ware October 31, 2009

Approval. What do I need and what do I think I need? Who’s approval do I need and who’s do I think I need? My bank approved our mortgage. I had to work hard for their approval, filling in forms, providing information, sourcing witnesses.

Harmony, when there is peace in the core. With balanced rhythm, harmony exists. I know in my soul I am following Him. I can feel His approval like the sun on my back. This approval is part of my life, cannot be separated. Is not an additional extra, an option to add on for a later time. The synergy, like the relationship between the sun, moon and earth is a complex yet clearly defined one.

Be still. Breathe. Choose Life. Crown Him.

 

 

wall October 30, 2009

Do I speak to hear my own voice or to bring out the best in others. Do I serve or expect service? Am I living for my needs or something altogether more complex. I whirl my stick in the industrial looking washing machine, clouds of pink form around the base of my stick, they bind themselves together, they whirr, they hum, they stick.

Fibers of candy floss, melt in my mouth. With the same energy as a child I want to devour a life of service. With the same energy I want to embrace hope. To fill up and flood hope in lives where there is none. Not a canal that carries water, but a reservoir that gives freely from a superabundance.

I want my life to be more than simply serving my needs. I wish it to be more than that. I wish for a life of substance greater than clouds of pink that emerge at fair grounds.

I am still, I choose life, I breathe, a coronation takes place. Everyday. Everyday.

battlestations October 29, 2009

Wear love. The all-purpose garment. This love, handles all manner of stains, even the “hard to get rid of” ones. Wear love. This love is beyond space age, keeps you warm, protects you, it’s indestructible.  Wear love. This love is waterproof and bulletproof.

Wear love. This garment will save your life when you least expect it. Wear love.

sea saw October 28, 2009

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that You walked up steps, displaced sand as You travelled from village to city. That those who saw You saw the God who cannot be seen. That You spoke when You were tired. How do You see the world? How do I look to You? Am I a collection of atoms that are knit together with Your tape? Do You see a spirit or energy? I try to look hard  in the mirror and often see a trying face.

Do You see things broken and then repair them or do You see things repaired and make it so on earth? The connections that don’t reach anymore, like the plug cable on my bass amp. Do You stretch plugs or move sockets or connect wirelessly? Do You see me cry or do You see me have an opportunity to hope, trust, love?

I muse, but actually it doesn’t really matter to me. I serve and am loved by He who makes all things new. Thats more than enough for me. Much more than enough.

stop step October 27, 2009

A punch and a reaction. A comment and the after glow. A circumstance and the worry. The worry. Te fear and the worry. Re negotiate my life. Create new boundaries. Create new reactions. Circumstance, breathe, fear, breathe, pray, breathe deeply. Shaping worries into prayers. A displacement of concerns at the centre of my life. The courage to hope, the faith to pray.

trainspotting October 26, 2009

On Tuesday

A life built in my faith will look radically different. Not alike to appeal, but different, the antidote to hopelessness.

On Wednesday

Numbness running through my veins, speeding to reach my wrist then my hand, my fingers release the stem of a glass. A sip drips its way into my soul, slicing lines of clarity. Judgement muddied. A horrific pile up as my words smash into each other. Letters crash, vowels obliterated. What was a sentence is nothing more than a carcass, a communicative skeleton that is irreversible. Forgotten by me in time, but that doesn’t diminish its reality. That sentence lived, it has usurped verbal real estate and now resides on a negative land that I care not to recall.

Drink from another cup, lift up that which fills my soul, in a cup, in a bottle. That which increases my clarity not reduces it, that which strengthens my hope not strips it. That which supplements my communication and not abuses it. That which leaves me smiling and strong not naked and regretful.

Breathe, choose life. Coronation in my soul. This is living.

On Thursday

Whole, healthy relationships. When were they planted? Where did they start? A fresh crop, washed. Hand picked. My apprenticeship, in broken relationships. Like many who are broken, I was taught by those who were cracked, hairline fractures across the casing of the shell meant the fault would go unnoticed until I was ready to fly on my own for the first time.

Whole healthy relationships are possible in Him, I think they are only possible in Him. Restoration for past and present only seems to make sense in a room where hope is trusted, even to hope in the darkest situations.

On Friday

To thank. To be grateful. To spend moments with a thankful heart contemplating life. The in between notes that Thelonious Monk often spoke about. The in between notes that are actually the most significant markers of my life. They are the starting position, the top to wash the car with, the end of the day, loosen the tie mode. The in between notes represent my default position in life. My home, where I come back to everyday. Where I live.

I choose to live in gratitude. I choose to live in thankfulness, for my life, my wife, my family, my friends, the beauty and the decay in this world, the hope in hopeful and the hope in hopeless. I choose to build with a heart that says thank you. Thank you for the moment that just passed, thank you for the morning that just broke, thank you for being alive.

On Saturday

The power to bring life into being, He chose to serve mankind not rule it. This is His model for being human. From distortion to gem stone.  To serve, to choose humility, to choose selflessness, to choose life. To down grade.

On Sunday

How to see the world? Complete of separate. One or many? I cannot view the world any longer as spiritual and non. Everything is spiritual. My circumstance present me with all the necessary means for securing greater knowledge of Him.

Nothing is haphazard. Everything that is a problem is a key to hope, peace, balance and love.

de grade October 25, 2009

How to see the world? Complete of separate. One or many? I cannot view the world any longer as spiritual and non. Everything is spiritual. My circumstance present me with all the necessary means for securing greater knowledge of Him.

Nothing is haphazard. Everything that is a problem is a key to hope, peace, balance and love.

carbs October 24, 2009

Better than, but not proud. More than, but not arrogant. Stronger than, but not a bully.

A Managing Director on the factory floor. A CEO preparing teas and coffees for the staff. A president waiting on tables, a Prime Minister collecting tickets on a train. A doctor washing dishes in a restaurant.

There is a tier of status that the world drapes us in. We are sold the VIP experience so much that it has become an expectation to a generation. Always the potential to upgrade the coffee to a deluxe, upgrade the car to full leather, upgrade the flight to business, upgrade the package for a small fee. Always the choice moving up. Always the opportunity to progress. This is no more than I deserve. Yes. The high life, on the horizon, targets set.

What if we turned it on its head? What if the journey was circular? What if the whole point was to be trained and equipped as a CEO in order to start at the beginning and inspire? What if the greatest was to serve. What would be humanities response to the God choosing to serve, choosing to hit the factory floor? Choosing to make hot drinks for the world. Choosing not to rule in tyrant fashion but to serve. What if, He clothed Himself in humility? What then of our upgrades? What then of our direction?

The power to bring life into being, He chose to serve mankind not rule it. This is His model for being human. From distortion to gem stone.  To serve, to choose humility, to choose selflessness, to choose life. To down grade.

Blessed but still wanting to bless. Given but still  wanting to give. Loved but still wanting to love. Freed but still wanting to free.

Haste October 23, 2009

To thank. To be grateful. To spend moments with a thankful heart contemplating life. The in between notes that Thelonious Monk often spoke about. The in between notes that are actually the most significant markers of my life. They are the starting position, the top to wash the car with, the end of the day, loosen the tie mode. The in between notes represent my default position in life. My home, where I come back to everyday. Where I live.

I choose to live in gratitude. I choose to live in thankfulness, for my life, my wife, my family, my friends, the beauty and the decay in this world, the hope in hopeful and the hope in hopeless. I choose to build with a heart that says thank you. Thank you for the moment that just passed, thank you for the morning that just broke, thank you for being alive.

Every so often I go on a field trip from my house that is built in gratitude to His house that is extravagant. Life opens up. Balloons are released.

lifted October 22, 2009

Whole, healthy relationships. When were they planted? Where did they start? A fresh crop, washed. Hand picked. My apprenticeship, in broken relationships. Like many who are broken, I was taught by those who were cracked, hairline fractures across the casing of the shell meant the fault would go unnoticed until I was ready to fly on my own for the first time.

Whole, healthy relationships. I spy my employers, where I was encouraged to flourish in a direction that seldom mirrors His map for me. Without Him there is no ground zero to commence the foundational work. Without Him, I begin restoration on the first floor, distorting my mind, fooling the world. Never. Deep. Enough.

Whole, healthy relationships. There is such a thing, I know it to be true. The slices are deep but the transformation complete.