house

Have you ever watched an artist
skillfully craft a work of art
from nothing into something magnificent?
A painting? A drawing?
Canvas white; white as snow
Clean start
He’ll take it wherever he wants to go
Watch closely;
you can never reconstruct those moments,
just like the artist can not reproduce
the exact same piece of art

What about a baby?
Ever watch it develop in the womb?
Then watch as her parents, and the world,
sketch out who she becomes
Mind is white; white as snow
They’ll take her wherever they want to go
Watch closely

But what about an old house?
One with life and character of its own
Stains on the walls and ceilings
Unleveled ground here and there
Filled with dirt and dead bugs
Light switches that no one knows what they turn on
A cubby hole in the wall where the telephone used to go

Ever watch someone come in and find
a use for the old, useless holes?
Ever watch them give the switches a new purpose-
to light up the house?
Watch them clean out the dirt and death?
Watch them make the ground level
so that everything that’s put on it will not topple anymore?
Watch them, not just paint over the stains,
but tear down the sheet rock and put up clean white walls?
Or colorfully painted walls?
Watch closely

Watch the former owner walk around the house
and not recognize a thing
Watch her not even know where to walk
A friend comes in and asks for a tour of the remodeled house
but she can not give one
Then watch closer
As the new owner takes the girl by the hand
and leads her through the house
He shows her all the things he repaired, replaced,
and made completely new
He shows her how to get from room to room
In some rooms, he spends much more time than others,
explaining every detail
When they get to the bottom of the stairs
He says “let’s wait till tomorrow for the upstairs.
I still have more work to do up there.
When I’m done, I’ll show you.
And then, I’ll come back downstairs from time to time
To touch up the things that wear down again.”
Watch the girl.
She looks troubled by the thought of things wearing down again
But he says, “Don’t worry, I bought this old house
for a mighty price.
I can’t leave.
I’ll be around here forever.
And I’ll continue to work on it every day.
You might even stumble upon something new every once in a while.
Just follow me through it and you’ll never get lost again.”

Watch the woman smile
This house was not a white canvas
This house was not a blank slate
But sometimes watching the old and dirty made new
is more magnificent then watching
the “nothing” or the “blank slate” be made into something
Especially when you’re the one inside the house
Keep watching
He’ll be working on that house until it’s a castle




“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

this is the birthday of life

i thank You God for most this amazing day:
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;
and for everything which is natural
which is infinite
which is
yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;
this is the birthday of life
and love
and wings:
and of
the gay, great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting
touching
hearing
seeing breathing
any-lifted from the
no of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake
and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
-e.e. cummings

Agapetos II

Continuing on with those thoughts.....God frequently refers to Jesus as “my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”
And just think about this: once you accept His love and become a child of God, He says that same thing about you.-->“My beloved son/daughter with whom I am well pleased.”

Because remember, we take on Jesus’ clothing of perfectness; his clothing that represents the fact that we are RIGHT/GOOD.
We become just like Him because He is in us.
And we do the things he did.
We love the way he did.
We pray the way he did.
We serve the way he served. (I mean, I guess that is, if we do in fact have Him. If we are truly being filled by His love.)

Just think about what the word ‘beloved’ must mean when God says that about Jesus.
Jesus= part of God; His only son; completely selfless; came to earth not to be served but to serve; the one who restored harmony with God’s creation.

And then, just think about the fact that he refers to YOU as beloved, as well.

αγαπητός means “beloved; dearly loved; worthy of love; only beloved; dear; prized; valued”

Is that not what He sees when he looks at Jesus and at us?
And more importantly, what this really all comes down to is: isn't this definition what WE should think when we look at HIM; our Father; our Creator; our Lover; our Sustainer; our Beauty; our Warrior; our Comfort?

Oh how I need a constant reminder of that! Oh how forgetful we humans are! Oh how adulterous we are! Oh how stupid we are to forget and to fall over and over again!

But, oh, how good He is to be the epitome of patience and to remind us over and over how truly worthy of love he is; how valued and prized he is; how he is our only beloved! And, oh, how I want that constant reminder of who he is minute by minute; how I want that reminder for myself to simply be, and be loved; how I want that reminder to be love to others, because that Love is in me.

When I claimed Jesus’ righteousness, I claimed His love. And what are the only things that he commanded us (I say ‘only’ because everything else falls underneath it)?
He says: Love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love others. Let’s not forget that last part. The disciple, John, says “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

And I also need a reminder of that: To αγαπη others. (αγαπη =agape= love)
Meaning, every time I encounter someone I want to treat them as if they are beloved; dearly loved; worthy of love; only beloved; dear; prized; valued.
Because every single person is loved, prized, worthy of love.
It is only this world that tells us that some people are worthy of love and some aren’t.
It is only this world that tells us that sometimes it is okay to treat others as if they are not valued.
Like when they’ve done something bad to us, right? Or when we’re in a bad mood? Or when they are just a mean person? Or when they are annoying?
Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. Everything we do and say, at all times, should be out of love for that person.
And I suck at this. Big time. But I want to be better. And I want my life to be devoted to becoming better at this. Which is why I think it is worthy of being on me forever.

The beloved John also says “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

And that is simply what it is ALL about: when I let myself be loved, I can then, be love.

Its just so simple: Love God. Love people.

Agapetos

αγαπητός

Many of you kind of know the inspiration behind my blog title.

I have a tattoo of the word 'beloved' in Greek on my wrist.
This word means a lot to me.

But I wasn't going just for 'beloved' for the blog title.

I wanted equally as much focus on the words 'be' and 'love.'

'BE' has been a theme for the past year of my life. Just be, people, just be.
Stop trying. Stop thinking so hard. Stop trying to do so much. Just be.
And in being--that is enough.
Obviously, it goes much deeper than that, but that's the general idea.

'LOVE' is (should be) the theme for every moment of my life. It was the theme of Jesus' life.
It is God. Love, people, love.
Love. And be loved.
That's all that it comes down to.
And everything, and i repeat, everything, comes down to loving.

And then there's 'beloved.'

And for that part, I wrote about 5 pages worth of thoughts behind why that word means so much to me.
About a year ago, when I got the tattoo, I wrote it all down so I can remember forever and put it as a 'note' on facebook. If you've read that, then you should definitely skip out on the next 2 posts. If you haven't, and you are interested, feel free to read.

I split it into 2 posts, because we all know that long posts never get fully read, unfortunately.

Here we go......

αγαπητός = “beloved; dearly loved; worthy of love; only beloved; dear; prized; valued”

The idea behind ‘beloved’ was first made real to me when I was reading the ‘The Four Loves’ by C.S. Lewis. In the last chapter, he was talking about true love here on earth and how it is beautiful and how wonderful it is. And how that beauty and magnificence is only a glimpse of the love that God has for us. We can experience this love right now on earth, but we will experience it completely when we are in heaven with Him. And really, we can not even fathom that completeness. Every type of love that we experience right now is just a taste, a slice, a Sam’s- Club- Sample, if you will.

And then Lewis said the quote that, well you know, just went straight to my heart,

“We are then compelled to try to believe, what we cannot yet feel, that God is our true Beloved.”

And it hit me. God. Is. My. True. Beloved.

And no one on this earth can compare. Yes, I might fall in-love with a wonderful man of God. Yes, I might have the bestest friends in the entire world that make it SO easy to love and be loved. Yes, I might have children that I will pour my heart out to.

But none of this compares, nor will it compare, to the love that God is offering to me. Nothing will completely fulfill me. They might fulfill most of me, but not all.

These loves might be perfect and beautiful. And they are perfect and beautiful because it is God who is providing them, to show me glimpses of His love and to draw me closer to it. But on that day that I am in His presence I will know what complete, true, and perfect love is because I will be consumed with its presence.

He will be speaking affirmation into my soul.

Every form of brokenness, pain, and doubt that I have every felt about myself or within myself because of this broken world we live in, will be eradicated. I definitely feel that peace and wholeness that His love gives me right now, here on this earth. But, since I am surrounded by brokenness every day, every where I am, I can not completely escape its side affects. But there will come a day where I will be completely whole, because my TRUE beloved is consuming me with the presence of His love.

Then, Song of Solomon 6:3 was made more real to me: “I am my beloved’s and he is mine.”

After the revelation that I had above, this verse took on a whole new meaning. Maybe one day I will have a human beloved like Solomon and his bride, but maybe not. The beautiful thing is: I am not waiting for that day because I already know who my TRUE beloved is. And I am His! He has claimed me as His own! And He is mine! He has promised to be inside of me and to be with me always, no matter what I do to hurt Him. And I do many things to hurt him. I cheat on him daily. But He has made a covenant with me, promising that I am His forever. It is a glorious thing not to be waiting anxiously for someone to come along and fulfill you, to love you, to be your wildest dreams. It is glorious to be so in love with the One who created and provides and IS that glimpse of love that everyone else is waiting anxiously for.

The revelation continues on. . . . if you look at the word “beloved,” and break it down, you see:
be loved. BE LOVED. Just stop. And
Be.
Loved.

He already loves you. Just the way that you are. Just by being. He loves you.
He loves you for being.
He SO loved us that, even though we are bad and selfish, even though we have broken his laws, even though we are condemned to the penalty of death, for eternity, He decided to cancel our debt. Not only did he say “you do not have to serve your horrible penalty forever. The penalty that you deserve” but he also said, “I will make you completely righteous.”
RIGHTEOUS: justified, innocent, faultless, guiltless.

“I will make you JUST LIKE MY SON WHO IS GOD. And, I will give up my son, because, I love you SO much. I will make Him suffer. I will be SEPERATED from him. For you. Because you are my beloved. And all you have to do is BE loved. Accept this love. Take it. Be it. Do nothing more. Because if you accept it, all I will see when I see you is my son. I see cleanliness. I see perfect. I see righteousness. And yes, you still deserve something much worse, but because I LOVE you so much, I no longer see that which you deserve. So stop trying to wipe it away yourself. And just be. Be loved by me.”

to be continued.

"The Strange, the different, the unintelligible"

"The strange, the different, the unintelligible, the subjective aspect of my neighbor is the garment in which God's grace meets me."

I heard this the other day and found that is simply MUST be shared. Get ready for this:

The strange, the different, the unintelligible...does anyone have someone who fits those categories? When you hear "the strange," someone instantly comes to mind? "The different"-- yep, look up 'different' in the dictionary and so and so's name is written there. "The unintelligible"-- man, there is this person in my life; i dont understand why they do what they do. They drive me crazy. Can someone BE that stupid??

He then says: The strange, the different, the unintelligible, the subjective aspect of my neighbor.....the subjective aspect! Hm that's great, isn't it? It's like--we know how the world works. You do this and then this is supposed to happen. When I say this, they are supposed to say this. But THIS person--they don't know how I've set things up to operate! They keep messing things up and its driving me insane! The subjective aspect of my neighbor--ya know what im talking about? They don't fit in how my world is supposed to work.

He says: The strange, the different, the unintelligible, the subjective aspect of my neighbor is the garment in which God's grace meets me.

This is what Paul's (in Philippians 2) saying: You want to understand God's love? You want to understand God's grace? You want to truly understand what it means for God to have enveloped you in His grace, peace, forgiveness, hope, and light?

Then orient yourself around the strange, the different, the unintelligible, the coworker, the embarrassing relative, the annoying acquaintance, the person who absolutely sends you mad.

Circle around them. And in your frustration of pain of trying to serve and love them well, you will be face to face with what it means for God to have embraced and loved you in all your strangeness, difference, and unintelligibility.

That person who most gets under your skin-- they may in fact be the garment of God's grace that is coming to you to bring you more fully into the love of God.

If I could actually learn to even take one step to encircle the interest of that person, it would be a step closer to understanding more fully what it means for God to love and accept me.

If I could learn to not hold their past against them, and not always holding them accountable for their past. Maybe I could come to understand what it means for God to not hold my past against me.

Maybe if I could take one lap around them with all of their flaws, I would better understand the God who embraces and loves me in spite of all of my flaws.

The other, the one in your midst that most rubs you the wrong way, the strange, the different, the unintelligible, the subjective one that does not fit into how your world operates, may in fact be the grace of God coming to you saying "i drive you nuts. And i am an invitation for you to understand the trinitarian nature of the universe all the more fully, my friend."

We discover respect for each other, not on this ground or that. Paul is not saying, in Phillipians 2, 'respect those who deserve to be respected. Find your peers, the people who get it, and respect them.'
We respect people on NO grounds. Maybe even COUNTER to any grounds. For no reason at all.

It is the most frustrating, maddening dimension of this person that is God's invitation to more fully enter in the grace and peace that God has extended to me.

The claim my neighbor makes on me, on my patience, on my attention, on my consideration, on my love--is the claim of God's grace. The degree to which this person draws out of me and demands of me things that are absolutely infuriating is the claim of God's grace.




This is a sermon by Rob Bell titled "Others." I strongly suggest listening to this podcast. Mars Hill Bible Church. 4/26/08. This was only a few minutes from it, so you can imagine the rest.
Man, can you say convicting?

We are composed of a symphony of notes

Don't stop your crying on my account
A frightening lion, no doubt

He's not safe, no he's not safe
Are you tempted now to run away?

The King above all Kings is coming down
But He won't say the words you wish that he would
he don't do the deeds you know that He could
He won't think the thoughts you think He should
But He is good,
He is good

I know you're thirsty,
the water is free But I should warn you,
it costs everything

He's not fair, no He's not fair
When He fixes what's beyond repair
And graces everyone that don't deserve

No one knows Him whom eyes never seen
I don't know Him
but He knows me

Lay down your layers, shed off your skin
But without His incision,
you can't enter in
He cuts deep when the risk is great and the talk is cheap
But never leaves a wounded one behind

I will show you love like you’ve never loved before
I will go the distance and back for more if you just say the word

You will come alive again and call the trying times your friend
The pain that you have suffered through will never get the best of you
You will hope in something real that won’t depend on how you feel
When you call my name then I will answer

I am on your side though the wind and waves beat against your faith
You were on my mind when the world was made
Trust in me my child

Walk out on the water where you have no control
So scared to death of failure you sacrifice your soul,
please let that go

You have climbed an uphill road
You have worn a heavy load
You have cried through endless nights
and nearly given up the fight
Watched your dreams like falling stars
the heartaches made you who you are
Now looking back you see that I have always been there

Where you gonna hide? Where you gonna hide from Me?
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go that I can’t see?
I have heard you cry and it breaks my heart for I love you so
I would never lie, this is not the end
there is still a hope

You can't go backwards, you must go forward
You have not been what you could be

When you are the only one that enslaves you
Then you're the only one that can set you free
Don't run away, question the answers
Live you life like it's on fire

You can't have mountains without the valleys
You can't go high if you won't go deep

You can't do over what you've done already Expecting something new to see

All that I've found through the ups and downs
Is that I'd have it no other way

Life in the raw is both fragile and strong
It's both lovely and ugly the same

Who can attest that when they're at
their best their worst is still crouching close behind???
It's coming to peace with the darkness in me
That allows the true light to shine inside

So let it go, for we are still far from home
Though you try and try to escape

To live and to love will always be dangerous But it's better than playing it safe

We are composed of a symphony of notes
Every life is as music to His ears
I'll play my melody be it haunting, be it sweet
Unashamed of what anyone might hear

So when the load breaks your back and your will
You must still keep your heart in the game

To live and to love will always be dangerous
But would you want it any other way?

If you know me, then you know that when it comes to music-- I'm all about the lyrics.

I stumbled upon a new artist recently and her words have simply been speaking to my soul.
So i'm posting these words. In no specific order.
Simply beautiful language of the universe.

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties"

I just heard this teaching on 'creativity.'
It was really good for me to hear because if you know me at all, you know I am not a creative person.
I LOVE art; I LOVE music; I LOVE taking pictures; I love taking people's creative ideas and running with them.
But that's all I got.

The teachers said over and over, "never say 'I'm just not creative'....those words are forbidden."
So they were calling me out.

First they gave these 3 words:
Idea
Thought
Father (God)

And they talked about how we can trigger ideas and thoughts.
"Creative" people go to certain "places" that help them think and get the ideas flowing. For instance, some of the "places" he said that resonated with me were:
the shower
while reading
driving

Some others were:
when you're going to sleep
when you wake up

Basically, figure out what gets you thinking and when ideas come to you. Be aware of that time and go to that place if you want it to happen. Open your mind during those times. Be aware.

Next three words:
Activity
Express
Christ

Once you have a thought or idea, you have to act on it. You need an activity to get the idea going. Once you've found your place that helps you think and be open, you can also find ways that will help you be more creative.
Creative people do activities that trigger their creativity.
Some of which are:

playing-- A study showed that when students (college) were allowed to play with toys and have fun before working on a project, they did much better creatively than when they did not have that time. So play! Have fun! Be childlike! I need to do this more.

certain environments--being outside in nature certainly helps many; being in closed off quite places; being at a concert, etc.

change your routine--creative people some times will mix up their daily routine. Instead of driving the way they always do to work, they'll try a different route. You can do this with anything. Open yourself to something new. I definitely need to try this more often. I like routines, so I'm sure this could help me branch out.

marinate on it--the guy talked about how after he writes a book, he puts it to the side for like a month and tries not to think about it or talk about it or work on it. Just let it sit there and see what happens after a chunk of time. After its had time to marinate.

Next three words:
Power
Influence
Spirit

Share your creativity. Music. Painting. Poetry. Drawing. Gardening. Ideas for an organization. Ways to solve problems nonviolently. Ways to alleviate societal problems. Ways to show love.
Share these things so that God's power and influence can be seen through you.
Make it USEFUL.
This is what they said over and over.
Whatever your ideas, thoughts, actions of creativity are: make them useful. Share them.

God is the ultimate creator. And he made us in his image.
We were made to be creative.
Everyone. In. His. Image.

What creative ideas and acts are you involved in that are helping to redeem the world?

God the father is the idea, the thoughts, the beginning. Christ is the activity. The Word made flesh. The way God is expressed. The Spirit is the power that moves through us all. It is how God's influence is seen through our creativity.

The power we find by living a creative life is found in the mind of the maker.

Redeem the fall through your actions.
If your about what Jesus is about, you're about redemption.
Of course, Juliette, in herself, can redeem nothing. But if I open myself and nurture my mind to the power of God's creativity--my creative acts can be apart of redemption.















"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." Picasso

"Imagination is intelligence having fun."

"Please don't try to break this life down systematically.
It's not a science but a song that needs to be set free.
It's broken down to notes and measures, but there's so much more
emotion powerfully speaks; it is the key to unlock our hearts doors."
--Taylor Hawkins