On The Adventure
His goodness is alive, and it's waiting to be discovered...
Thursday, January 19, 2012
New Season. New Blog. New Adventures.
So I decided a few weeks ago, that with the change in seasons I have had in my life, that it was time to start fresh. a brand new blog is part of that. I'm signing off on this adventure, but I am starting a new one here!
http://servantandson.wordpress.com/ (don't tell blogspot. I like them, i just needed a change of scenery)
Here's to continuing the journey.
Thanks for playing.
I'm off.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Confidence and Vulnerability
(Ohhh and one more thing!! Here is the woman who had that great Ted Talk on the same subject. I don't know if she knows the Lord or not, but He definitely knows her.)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html
Friday, September 2, 2011
When Ink Touches Paper...
Not blogging necessarily, although this is a great outlet for it, but writing. The world of words. The place where there are absolutely no rules as to what you can say or where the adventure can lead you. The place where you can be free to end things the way you want them to be ended. Where you can grow the characters in the way you want them to be grown. Where you can invent new dreams and trees and colors, if you so desire.
I love to write. It is part of my purpose and calling. I love to take my own circumstances and pour them out into a story. To create a character that I can truly identify with, who knows my heart, who acts how i act, all the while unaware that his setting is not my setting. That his setting is all he knows and all he can see. A setting of my making. A setting without limits. A setting where the things in my life and the desires of my heart make sense and the waterfalls go upward.
Words are truly the greatest gift that I have been given. Now, I don't mean the word "gift" as in "talent." I mean it as in "gift." Something God gave me for me to enjoy. The ability to create. The ability to go beyond grammar. The ability to mold life into something beautiful and to experience Him in an amazingly intimate way. I get to pour it all. All of my heart can flow onto these pages. It is not bound by the restraints of this world when it is coming to life in mine. What can the world say to me in a place that is purely mine and God's?
Nothing.
But I can speak to it. And I can speak to God. In fact, I think it's what I was created for. To dive into the world where all the stories live. My true home. And to discover the heart of the Lord there. It is my joy to pour my portion of words upon the throne of God because it means that I get an all-access-pass to that world. Words are alive in and of themselves, and we get the honor of discovering them when we are obedient in our searching. Even the rocks can cry out if they search hard enough, because their worship already lives.
Jean Rhys put it like this in an interview with the Paris Review: "Listen to me. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake."
(Thank you Madeline L'Engle for pointing that out in your brilliant book: Walking on Water)
I think Jean is on to something. There is something within us that calls us to write. Or that calls us to create at the very least. Talking with my various friends who are amazing painters or musicians, I think they feel the same way about their own avenues of creativity. We were born to pour this all upon the throne. It is our purpose, our honor, our joy, and our unyielding duty. Only God would wrap all of those things into one.
When I enter the world of writing, I feel as if I am taking steps towards wholeness, towards my identity. And once I get past my time restraints and half-hearted excuses, the door is cracked open to a place that is so brilliant and beautiful that my physical eyes would not be able to handle it. It can only exist in my living imagination. Where the eyes of my heart, just now opening, are the ones who have the pleasure of seeing it. When I serve that world of words and bring them to life, I feel the Lord move. We all have a place where this is true. Be faithful to it, friends. There is so much to discover.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Great March in Between
The glory of victory will never fade (just as their tired smiles still remain), but it is merely the overarching theme of the journey. The thoughts within that theme consist of thirst, weariness, and a sense of pride to be traveling with such great friends.
Their grateful sighs will be expressed alone and before the Lord once they have wrapped their minds around the experience. For now, they simply ride. The battle behind them and home on the horizon.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A life that's worth a damn.
We were once just breathing air,
Strolling on without a care,
Our eyes were locked upon our feet.
Asphalt was our shade of green,
The road lines our color scheme,
Mindless to all but our little street.
That street became a wall,
And our forward progress stalled,
We weren’t quite sure where life had gone.
With our newly lifted heads,
We raised up from the dead,
And our weary eyes caught glimpse of sun.
Jesus, Jesus,
We didn’t know that you were waiting
For us, for us,
We didn’t know these colors were made
For us, for us,
We thought that we would always get along…
Just fine.
With some new-found energy,
The Earth’s floral carpeting,
Began to crack right through the street.
And I could feel it too,
With an air of changing tunes,
New life had sprung inside of me.
Jesus, Jesus,
I didn’t know that you were waiting
For us, for us,
I didn’t know these colors were made
For us, for us,
I thought that I would always get along…
Just fine.
And now I’m breathing air,
For a life that’s worth a damn,
And there’s a light behind my eyes
Ventures are fully braved,
Love can be wholly made,
And now my limit is the skies.
Jesus, Jesus,
I now know that you’re wanting to
Transform us, form us,
So we can see the colors you made
For us, for us,
I can’t believe I ever could have thought
“Just fine”
…was good enough.
lll
People assume that the phrase "worth a damn" comes from southern culture; that some older tobacco-spitting man from the great depression must have thought of it. Just like we think the phrase "all for one and one for all" comes from The Three Musketeers.
But i don't believe the phrase "worth a damn" came from the south. or the north. or England or Cambodia. I think it came because our God calls things that are not as though they are.
I was talking with a friend of mine this morning who has just recently moved to a new place with his wife. They seem to be adjusting pretty well to the new climate, new streets, new everything, but leaving a strong community of Godly support is always a difficult thing. He said to me that the people he has encountered that don't know about the exciting adventure of the love of God (yet) just seem like they think they're void of purpose. they don't seem excited about work, or life, or anything. they just try to hide away and get by. "its like we are talking to zombies." he said. When you are constantly surrounded by amazing community that is after the heart of the Lord, it's easy to forget that death is the majority and that we are the weirdos.
But Jesus sees them all together different. he sees US all together different. He, being there at the beginning, when he invented green and plants and oxygen and us, saw the world the way it was created to be. and he has NEVER been able to get that image out of his head. Ever since things were skewed by sin he has been calling creation and its people back to their original purpose, the one in which we are the most fulfilled. He sees a drunkard in the street, or a tax collector (i think that tow-truck drivers are the modern day tax collectors), or a business man, or a young campus minister who is only just scratching the surface of what God is like, and sees them the way they were CREATED to be. He sees the purpose inside of them and loves them fully for what they are.
And he saw that the only way to bring us into the fullness of what we were created to be was to undo the curse that ruined it all in the first place. to come, die, and be damned himself. He sees us for what he made us to be, and he thinks that we are worth a DAMN.
So there's no reason to just keep trucking on, live our hundred years and try to figure out what life means while we're staring at the road. Encounter the love of Jesus, let him transform you, and go live a life that's worth a damn, our purpose is found there anyway.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Recieve Your Glory.
Receive your Glory.
What can you do when you are swept out to sea?
The waves are coming down fast.
Where do you go when land is a dream?
When back looks like forward, and forward like back.
The sky starts to open and welcome you home
You now get to step out of time
You dream even deeper, your journey begins
Your new body shimmers, alive.
No matter what changes,
Lord, you know what’s best.
I raise up what voice still lives in my chest
And I sing:
Receive your glory
Receive your glory
Receive your glory
Receive your glory
What can I do from nations away?
When pain still beats on my chest?
Who can I battle? What can I say?
How can I raise up the rest?
My bones have got colder, they tremor and ache.
My weeping is all I can see.
The mud adds a cushion to my knees and my face.
In all of my weakness, I scream:
“No matter what changes,
Lord, you know what’s best!
I raise up what voice still lives in my chest!
And I sing!:
Receive your Glory!
Receive your Glory!
Receive your Glory!
Receive your Glory!”
I believe in you Jesus, You’re worthy of praise!
You inhabit the title of “good!”
I worship with gladness, now and always
If you asked me to follow, I would.
Because no matter what changes,
Lord, you know what’s best.
I raise up what voice still lives in my chest
And I sing:
Receive your Glory
Receive your Glory
Receive your Glory
Receive your Glory.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Fame Scares Me.
I’ve always wondered what would happen to the Oslen twins if they had never been on Full House, or made this great music video about pizza and how (in the stylish beat that often inhabited the 90's) you can put anything you want on it and adjust it to taste. In the same vein, I’m also worried about what is going to happen to our new friend Rebecca Black.
Rebecca is the upcoming youtube star who was revealed to the world through the song “Friday” that we’ve all been freaking out about (whether negatively or… negatively. it really is pretty awful). The song was posted on Tosh.0 and it spread through the world like electricity. 55 million views so far! Im pretty sure it was 17 million last week. Yikes. I honestly hope that this fame leaves her quickly so that she can get on with her life.
Now, Rebecca is being very kind with her new found fame. She is donating a lot of the $30,000 a week she is making off the video to Japanese relief efforts. Which is great, (we really should all help out), but the crazy thing is that her gifts make the nightly news. I get awkward when people see me do the dishes. I can’t imagine my every move being tracked by CNN. She’s got a spot light on her and although she’s not necessarily “talented” she still has the ability to become a major star in this new world where “going viral” is enough to give you weight in political arguments or make you a legitimate philanthropist. Just ask Antoine Dodson.
But what a scary thing! I cringe when I think about how many people are looking at this poor girl. If Rebecca Black came to Appalachian State University and performed in Farthing Auditorium, the place would be packed. Granted, most people would come out of a cynical idea to make fun of her, but they would come. Heck, I’d probably go. It would be hard to pass up the chance to say I listened to “Friday” live. And as an added plus, I probably wouldn’t need my handy-dandy cell phone calendar to tell me that Saturday was coming up.
But for whatever reason, this girl literally has become a star. Maybe her fame will leave as quickly as it came (for her sake, I hope so, fame seems like it really ruins peoples lives), maybe she’ll be around for a long time and earn a career as a children’s song writer for the days of the week. Who knows? But I sure hope we can save her before she jumps headlong into Mary-Kate and Ashley’s fashion line. Building your own kingdom is scary business. Fame, as a whole, scares me. Praise GOD we were created to give it to Jesus. He’s the only one I’ve ever met who deserves it and can handle it. And even He snuck out of the crowds every now and then.