so let’s embrace, even cubicle space. after all, life is now; this is it! there is no rehearsal, we are here, performance fit! let’s embark on a quest for the good. find the joy in all things and you will never be without in the drought. enjoy Yeshua.
& never underestimate the power of the small—pollen, seeds, a yes.
& may that seed given to you from heaven find a yes in your heart, like how fuzzy yellow pollen dot, carried by a busy bumble bee travels to populate earth with beauty. or a teeny vesselseed of new life finds its way underground, nestled in soil particles, ready to sprout and birth a habitat, an oxygen fountain, a branch dance in wind.
& that ache resonating in your veins, echoing on the stars, testifying: there is More!
there’s a reason the money’s a void, the coins never change enough.
there’s a reason earth searches for her husband.
we’re not meant to be alone.
so when your heart throbs, let the longing draw you up, out, to the arms of Father.
He is the More our hearts long for. there is a Love drawing us all.
so belong to God in Christ. rest in His arms.
He’s already holding you. Already Loves you completely.
Love says yes to you today. Love Himself invites you to dance, to be married, to sing a duet. give up your walls and your defenses. Love says yes to you!
& even in the junk there’s joy. we can laugh and dance! in the midst of mud puddles, Splash. in the midst of depression, Sing! because the God of Grace Loves: you.
today we can look at the One who is looking at us. we can be seen & understood.
today is a day of rest.
you may be shuffling deadlines or chauffeuring kids, but there is still rest.
you may be hustling or homemaking, but there is still rest.
you may be flying airplanes, running with dogs, typing homework, changing dirty diapers. you may be commuting, headbanging, baking, mowing.
wherever, whatever the day brings, there is rest.
deep in our hearts, we can have peace with God in Yeshua.
remember what He did—the work done. so we can rest, in Him 💙
everyone is invited to The Party. & once there, everyone has presents waiting to be opened.
sadly, many choose to not accept their invitation. they don’t believe the good news of acceptance so they ignore their invitation in disbelief. of those who accept their invitation, many never open the presents given to them. some open a few presents while still leaving a pile of presents untouched. while the fewest group of all, are those who receive from the goodness of the Giver. they are of humble childlike meekness &, with simplicity, they accept the invitation to life & then go & open each gift given to them from Him.
which partygoer (or ignorer) are you?
have you accepted your party invitation or carelessly tossed it in the garbage can? to accept the free invitation to be a part of Gods family is good news! we are all invited! God says yes to us in Jesus! will we say yes to Him? He’s proposed. it’s now up to us to respond—in faith with simple agreement, or in rejection of free gift of eternal life.
if you do accept, GREAT! but it’s not a one time acceptance! there’s more He wants to give. He is the more; the more we know Him, the more beauty, more love, more everything good—More HIM—is received in us. but it is possible to receive once, twice, several more times…then stop. check your heart. how are you receiving from God *today*. not yesterday or tomorrow—today. today is the day of salvation! live one day at a time as each day has enough troubles of its own. each day is fresh mercy is fresh reception, fresh gifts given from above to be received from God to each one of us!
the gift given is not just for you.
to truly open a gift & to relish it, is to expand it—when you’re excited about something, you want to share it with others! the joy and the peace & the laughing all transfer.
likewise to ignore that present given to you, hurts those around you. if you’re grumpy, anxious, irritable, rude, it definitely drags those with you to those low levels as well.
receive well. because God Giver—the Party Himself— is worthy of praise.
God is the gift. will you receive Him today?
“Therefore let us draw near to the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
“But don’t forget this one thing, loved ones, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some consider slowness. Rather, He is being patient toward you—not wanting anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8-9
“For we know that if the tent, our earthly home, is torn down, we have a building from God—a home not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens.” 2 Corinthians 5:1
sometimes we compare our abilities to what other people can do. maybe I can play the guitar and sing, but, not like that guy over there can, so I devalue what I have based on what he has.
this is so backwards! & sad. many people are waiting to use what God has given to them until they’re exceptionally-up-to-expectations-excellent. there’s nothing wrong with desiring excellence. but, in reality, we need to just step out in faith and do the thing. momentum begets momentum. & to practice is the way forward.
we often feel like what God has given us to share with the world is nothing special. it’s normal to me, so why would anyone else think it special?
maybe you don’t see what you have as important, when, in reality, you’re the only person on earth who can do it like you can. no one else. no one can do it like you can.
if you are funny, tell jokes & make people smile! if you can bake, make many pies! if you are a singer, sing. teachers teach, athletes train and sewers sew! just do the thing. that is how you will get better anyways—by practice! by actually engaging that unique part of the image of God in you, the beauty the goodness the special talent or skill!
whatever excuses or lies you’ve heard about why you’re not writing, not singing, not cooking, not painting, not starting a business or whatever that special ability God’s gifted to you, tell it to shut up! & instead believe—i am created on purpose, with a purpose. I am here to know and make God known. no one can reflect Him in the exact, unique way He made me to! I get to shine my own specific rainbow in earth. so I must shine! I must do the thing i’m made to do! otherwise the world will be missing a ray of light, as no one can shine the way I am created to!
so create! sing! make music & paint & build websites, landscape, & fix cars!! write books & teach children & pole vault! whatever the thing you’re given to do, your gift, do it well, for Him!
what will you do with what you’re given?
God gave you gifts and abilities and talents for a reason!
when a person bungee jumps, they’re depending on the cord to keep them connected, to keep them alive! we, too, need to live connected, to remain in the vine.
““I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
John 15:1-7
stay strong in connection, keep yourself in the confines of love. know that the connection is your very life. Jesus, thank You for being our lifeline. we are nothing without You! please keep us, help us want You. teach us Your ways & may all we do flow out of connection & communion with You.
for without You we perish.
but with You, we soar. so have all of us & more. have this life You gave us, & let the love You’ve shown us be multiplied through fruitful abiding.
you know— we cannot trust our feelings, because even though a bungee jumper feels the free fall, they are always held and connected. so let’s live connected to Father. even when we feel the gravity, there is a Love who keeps us safe. we can feel like we’re falling, but the Lord. but the Lord is our saving line of hope.
He keeps us, leads us with cords of love
“I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. to them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” Hosea 11:4
life can be like a bungee cord.
sometimes we stumble, but He pulls us back up. snap back! “for the one who delights in God, though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”(Psalms 37:24)
life can be like a bungee cord.
when we trust His way is best, we jump into faith & are found. obedience to God is all! so today take a leap faith, let it go, release. trust God to catch you as you step out on His Word! be. rest. the peace is found in waiting. & know—you are kept by cords of love.
beach carpet—hot, dry, composite of miniature shell mirrors, pebbles, & sand molecules. each tiny bit composing a yellow shore blanket. i splay on this mosaic—my own music a collage made of millions of cells, notes, dancing, making me. each atom a party room of song & redemption long—longer than my eye can see the blue waves echoing off horizon edge.
here i am.
You brought me here, a bookmark in time, a pause. a place to be—just You & me. so here we are, together, on Your island beach.
Your island beach where You take every memory every tear, each broken pottery piece shard and moonbeam shed from head hung night, You take all the mismatched & missing pieces, to make a mural masterpiece. You leave no second untouched, revisiting & redeeming all the atoms of me until the movie of my life switches genres from drama & trauma to romance—You.
You brought me here, the beach of healing. so heal me here. let us sit let us walk the water’s tip where waves splash & drip the sand dark, where sea & shore hold hands, washing, recreating the sand again & again. i submit to You my shadows, heal me here.
how many jellyfish jig dance recitals has God choreographed, for an audience of One? how many waterfalls gush in secret, cascading down cliffside or mountain crag, hidden and glorious? how many stars He named, for none but Himself! how many ant parades He’s led, how many birds’ songs He’s composed, how many baby birds He’s coaxed out of their nest for their first time to fly, or sunrises He’s painted, storms He’s sketched. & all for Himself! we really are ignorant of all these grandiose and important daily miracles! yet God conducts it all, from His beauty for His glory. how many times has He vacuumed earth dew back up to Heaven, only for it to fall again when clouds unglue? how do lightning bugs lead dragonflies at night? how to be whale’s doula, or the tulip’s joy. daily these hidden mysteries, of wonder and awe, are created and cared for by God—from whom and for whom all things live and move and have their being. & daily these hidden mysteries escape us. yet He still does them, all for Himself.
of all God’s endless secret beauty on earth, the most amazing to me is that the evolving hairs on your head are all numbered. the tears you’ve wept, kept in His bottle. the details of you, fully known and fully loved. so let the God of detail and universe, ocean and atom, come after you. let Him hug you to life. because He lives and loves and longs for you to love Him, too.💙
Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket? Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food? Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young? Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Job 38
The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. Colossians 1:15-20
God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.
AW Tozer
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” Psalm 139:1-18 ESV
the Greenblue Marble Speaker spoke & stonecold death broke
flesh tent coursing, can’t contain, shaking
from fullness gonna overflow everywhere i go
my feet tap to His happy clap, their soles painted glee leave prints in minds & sidewalk squares. a simple song—Be Free
now a wave, now another, gush, asking to have me
yes! i say
thank you for proposing
my rainbow white gown drenched in joy watercolor tears. have me, ocean of bottomless sideless topless endless love
consume & partake
salsa bachata waltz twirl, love at first brush stroke You spoke & i am
You are holy, divine, outside of time. all of life a mysterious romance—Your Kingly Self pursues clay us, poised to pounce the moment a flutter of one toe momentum moves toward Maker
waterfalls who no one sees
still relentlessly pour, in wood crevices and mountain treasure chests
come rest in the Garden of Design
lay down your time
surrender all bruises
put down those fists
you’ve been running but there’s a dance floor you’ve been boxing but He’s not keeping score
of your punches (that’s already paid for) so lay down and let the flower’s dew change you
quiet still water like an uninterrupted sky, sits. the pond speaks in silence.
suddenly a green bump from a lily circle leaps—her great finesse, flying through the air, flinging her whole self forward with one grand leap. a royal proclamation of God’s creativity, wisdom, and beauty. no one jumps like the frog!
zoom in on these propelling frog legs, made with denser muscle fibers and other special factors that make a frog capable of leaping like no other creature on earth. frog, known for her strange leg strength, sings or rather croaks a frequency of God’s glory that no other animal created can.
the frog’s ability to jump unique & unusual is given from above just like from above an unusual & unique way is given each & every one of us.
everyone has some sort of special strength!
maybe great ideas come easily to you, or you’re able to fix anything. maybe you can pick up other languages without trouble, or you’re really good with numbers. maybe you can paint murals or run marathons. maybe you can make anyone feel at home by being friendly or you can improvise music. we all have a frog leg.
if you’re not sure what your unique capability is, ask those in your life. they’ll know.
whatever your frog leg is—that attribute custom cut to you—use it well for the glory of God. can you whip up a mean pie? then bake your heart out. can you crack home runs? then win the derby. can you sing like an angel? belt it out.
whatever your gift, use it.
don’t neglect it.
use it.
and remember, whatever your file cabinet of excuses could be (no time, i’m a mom, not good enough, inexperienced, no money,etc,..) God’s Grace is on you to leap!
imagine a frog who never jumped. now that would just be wrong. God didn’t give the frog hind legs for nothing!
so jump!
give God your all with what He’s given you. steward that special something to be what He gave it into the earth to be. don’t quench the image of God in you but let what He deposited into the earth through you be sown.
twist, turn, splish, kerplosh, fall—into arms open wide!
grace is a lot like a water slide. God carries us to Himself. we breathe, hop in, and trust—going with the flow of the Spirit as He carries us where we’re meant to be, in Father’s arms.
we obey though we don’t always see, following the laid out path to Father God, the end of it all a rapturous joy full of laughter, light and glee!
will you go with Holy Spirit flow, submitting and surrenderingafresh each dawn, knowing Father God is worthy of our trust?
many children hesitate at the top of an enclosed water slide, afraid to glide. it’s dark. it’s down. they can’t see their Dad waiting to hold them on the other side; all they see is unknown and what if and scared.
but when that child finally goes, he finds his toes in water, whooshing splashing spurring him onward, forward, carrying him to his forever Father hug and the delight, the love, the affection of Him.
the ripple effect of discovering the goodness of God is increased joy, increased strength, increased willingness to obey—even when it doesn’t make sense. we must strengthen our choosing muscle by delighting ourselves in Him!
we discover, after going down waterslide once, that it’s fun! we want to climb the ladder and go again! submitting to God in faith and going on the ride daily is worth the seeming risk.
so next time you’re confronted by the unknown, just know: God is waiting for you on the other side of your yes.
“Again we must reverse the familiar flow of our thoughts and try to understand that which is unique….”
AW Tozer
For we live by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it.
Isaiah 30:12
The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name’s sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.