too smart?!?

We
Post-ENLIGHTENMENT
Christians
almost always look
for principles...
for theory...
for labels...thinking
WE gain control of
things by
labeling them...
explaining them...
sounding as if we understand them...

You, Lord,
Move Your kingdom
By a wisdom
Past
All our principles...and
All our thinking...and
All our labels...

SO...maybe
Our part SHOULD be
To look for,
To listen to,
To walk toward
Your Voice...which
Is NOT
A very enlightened
Way of seeing things at all.

Or is it?

grace or fixing things

2 Corinthians 12 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul on grace...
8
Three times I pleaded with the Lord
to take it away from me.

9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness."
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,
so that Christ's power may rest on me.

10
That is why, for Christ's sake,
I delight in weaknesses, in insults,
in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Me & Jesus talking about
His plans for me...

Lord,
What is it that we REALLY want?

Do we want
Your grace?
or
Getting things fixed?

We say we want to
Keep holding onto You, Jesus...

But we want this closeness
without real cost...though
we give lip service to
"no pain, no gain"
we LIVE as if it just isn't true...
we FEEL that it should not be true.

looking at my life
I realize that grief, loss, sorrow...
all
are powerful
if painful instruments of Your grace...

my heart, all of our hearts...we want solutions...
I want to fix all my broken things...

Lord,
You seem to be less about
fixing things than You are
about drawing me closer to Yourself.
You seem to think that closeness
is preferable to lack of problems
or conflicts...hmmm...

This should be a paradigm for
ALL
our human relationships...after all,
Jesus...You know us best...
better than we do ourselves.

I think You're telling me
that closeness is better than
knowing stuff...
fixing stuff...
controlling stuff...even
ALL the stuff in my life...

kinda different
from how I was brought up, eh?

to a friend...on fear, grief & grace...

To my friend:
One thing I've learned from the San Diego week is that when grief & fear are at their highest pitch...there is far more grace than we can imagine...it's kinda like a dam ready to burst...just a nudge and God breaks out...

And while this does NOT make things easy NOR does it solve things...Jesus' Presence is sweeter the MORE we KNOW just how desperately we need Him!

So I am praying for you to be able to let the FLOOD of Jesus' grace sweep over your soul!

More to my friend:

God’s grace is NOT meant
to make things easy…
Grace is meant as God’s provision
to bring our lives toward
the good,
the holy,
the truly beautiful…
toward Jesus Himself…
so…
it necessarily means
pain, grief, suffering…and
at times protracted periods
of not knowing what will happen next…or
of not seeing the good we have attempted
take root…much less
bear fruit.

It is times like these
Where God’s words to Paul have
Their intended meaning…
“My grace is sufficient…”
“My strength is completed
in your weakness.”

To Jesus:

Lord, for me, this has meant resting
In a place of deepest discomfort…
Of tasting grief carefully
Like a fine wine…
Of peering deeply into things lost to me
With no resolution…
Of facing fear…seeing it
For what it is…then
Looking for You, Lord…in it!

Our weakness
Wedded to Your grace
Brings the ALL-mighty into the cosmos
Acting to make all things
New.
Eventually.
In the meantime…Your grace
Requires our trusting, daily obedience
To have its intended effect
In the here and now.

Lord, You are okay
With that…
How amazing is that?