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?

it's when you stop running

and sound is a movement
the river is a laugh
I watched move down
the mountain's back

 and she would never stop to breathe

but faster fly and stronger heave
it's not like I can run that path
and not look back- to not look back

 

would fill my lungs with newborn air
and empty every dying thought
let go my unforgiving heart
let something die, and something start

stillness wells up as strong as she
I wrap myself so I can't breathe
I fear the sound of when you'll leave
or just don't know when I am free

prodigal lungs

while you wrap the sky in yellow fog
I watch you swim to Babylon
it's not the city where you live
it's just the room you're always in

inhale exhale toss and pitch
you love to drink your god like smoke
in time you'll spit him out and walk back home.

I swam through all the wires inside
but I still land here every time
shipmates on a swollen sea
always shipwrecked ever green

inhale exhale slam the sea
stir the surface incense me
I say you'll spit this out and walk back home.

you're open to attack my friend
your arms have never been this limp
it's what you want it's what you want
you wish your bones were made from salt

I sank four stories through a leaf
the blacktop wasn't underneath
what you can say, what you can do is much more than enough.

the salt is lighting up your skin
since you forgot your coat at home
your ears aren't covered for this snow
my son you've never been so vulnerable.

I crow I grin but I don't know
what'd ever make you walk back home
no it won't, it won't be you who walks back home. 

khloi

the water's thick with sunbeam spit

and slow with sunset glow

heavy with the fall of golden

shafts like fall of snow

I hide you in the deepest heart
that opened once to me

I'll find you in the deep green pockets
of the seething sea.

in a year or ten

blushing ears, wind-slashed tears

sun squints, slowing years.

blasted lands, scorched dust,

voiceless looks, unraptured sands;

sold, golden, wintered hands.

yesterday resonates
grates its teeth across the walls
dances off with flighty sleep
while the fractured next few hours
fog the headlights and the laws.

same black fissures, repeat scars
marring pages, claying laws.

there's a breathing animal,

a fist inside my mouth,
lets the silence overgrow
and blind our open eyes;

I think a scream

would let it out,

but I still haven't tried.

walk until you reach the edge

and stop there, stop your crouch;

let the wind run round your face

let the wind run out

check your pace

check your eyes

the edge's look will pull you in,

make the fire come alive,
for a second's gasping dive

bluish eyes, desert dreams

miles I've seen, the miles I've been. 

the flat heaves up then drops for miles
it's tossed by every weakness known,
known in every hollow bone,
the ocean feels its bounds

these quick lifts current down
the faint lick of sullied frownings;

yet deep in this pure, colding pool

I still shelter hopes of drowning

the heartbeat of the coast is strong
and so is the sky's salt-flecked song

surge up, fall back
you keep running, I attack.

could you abandon all at once?

somehow I've known it well for months
I've loved the One who showed me how
but I've loved myself more.

my strong fear met this fragile trust
in this way which to live I must
I must lose hold of all my self;
yah I feared losing hold of my sweet self.

you live above the shifting blur
or you fall deep into the cure;
when you scorch your sense of fear
falling's a little easier.

Maybe playing with fire can never be enough;
So let all of my defeated ways be sharp with oil
And let me be the one to drop the torch. 

touchstone

 my ears are full of famine
   Your voice fell like rain  

 a blue gloom gathered, coiling in the thick
between the cloudbank and the brush

  and I found myself in danger
   of welling up with trust

I wish you’d shed your stone-cold skin
I wish you’d lapse into sincerity again