Let's Dream Bigger! Shall We?

Let's dream bigger shall we?

Do we believe in a God who created the universe or don't we?
Are we straining towards and anticipating a time when everything, every single thing is made perfect and new?

Or are we settling for half-finished?

Unrealized

Unfulfilled

Unsatisfied

Hiding the uncertainty. Shoving into corners our questions and doubts.

I will not settle for so little. Not plastering smiles over sorrow. I will not settle for tomorrow, when today we're crying out for hope.

I will not settle for a little, when I know God is more. He does not pat us on the head and just tell us it will be worth it someday. Today he also cries with us, weeps with us, heals us, redeems us, carries us, loves us. Today.

If God is who we as Christians say he is, then he is able to heal and restore beyond any and everything we think possible. And when we witness him do it, do miracles it's like a great bubbling up, and laughter. Because of course he has done it. Suddenly it's all clear then. The reason, the timing, the waiting.

I've been crying out to and waiting for you God. I've been waiting for you to break through and fix the unfixable. I'm thirsty to see your goodness God. I want to see you overwhelm with hope those who've lost all hope. I want to see your healing restore. I want to hear laughter that's whole. I want things to be made right. Every thing, not just some things.

I want your kingdom to come.

Our father who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
On earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today, our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.

Words Don't Scare Me

Words don't scare me. But ideas do.
An idea can destroy kingdoms.
An idea can demoralize nations.
An idea can take root in your soul and poison it until there is nothing left but cold desire and a thirst for something that never was and can never be.
Fear is an extremely potent sort of idea.
The idea that if the worst could happen, it may happen and it will happen. The idea that everything is hopeless, inevetable. Without cause or reason.
Fear says it cannot be overcome. It tells you it cannot be quenched. It tells you it is a virus. Well a virus is like getting a cold.
Yes, that's right. You can protect against it, get flu shots. You can spritz your hands with sanitizer, clean the doorknobs, isolate yourself from coworkers and friends. Yet sometimes even then it will find you. It can catch you unawares.
Then what do you do? If you have a cold you deal with it accordingly. You rest. You drink water. You rest some more.
And the cold doesn't go away, but you manage. Even a particularly persistent cold never lasts forever.
Fear can paralyze. Fear can sting. Fear can poison. But fear cannot kill.
Fear cannot cause you pain. But it is a type of pain. So don't fear what fear can do. Do not fear whatever it is you fear.
Pain is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Because there is beauty there. The greatest poets, athletes, geniuses, works of art have a depth to their joy that comes from the pain they've been put through.
So whether or not you fear has very little do to do with what will happen. And what will happen has little to do with whether or not you fear. 

A Christmas Song

Something's cold in the winter
the day
the end
the middle
the start

Something's cold stirring my bones
A biting winds coming in.
A wildness has come
will it ever leave
not until the hunger's been satisfied

I'm holding the warmth in winter
a song
a smile
a word
an end

I'm holding in the warmth this winter
a fire
a light
a friend

The snow is swirling in the winter
blindness as thick as ice

I can't see into the future
I can't see into this night

A gray haze, half heard words
A shouted warning
then something hurts.

Somethings cold about the winter
the day
the end
the middle
the start

There's No Door

Like pulling water out of a deep well

You pulled words up from your mire of thoughts - the depths of your soul. 

There was a sort of unreachable quality in your speech

...as if you could not fully touch or hold your thoughts

Perhaps you could but chose not to.

And there was something you were wrestling with too. 

And a clarity too. A bright unvarnished clarity that people only know if they've known deep pain.

Yet also blindness. Obviously others could see what you saw. But they didn't. And you didn't see that they wouldn't.

Or you wanted there to be something and there wasn't.

So you wrestled, but with what I couldn't see. The battle was hidden from view.

I stared and wonder..what in the world you must be thinking. For you never said your thoughts aloud. Then I thought perhaps it was that you had nothing to say. 

And you didn't have anything to say. Not about the weather. Or food that day. Or what you planned to do. Only the unknown and unexplored.

Yet I've never wanted to go there much. Space is to big for fiddling with. 

And over and over you turn the cards. Flipping the thoughts over in your mind. The room still sits expectantly, to hear unspoken words that are never said.

I stare and see no ice. But then there's no door either. No door, no ice, no words, no path. A code? A puzzle. Yet codes must be cracked.

Of course to solve a code you need a key. I think perhaps then that's what you'd given me. Although it looked just like a word. A phrase, unintentional at first.

But that's often how puzzles are solved. Something that seemed unimportant, is the most important of all.

Let's Just Sing

Intro
F            G7            C   C7?
Whoo oh Whoa oh oh

Verse
F              G7           C
You can't stop the light
F        G7           C
from getting through
F               G7        C
You can't stop the sun from rising
F       G7   C
You can't stop the truth

Dm                         Am                   Bb                        F
Clouds may cover up the sky. But still the stars will shine.
Dm                         Am                   Bb                        F
Evil thoughts may cloak our heart. But still God's love is true.



Chorus
C                                   C7
There's a time for everything
F                                    B7
There's a time to weep and sing
C                  Am            Dm 
But for now sing along  sing along
G7                 (F)   C
sing along with me

Chorus 2:
F                                    B7                    C
Delight in his presence. He delights in yours friend.
C                  Am           
Joy is seeing God's face.
  Dm                        G
So for now sit and soak in his love.

C                                   C7
Hope doesn't take away the paint
F                        B7
It makes it beautiful
C                  Am            Dm    G7                 (F)   C
Take delight in his presence. Worship him now. His goodness is real.

Bridge:
C                                       Bb
I sing cause the darkness threatens to overwhelm
F                                            G7              
Everything good, true, and whole and noble thought

C                                 Bb
I sing because if we forget what is our purpose is
F                                      G7
We'll never find the end to this maze of hopelessness

Questions Hanging

It hung there in the air.

Suspended like a dust mote.

I wondered, would it fall? 

Or remain hanging above us all.

It's still there above me. 

Waiting to be resolved.

Until time passes and it fades, but never quite goes away.

My life is filled with unanswered questions. 

Hanging just above my head.

Others find a way to rub them

Until they're erased off the grid

Yet somehow I've never wanted to do the same 

Because what if someday I find...The answer to a question I had. But no longer have the question in mind?

So there they gather, an eclectic clutter.

Some deep, some dark, some light, some old

There they hang. Above us all. Everytime I say hello.

I'll wonder, and the question will glow. Until someday it's light is too dim, to even register in sight.

A Good Day

A Good Day.
Is a day.
That follows the rain.
By rain I mean pain. Sorrow. Suffering. Hurt. Disappointment.
You know.

A Good Day.
Is a day.
Unlike any other day.
Because it's what follows the storm.
The sun shines brighter, of course.


A Good Day.
Is a day.
When all you hold in your hand, falls through like sand
(what a rhyme....hand and sand)

A Good Day.
Is a day.
Like today.

Because?
Well, because it holds in it something of inexpressible value.
Of uncalculated worth.

God chose to include it in the story.
The story of the world.
So of course.
it matters, it's needed.