit you out directly at the meadows edge. The reward for a quick day hike is great as you see a golden meadow scattered with flowers & a back drop of 2,000 foot cliffs jetting even higher & leaving you with in undeniable sense of insignificance.
The grandeur of the scenery will leave you in awe but just lately something else stuck me, the relationship of the meadow & it's flowers. You see, the flowers are there because of the meadow. They may go as the seasons change but they will come back, they always do. Virgin snow covers the meadow late in the year & the various beauties of wild flowers grow in new places, with new shades & colors as winter turns to spring again.
Isn't this meadow like love? The place where all good things grow in a dynamic way; hope, forgiveness & the like? Love grows flowers of hope but never in the same way twice & hope cannot grow without love, just as the flowers cannot grow without the meadow. When love is covered with the cold of winter you can believe with all your heart the snow will melt & give nourishment for new life.
If we are looking for hope, forgiveness, justice... first let us look not to be loved but to love others. The seasons will change, wild flowers will grow but only when we love first.
"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens."
The hike up to the meadow begins at the outskirts of a small town called Crestone where our family still visit my grandpa's old home. Crestone is known for few things; it's crystal shops, dense hippie population & perhaps most for it's proximity to some of Colorado's most beautiful & dangerous mountains. A few miles of switchback trails will spit you out directly at the meadows edge. The reward for a quick day hike is great as you see a golden meadow scattered with flowers & a back drop of 2,000 foot cliffs jetting even higher & leaving you with in undeniable sense of insignificance.
The grandeur of the scenery will leave you in awe but just lately something else stuck me, the relationship of the meadow & it's flowers. You see, the flowers are there because of the meadow. They may go as the seasons change but they will come back, they always do. Virgin snow covers the meadow late in the year & the various beauties of wild flowers grow in new places, with new shades & colors as winter turns to spring again.
Isn't this meadow like love? The place where all good things grow in a dynamic way; hope, forgiveness & the like? Love grows flowers of hope but never in the same way twice & hope cannot grow without love, just as the flowers cannot grow without the meadow. When love is covered with the cold of winter you can believe with all your heart the snow will melt & give nourishment for new life.
If we are looking for hope, forgiveness, justice... first let us look not to be loved but to love others. The seasons will change, wild flowers will grow but only when we love first.
"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens."
Friday, May 4, 2012
Walls & Windows
Mother Teresa once wrote how she saw her self as nothing more than a pen, an instrument for God to write a love story. What a humble & beautiful perspective on a humble & beautiful life.
Today I woke with the warmth of the sunshine through my blinds & wondered how often I am a window the sun shines through? Is God's love evident in my life? Or do I act as a wall that blocks any warmth & light from reaching others? I find I am much more often a wall.
A life surrounded by walls of untended hurts, independence & isolation often lets little light in. But I am striving to with every ounce of me to become a window & draw the blind so that may share God's love with you.
Becoming a medium for God's love is like drawing water from an endless well, like being a window the sun shines through.
"You are the light of the world." -JC
Today I woke with the warmth of the sunshine through my blinds & wondered how often I am a window the sun shines through? Is God's love evident in my life? Or do I act as a wall that blocks any warmth & light from reaching others? I find I am much more often a wall.
A life surrounded by walls of untended hurts, independence & isolation often lets little light in. But I am striving to with every ounce of me to become a window & draw the blind so that may share God's love with you.
Becoming a medium for God's love is like drawing water from an endless well, like being a window the sun shines through.
"You are the light of the world." -JC
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