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 💙
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.
clown. forced, fake, makeup caked, dressed to make you think of joy but on the inside a crying mess. farce! that’s all earth offers—pretend mirage happy like chasing wind, never full.
a total lie.
but a lie that can lead us to look for who is life!
because happy is real.
genuine in out true happy. rainbow on rain joy! real happy.
a snail snails slowly along, happy as can be just the way he is—slime trail & all! no rock complains about sitting still. no cloud compares herself to lighting in jealous huffs. no, nature, creation, is content. so why do we talk back to Creator? why do we wish away what He gave? each one of us has a gift unique! if we would only stop looking around & instead find & embrace our specific dna. rock rock and cloud cloud, salamander be salamander and naked mole rat be naked & you be nakedly unashamed in Him.
a part of losing ourselves in Him is to discover the freedom of being happy. happy with how He made us because we are satisfied with His beauty. happy is not a circumstance or luck, chance or getting what we want. happy is Jesus, the only love and puzzle piece missing cornerstone without whom we will always miss but with Him, fullness and happy and life!
Jesus + Nothing = Everything!
Jesus says love your neighbor as you love yourself. if you grumble about any part of how you’re made, you’re unable to love your neighbor in that way…
you cannot give what you don’t have.
so receive love, put it on! & you will have ample love to give to the person in front of your face this moment, & the next.
because without love we are nothing.
we can do no thing on our own.
so receive love now. put Him on. because He gave, we give.
happy & free because Jesus died for me, i’ll live for Him in harmony! paid the price, came back to life, free. bought with blood, sealed with dove. I know i’m loved. so I sit in this rapturous goodness & grace, getting to multiply what He first gave me—love.
I looked high low, under stones & stars, all the places I could think but my heart still throbbing my hole still gaping, invisible flesh wound spreading & sin sickness killing.
until what I could not do myself was done for me, chosen by God on a wet cold skull hill, Love came down & rescued me. drowning was all I knew until I received the gift of lungs and took my first breath of Life.
happiness is Jesus is Gods gift to us. to be fully content in God. whatever you think you’re looking for, the answer is Jesus. until you surrender to His breath in your lungs, you will be stuck with the mickey mouse bandaid you taped across the bullet holes bleeding out.
be happy now when you fall down, lose your clowns, & let Happiness Himself wreck & give and burn prune remodel your interior until it’s new. because until we unglue, we’ll never be who we’re created to be. so let Artist great have you. & the masterpiece He crafted you to shine will be.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4
look at the seed—it in itself contains the potential to become the plant (even the fruit!), but it must take time. it must take air, must water, must sunshine. & if it be submitted to this process of receiving & rest, growth will grow.
submit to Design & with time, submission will multiply into growth, into gifts to give others—shade, fruit, a home. so become in the secret quiet. let the Designer take His time to make you fully Thine. discover the sweetness in trust & you will yourself become sweet.
receive the gift daily. receive rain. receive sun. receive clear goodness and the things given from above.
yield & allow Him to prune off all but what He gave—all but the seed—& you will be a pure, perfect bride of love, light—committed & consecrated, set-apart & all together lovely, for Him.
be His. & that which is planted, that which is given in you, will grow.
by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
2 Timothy 1:14
for land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, & produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
the same water splashing as Jesus came up from his baptism is in the earth today.
the same water Naaman washed in and was healed is today a fountain still rushing. the same water parted in the Red Sea when God delivered His people from the Egyptians lives now. the water that carried Noah and his family in the ark, the water that Rebekah watered the camels with, the water Jesus washed his disciples’ feet with, the water that gushed from our Saviour’s side… still flows here—covering ocean beds, flooding river basins, flushing toilet bowls, dewing fields and watering gardens, raining plant food and washing our sins white.
about 71% of the earth is water!
our bodies are somewhere from 60-70% water (it varies person to person). of all people, newborns have the most water percentage wise (78%). this is no surprise as babies are fresh from Heaven!
the US Geological Survey says that the brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. the skin contains 64% water, muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%.
water is essential to life
it’s a vital nutrient to the life of every cell, acts first as a building material.
water regulates our internal body temperature through sweating and respiration
carbohydrates and proteins which our bodies use for food are metabolized and transported by water in the bloodstream;
this liquid assists in flushing waste mostly through urination
it acts as shock absorber for brain, spinal cord, and fetus
water creates saliva
water lubricates joints
without water we perish.
in the Bible we see it was already created:
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:2
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God… 2 Peter 3:5
what is this beautiful mystery we call water?
Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist, studied how the molecular structure in water transforms when exposed to human words, thoughts, sounds and intentions. his findings point us to Jesus.
Emoto exposed water to certain words then photographed the molecules to show the word’s effect on the water:
as you can see, water is literally changed and transformed based on word. the same water from which God spoke and all things came to be, can still today be impacted by Word.
if our bodies are mostly water, what word is shaping the water of you? are your water building blocks jagged and asymmetrical and broken? or are they symmetrical snowflake mirrors, eloquent and soft, beautiful and sweet?
whose word are you receiving? God’s good word of Love or satan’s lie of evil?
the beauty of this study is that water can change. we are made of water; we can change! or rather we can allow the Word of Heaven to shape us! the Bible calls this repentance, a wild and wonderful gift.
when our hearts are fertile soil for the Word of God to make His home, when we receive what God says, allowing His Voice to shape and create anew in us, everything changes!
…the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14
let the tears you’ve wept lead you to every drop of Christ’s blood and all the grace downpour raining from Heaven higher than here! there is a River. His Name is Jesus. He waits to wash you with Himself, the blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel! will you let Him wash you? all your jagged jarring spikes and broken gashes of pieces and places can be made beautiful. just let Him have you. let His eternal water touch your rivers and oceans, and all your elbows and memories will become new like when He spoke everything into existence at Day One. reborn! FreshWATER. a fountain wellspring exploding from your heart where the King Himself rests enthroned in the storeroom of snow, dew, rain, love inside you just waiting to water the world around you!
Whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.