The Sweetness of Surrender

So often we think of surrender as a negative thing. Our culture prides itself on originality as we're encouraged to step out with a "large and in charge" attitude. With opinions, impressions, convictions - we're taught that to be our own boss, our own dictator of direction is to reach true freedom. Hustling our way through life, we learning how to succeed by making sure we have the last word: a say so in our future and to embrace the bright promise of self-ambition.

But I wonder, is this really the healthiest way to approach life? Are we meant to be our own life designers? Dreams and ambitions is clearly a good thing, a gift. But without surrender do they only serve to own me? Personally, I find myself wanting a leader, a final word, the knowledge that I'm truly walking in what God has before me. And to my own astonishment, I actually don't want to be in charge!

This past season,  I've been struck by the powerful nature of surrender. Instead of viewing it as a necessary evil only out to spoil my expectations, dreaming or life planning, I'm beginning to see it as wonderfully freeing. I love when Jesus talks about taking up our cross. The very next verse is about finding our life and he says that those who lose their life, will find it. It's really is true and oh so comforting. To surrender, to let yourself go in God, is to find yourself.

What a beautiful mystery! That loosing ourselves in Him can result in the most security of all. I feel like this one might take a life-time to discover, but why not just go for it. Contrary to what we are taught, surrender is full of joy, not just pain. With God nothing is impossible and thankfully, not everything has to make sense either.

Saying "No!"

Life has a way of demanding our participation. Whether working or playing, our days fill up quickly, as our to-do lists become longer and longer. Weeks fly by and time becomes a precious commodity, as we try to straddle everything. People pleasing becomes our M.O., as silence, patience and rest slip away. Starting early and ending late, even good things can tend to overwhelm us, and with the unrelenting craze of activity comes the oh-so-familiar opinions of man.

Watching, judging, instructing, opinions are never far behind the noise of life. Everyone and everything has one. Even seemingly null individuals or causes are able to impress them upon you. Unbenounced, we are constantly consuming and even internalizing. I often find myself responding to other's opinions without even thinking about it, easily overwhelmed by their seemingly powerful and persuasive natures. The world will try to convince us that we are the victim, that we can't say "no" and that opinions of man should and will rule our decisions. It will propose that to contest this "fact" is pointless and a waste of our efforts. Heads down and survival are better than being crushed. 

The causational ones tend to be especially tricker liars; trick-for-trade, making deals, compromising. If you do this, than you can have this or be this or buy this, etc. Promises unkept, this sneaky whirlwind of demands, pressures, and expectations, are far from fair nor are they uplifting. Besides, how am I or anyone else suppose to function, let a lone thrive, admits the barrage of all the should's and could's? 

Breathe. "Just say no," the Holy Spirit quips. Say "no"? 

The interesting thing about the opinion of man and lies from the enemy are that they projects a victim mentality on the accused. Jesus is all about empowerment and freedom. Freely he gave of Himself, His mercies, His love. Freely He laid down His life, considering that equality with God was not something to be grasped. He used his freedom to empower and it change the world forever. 

Saying "no" not only allows us to reposition our hearts in a victorious stance, as more than conquers in Christ Jesus, but it also gives us the freedom to hear and honor the voice of our Beloved. What God says about who we are is far more important and ultimately  the only thing that matters and that's eternal. All the other opinions, voices, mockery pale in comparison to the glorious presence and peace of us hidden in Him. When we say "no" to the noise, it makes space for the Father's voice to boom through our spirit. It shifts us back into the right wavelength where we hear things that are congruent with the Father's heart. It's His voice that breathes and breeds life into our spirits. 

This is where real change, freedom, and peace happen. We must restrain from becoming sloppy in our adoration and awe for the powerful nature of the presence of God. To sit, to rest, to be in His presence is fulfilling our first and most significant calling, to love God, to be ministering to the our Creator, and in my opinion, it's some of the most precious times to our Father. Complicating the message and the personhood of Jesus, doesn't make Him more powerful or more effective. God is looking for lovers who are willing to trust Him above all else and let His voice take precedence.

Just say "no". Because we can! Simple and complete. No more victim mentality, no more succumbing to the cohesion of the enemy or the ignorance of the world. No more fear. It's peace time! May we continue to lean into Jesus, as we say "no" and watch as he raises us up above all the noise. I pray that His voice would be the loudest and most prized voice ringing in His bride's ear. 

His Eyes

Imagine a world where you're always connected, never separated, not even for a moment. Imagine everyone in tune, playing their own melody beautifully. Imagine rising above the present moment. Imagine the space you're walking in expanding. It's becoming. It's bigger, brighter, more lovely than you ever thought. Imagine yourself staring into the eyes of Jesus. What do they look like? What do His eyes tell you about today, about the situation, and most importantly about your tomorrow? His eyes are full of hope. They sparkle with a firey passion. His eyes hope for all things, bear all things, believe in all things. He's has only positive thoughts towards us and he's never intimidated by what He sees.

Holy Spirit invade, as we lift up our eyes towards heaven, our arms stretched out wide. Our hearts are unrelenting. Come and dwell. That is our desire, to see the face of our savior. Like waves, heaven's mercies wash over us. Daily, their splashes are full of recovery, and there's always more.

So let us see Your eyes! Let us imagine how You do.

Leaning

I once had a vision.

In the vision, I saw myself stepping off a cliff. I could see my tentative feet gripping its rocky ledge, desperately wishing there was a way to retreat, to return to how it use to be. I didn't want to make the leap, but there was no other option. Forward became the only way. I feel the fear of below, a total unknown, full of danger and impossibility. As I step off the end and fall. Expecting to encounter destruction, instead I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I'm falling not into the darkness, but into the light. The further I fall the brighter it gets. It just keeps going and going. And as I let go, it gets warmer and warmer, better and better. I can see the hand of God cupping the light guiding it further in, deeper into his heart. I see that I'm falling into the very love of God.


Recently, I've really been learning to let go. I remind my soul today that the lover always comes out of the desert leaning on her beloved. There's no other way out. We can't return to Egypt, and sometimes it's as if the promise couldn't be farther. But as we continue to journey with our Jesus, we learn how to lean into Him. To walk by His fire by night and His cloud by day. Dependence is the key. It's a beautiful reality that sets us free. Free from the cares of this world, free from our insecurities, free from our doubts about who we are, what we're doing and who God has made us to be.

For if you are faithless, He has faith.
If you are weary, He is the giver of rest.
You make me lie down in green pastures.
You lead me by still waters.
Just to be still and know.
I will sit.
You alone restore my soul.
Where can I hide from you, even death itself cannot stop your plan for me.
No where can I hid, no where am I away from you.
You are everywhere.
You are for me.
You love me.

So lean into the light, friends! Fall into his goodness. There's no better place to be. Rest, be restored, and with joy let go. It's always getting better.

A Love Story

You make all things new and you never played any of the games.
You came into this world as a poor helpless baby,
with an audience of few,
leaving in the most disgraceful way possible.

You were a carpenter.
You spend 30 years in anonymity.
You never were out there, in your face, forcing people to demonstrate that the heaven was at hand.

You just were.
You just went and you just loved.
God is love.

Overused and worn thin by explanation in place of exploration,
when I first heard it, these words filled me with wonder.
Awe overflowed, thinking, "How can that be?"

My mind rocked, just as much as my heart by its majesty.
True mystery.
True to Your colors I suppose.
True to Your form.
So beautifully interwoven, so thoughtful, so taken care of.
Every detail, moment, big and small You see it all.

And You love.

You love without strings attached, without reservation.
You love until things are better.
Your love is deeper than any cut, wider than any pit and can scale any wall.
Nothing is bigger nor stronger.
Intimacy defined.
Divine revealed.
This is the very place where life springs forth and there's nothing better.

This is heaven on earth, my friends.
Living love.
Freedom is here.

Some words that are resounding in my heart today...

Imagine
Worship
Delight
Explore
Expectation
Hope
Shine
Fulfillment

Walking with our Creator is always a mystery. Filled with unexpected turns and uneasy terrain, learning how to trust in those moments that are so uncomfortably accompanied by ambiguity seem to challenge even the most experienced. Lately, I've been pondering the overlap of realities: the overt and not-so-overt ways in which heaven and earth collide. Each day we wake up and we tend to the needs of that day. Eating, cleaning, working, doing...oh and of course, some more doing! We become masters of the doing. It's easier to lose perspective in all this involvement. But throughout it all, it never ceases to amaze me that there's a simultaneous, parallel space that we exist in.

Intimacy is the inroad to this sacred place. It's a space were the cares of this world can rest and the hope of a child returns to our weather-worn souls. "Rest my beloved" is its banner, hanging high and spread out across the sky as a marker for all to see. Even the demons know and shutter. Living in this place brings us above, it opens up our heart's vision and invites us into a the realm of possibility. From this place, as we are seated on our Papa's lap, we are able to become and believe. It is here that our deepest longings are met and unexpected treasures arise. A special union. For what God has united, let man not separate.

Let me return to one of my words of the day: fulfillment. Why such a difficult gift...or curse we might ask? If we're made to live in a world without sin, without lack, then where does this come from? How does this play out into our lives and most importantly, how is this one word affect our choices? We all have needs. We've all heard the 3-point sermons preaching their proven behavioral management systems and read the latest bestselling self-help books, but alas to what change. We as humans need purpose, we all question identity, we all desire to "arrive". We push, climb, bulldoze, bend, stretch, destroy our ways to a place of "fulfillment". All the while, our Jesus is standing right next to us. He's holding our hands, living in us and through us...our friend, savior and lover. Jesus whispers to us calmly, reminding us of how we're made for greater things, greater than we could even imagine. He calls to the deepest anxiety dark spots inside of us, the place where all the yuck resides and he loves it. He loves it clean. His love is our fulfillment. What we desire most is already here! What we need is already found. Our eternal perspective is here! He whispers to our hearts the "more" we're looking for and (the best part of course!) he's awaiting in joyful anticipation to just give it away! Take it, take it, take it. More, more, more. There's always enough here.

So remembering is the key. Remembering that whatever this present reality holds, there's a greater one. A reality exists that's more real, more beautiful, more determinant of our future and who we are, one that fulfills and where we are the beloved, the precious, the taken care of one. So come and be taken care of today and let our hearts be filled with awe at the mystery of heaven.