"Each house was maybe the size of our kitchen."

They come back like men who have seen the world. 
You can see it in their eyes, the reflections of every scene, every second, blurred together into one, swimming weight.  Their eyes hold more than their mouths tell; their words hold more than my ears can drink... and in their silences, I know they are swimming back, back to the weight, the sight, the sound.

Each sentence is spoken like a story book, opened to me for just a glimpse, yet snatched away before my own eyes are able to focus on the sight. 
These are the ones who see the things I long to. 

"Each house was maybe the size of our kitchen."
My brother's words echo through my head.  Back and forth, back and forth, the sentence attacks my walls of thought, ringing against every structure of consciousness, as though looking for a way out.  
There is no release for it.

These are the sentences I will carry, locked up in my bones, until my eyes, too, can see the faces,
and until my ears, too, can hear the sound, the sound of the world. 

Do not forget the weight of what you have seen;
do not forget the weight of what you have yet to see. 

You Need The Wave If You Want The Ride

Nothing stops the Lord from accomplishing his will. 
There is nothing that can hinder him.  That much is true, and what does this mean for us?

Firstly, we need to know that God has invited us to exist in unity with himself.
The implications of that alone are beyond comprehension.. and it goes so much farther beyond "invitation."  It is his will, his highest desire, his earnest call on us each to be joined with him!  Unfathomable!
I must continue with this thought on the unstoppable nature of this stunning will.
Because God has invited us to exist in unity with himself-
we can want what he does.  We can be joined to his will.  It is possible! 

Where does that put us?  Where does submitting or surrendering to that will put us?

In the place of perfect safety.  In the place where nothing can hinder us, US, from his love..
the place where we are with him, and one with him, one with his will and his unstoppable purpose.

It is the place of grace.. that image of a bush consumed by fire yet not burning.  It is a miracle, one that grabs our eyes and makes us wonder.. because it is us in the flesh and in our weakness and yet bearing the power of God, bearing his Spirit within us, and acting as one with that Spirit.

It is a miracle, and it is God's great plan.  His will is miraculous; it's stunning. 
By that will, not only does he defeat sin in the flesh, AS A MAN(the man Jesus of Nazareth) overcoming the power of the devil- he then has us do it with him.

Us.  We, humanity, of whom ALL fall short of glory, are in him more than conquering the power of sin.. more than resisting it- we are in fact defeating the works of the devil.  We, the most foolish and most unwise! 
How glorious is God's plan for us!  How gracious, and miraculous.  Truly it glorifies him;
it was too little a thing for him to win us back and be satisfied in his victory- he wins us back and then invites us to fight and be victorious, to be with him and be unstoppable. 

How confounding to the wisdom of the world, how much higher are his ways. 
Do we want those ways?  Do we want his will?  Do we want what he does?

By the power of his Spirit, and by his own grace on us, which never runs out, let us choose those ways, that will, that life. 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ...For... God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  ...we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. ...God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong... so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God... our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 1

"What's the best way to live?"

Where can I begin.

It's been a long time coming, this message, a long time steeping. 
But I'm more ready than ever to speak it, because I'm more ready to hear it for myself everyday.

Three days ago, talking with a pal named Danelboy, I asked him,
"How much do you think a person can change?"

What I meant by that was, "How much do you think a person can change the world?"
I have a fascination with impact, with making a difference; I have a burning desire to do something great and precious with my life. 

Why?

Often, I know my mind wanders to this sort of question because of this habit:
I think that I can give value to my life through what I do.  Maybe, if I do something truly worthy, or live somehow truly great, I will value my life, finally value it the way my heart longs to. 
I want a valuable life so badly, so strongly. 

That's wildly incorrect, however, that habit of thought, (that I can make my life valuable, or that "greatness" makes my life valuable...) and that's something God has definitely been challenging me to rethink over a lengthy period of time.  He wants to redefine greatness in my mind.. and he certainly wants to redefine the value of my life and existence in my mind. 

Back to my broodings of the week.  The very night after I had spoken and been thinking on such a question, "How much can a person make a difference," my spirit was struck, perhaps by a whisper, perhaps by the mind of the Lord.

I felt that the answer I'd concluded was being replaced. 
My own conclusion had been this: "You only have one life to make a difference.  You only have one lifetime to change.  So... pursue that as much as you can, while you can."

But a different sentence settled over the old, and the old was disintegrated beneath it:
"You only have one life to get to know Jesus.  One life on earth.

What will you spend your life on?"

There is nothing greater, no destiny greater, than the one with which we were created:
to discover the Lord, to know his love, to be in relationship with him!  This is our creation destiny!
This is what we were made for!  This is the value God has put within us from before we were born.

Something within me longs for greatness, and worthiness.  My worldliness projects my perceived fulfillment of this desire upon worldly greatness . . .
but God has begun something deep and old in my heart saying:
"It's not enough.  The world is not enough for you." 

There is more? 

Even Paul, when he writes to a Corinthian church, says some ridiculous things:
"while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  ...are you not being merely human?"

Paul is talking to Christians here, the church, those whose spirits have been made alive together with Christ, and this is what he's saying:
"It's not enough for you to be living like the world anymore.  It's not enough for you to be acting 'only human.'"

How can he say this?  Because he knows, he knows, he knows-
in Christ, we are better than that.  In Christ, living like only a man is no longer living out what we have been created to experience-
because in Christ we receive a new creation where we are created to experience a destiny far, far different than the one our sinful humanity assigns us to.

I could go on for a long time, but I think the main thought I want to know for myself and communicate to you is this:
We only have one life on earth to get to know Jesus.

What will you spend your life on?