Open Door

Open doors can be very exciting!

If you are running around town trying to get your 'list' completed and you're almost done and it's getting so close to closing time, and as you rush up to the storefront and discover the door is still open. . . a huge relief washes over you because you know this was the last chance to buy the last minute gift for your daughter's birthday that you're hosting in an hour!

We've all been there, in one way or another, and we all know that open doors are necessary for us to accomplish so many different things in our lives.  In fact, as I think about it now, the vast majority of things require us to have open doors in order for life to be lived at all.

Need a haricut. . .need an open door.  Need to get your car fixed. . .open door.  How about that vacation?  Pretty hard to fly or drive anywhere if the door isn't open to you.  Desperate for a good night's sleep?  Better hope the door to the bedroom is open for you.

But sometimes open doors can be really intimidating too, frightening even.  I remember as a kid going to the dentist and dreading what was coming.  That door was open too, and it wasn't a pleasant one!  I can think of other intimidating doors too:  Prinicipal's office; Bank loan officer. . .you get the point.  

But I think the door that is most important is one we don't really think of as a door at all.  It's the door that opens to the place of our deepest secrets and joys.  It's where all our greatest fears and our most desired loves reside.  

This is the door to our heart.  

This door opens only with the most delicate care along with ruthlessly earned trust.  This is the passageway that only a select few may enter and once in must always be diligent to walk and live with immense grace.

The downside is that every single person that has entered through someone else's heart-door has failed to sustain the necessary standard of love that makes real life possible.  And when I say real life, I mean a life of true freedom because there is no fear of being hurt or betrayed.

Because every heart has been hurt, every heart deals with fear of it happening again.  What's brutal about this whole scenario is that along with every heart being hurt, every heart deeply needs to be loved and to be free to love.

Someone needs to enter into my heart-door to help me. . .because I desperately need help in this.  

Enter Jesus.

It's hard to open up the door to our most vulnerable place isn't it?  We've all tried it, and we all carry the sting of times it didn't work out that well.  But Jesus has this ability to walk into our broken and most needy places and He genuinely helps us to find healing and life.  It says in Matthew 12:20 that even when we experience the battering rams of life, He will nurture us back to health.  If our hearts have been burned and all that remains there is smouldering, Jesus will expertly and lovingly hold us and protect us in our pain.

I don't know where you are at today, but I want to encourage you to invite Jesus to walk through the door of your hurt.  He will take it and make it into joy.  It may take some time, but He is able and willing.  And don't be surprised when He invites another person to walk in there with Him. . .to be a trusted friend.  Be wise, but also, don't be afraid to accept these amazing gifts.

My heart is with you today, and I know that the One who made your heart is absolutely the best One to heal it.  Let Him walk in. . .

Blessings friend,

B

Life Is Good

 It's amazing when life emerges. 

Like when a plant breaks through the surface of the ground after a long winter; or when you see a baby Robin freshly hatched.  New life always seems to bring new hope.

I think that's exactly the way that God designed it to be. . .to Him life is good.  Life is a reflection of His goodness and His incredible desire to have humanity share in this gift.  

But it's easy to feel like a good chunk of life happens under a cloud.  It's easy to say life is good, but it's another story to feel it in your bones.  

This morning I was spending time with Jesus and I was pouring out some of my 'clouds' to Him.  I was trying to give Him my burdens and I was pretty open and blunt with Him (something I think He really appreciates).  I told Him that I knew that He loved me and that He cared for me, but I didn't have confidence that He was all in to provide for me.  It got to the point where I realized that my desires were really dictating what life should look like and I was having a hard time letting that go and allowing myself to trust Him all the way down.

So I simply asked Him if He would like to say anything to me about that, and then I waited.  Pretty soon I heard Him say to me, "Look at Psalm 32".  I turned to this passage and came across verses 8 and 9 that said this: "The Lord says, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.  I will advise you and watch over you.  Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control."

I soon realized that Jesus was really speaking this into my heart and it genuinely helped me to trust Him.  I have made some life decisions that really put me 'out there' in terms of stability and provision.  So when the bank account is low it's easy to let the voices of worry and doubt take over, but God was saying to me that He knows the very best path that my life should take!  He led me to where I am and I can trust Him to see me through.  In fact He says that He will not only put me on the best path, but He will also talk to me along the way and advise me.  Imagine having God speak about decisions and direction!  But it goes even further. . .He also says He will 'watch over' me.  That means that He surrounds me and protects me along the path He chooses for me.  

What a gift!  And when my heart started to let that sink in the thought that arose in me is: "Life is good!"

So if you are walking through a cloudy season and you are finding it difficult to believe that life is good, take it from me, Jesus wants to help you just like He helped me.  

My prayer for you is that today you will seek after Jesus so He can help you to see just how much He is with you and desires for you to experience how good life is with Him.

Blessings my friends,

B

Rooted

For some reason, I have always loved trees.  They impress on me a sense that they are covering, protecting and providing. . . .somehow living as a metaphor that is meant to communicate to me a message that helps me to live more deeply and more alive. 

I remember a trip to Cambodia where I saw trees growing over ancient temple walls where the roots spilled out into open spaces looking for ground to set themselves into.  It was a stunning sight to see:  all those massive tendrils snaking their way through open air, taking what looked like leaps of faith and growing out into wide open space with the hope that they would find solid ground.

There seems to be an innate drive in things in the created order to find solid ground.  To find that place of substance where growth emerges; to find home.

Those treees I saw in Cambodia were huge, but they grew so large because of two things:  They needed massive roots for support, and, those roots had to take risks (grow through open air) to find the place where they would thrive.  I think the same is true for us.

Have you ever felt that you simply longed for more?  More peace?  More joy?  More freedom?  More love?  That's not by chance. . .it's the DNA of life and it moves you to search just like those roots.

But in order for roots to find their true destiny, they need to be rooted.  They need to find their home in order to thrive. And our search to be rooted leads us to take leaps of faith through the open air to this:

We find our home in the love that Jesus has for us.

This is our everything!  He is our Creator who designed us to thrive in Him.  He is the One who built humanity with an innate drive to find that place where we can be rooted, solid, grounded, surrounded and supported.  We live in a broken world where our search for that rooted place often leads us to life-destroying destinations, but Jesus is faithfully calling us to take the risks necessary to overcome our fears and trust that we will truly find life in Him.

Just listen to this from Ephesians 3:17-19 "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

All of life's longings to be rooted, to find a home, to be solid, are found in this one thing:  the love of Jesus for you.  It requires unbelievable power to grasp the vastness of this love.  His love for you is so encompassing and deep; so expansive and eternal; so rich and fulfilling that it goes beyond our ability to comprehend.  And that's why it is so risky to accept.  Jesus' love for you blows apart the borders you put on what love should or even could look like.  It goes way beyond.  

But it's where you were meant to live.

So just like those Cambodian tree roots that had to grow through that alien territory of open air before they found the soil they could root themselves into that led to immense life, you too are being invited to extend yourself beyond your own borders and limitations of what a solid life looks like.  You are being invited to accept a love that is meant to give you life beyond what you imagine.  A rootedness in this love will change everything and lead to a massive life.

It's all there for you. . .take a leap and see.

B

 

Ridiculous Courage

 Have you ever seen one of those little dogs that don't have any idea that they are way smaller and weaker than they act?  I have some friends that have one and it's probably a tenth the size of the German Shepherds around him.  But Leo has courage that far out-sizes his little body and he acts as though he is ten times bigger than he really is.  It's crazy how he commands the room really.

Actually his courage isn't crazy it's ridiculous.  It's almost comical to watch.  I mean if even one of those German Shepherds were to wake up and realize how much more powerful they were than Leo, well, Leo wouldn't stand a chance.  But that isn't how it plays out.  

I think there's a lesson in here for us all.  It would be good for us to pause and think about what a healthy amount of courage could do for us.  

Consider the woman talking to Jesus in Matthew 15.  She was an 'outsider' in many ways: an outsider in terms of gender (women didn't have much standing in those days); an outsider in terms of religion (she was a Canaanite and not part of Jesus' tribe); and an outsider in terms of power (she had a sick daughter with no capacity to heal her).  

She was in a bad place.  But. . .She believed Jesus could help her.  In fact, she knew He was her only hope to help her daughter to be freed from terrible suffering.  And so she approached Jesus and asked Him, no, check that, she urged Him to help!  Jesus knew His mission was to the lost people of Israel first and foremost and He told her exactly that. But this mom was not discouraged, so she pleaded again: "Lord, help me!"  And Jesus resisted once again basically saying that it would be wrong for Him to stray from His mission.

But then a crazy thing happened. . .she stood there and said to Jesus, the Lord and Master of all things, that He was wrong, that it would be good if He helped her!  It wasn't that she was pridefully correcting Jesus, but instead she was standing there with nothing more than desperate faith and, dare we say ridiculous courage!

Jesus is moved by this extravagant display of love that caused this mom to overcome all the ways that made her an outsider; all the circumstances that had put her in this position; and what happened is exactly what she hoped for. . .her daughter was healed!

In essence, what this faith-filled mom shows us is that sometimes ridiculous courage, the kind that is so over-the-top that it is almost laughable, is exactly what is needed to see breakthrough in life.

I doubt that Leo has any sense of these things as he just naturally lives with an outsized sense of courage.  It's still ridiculous to watch as this little guy commands other dogs that look like behemoths compared to him, but the results can't be denied.

I wonder if Jesus allows us to read this story of the Canaanite mom's ridiculous courage to nudge us to do the same in our journey?  What massive circumstances are you living in that make you feel powerless and faithless?  What wounds in you feed your sense of hopelessness that things can never change?

Maybe it's Jesus' way of telling you to step up before Him so that He can see your ridiculous courage, in order for you to receive an outpouring of blessing in your life as well?

It might be the hardest thing you do.  But, it might also be the best thing you ever do.

I pray for a little bit of Leo in you today. . .

Blessings friend,

B

X-ray Eyes

 I'm sure that most of you have seen a superhero movie or two over the years.  Watching one of those shows is an easy way to escape from the regular grind and offers the opportunity to imagine another world; usually a world that is big and exciting.  There is always a massive danger that threatens humanity's existence, and the odds of ovecoming the challenge are overwhelming to nearly impossible.  The superheros will always come up with some crazy plan, justify it with hope, and set out with their last ounce of strength, and lo' and behold, they come out on top and all is well.

It's a formula that works well in a world of make-believe but not so well in real life where superhero powers are not easily available to the average joe.

And yet, there is something to be said for the idea that we can live in this world with other-worldly powers.

Imagine this for a second:  What would it be like if you had the ability to actually see things that are not visible to natural human eyes?  If this were possible (I know this all sounds very strange) it would be like having x-ray powers right?  Imagine this now:  if you had x-ray powers think about how you could help people.  So you're sitting in your friend's livingroom and you notice a crack in the natural gas line behind the wall.  You tell him to get it fixed and you prevent a massive explosion!  Good stuff! You saved the day!

But what does this have to do with real-life?

Amazingly, there is available to people a form of x-ray vision. . .the ability to see what is not visible to the natural eye.  And as crazy as this sounds, we are actually invited to experience it for real!

In 2 Corinthians 4:18 we are told to ". . .fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is seen is eternal."

We all know that something that lasts a long time is made of much more quality stuff than something that only lasts for a short while.  In the above passage we are being told to look at something that lasts for a long, long time, so it must be of great worth and solidly built. But it adds that this 'thing' we are to look at is something we can't see.  Doesn't seem super helpful on the surface. . .and yet it does seem somehow compelling doesn't it?

The crazy thing about all of this is the difference between the idea of having x-ray eyes that see broken pipes in walls and eyes that can see things that normally can't be seen.  The x-ray eyes thing isn't real, it just couldn't happen, and nobody is saying that it could.  But having eyes that can see beyond this world into another world is real, and we are being invited into trying it out for ourselves.  

We live in a world that is filled with things that are temporary, kind of poor quality, things that don't last, things that really only give short-term highs that don't satisfy. And since that is the world that we live in every single day, it can seem like there is no other option, and often no other hope.  

Wouldn't it be nice if there was another way to live?  Wouldn't it be encouraging to know that the sickness you struggle with isn't going to last forever, but there is a healing that is coming that will?  Wouldn't it be exciting to imagine that your journey of walking through life alone is not the ultimate path for you but that you could walk it with someone who loves you more than you could imagine?  Isn't the idea that all the work you do, and all the ways it seems you come up short, is not the fullest expression of life and that you are meant for more than only producing a paycheque?  There is more in store for you.  But you have to be able to see something beyond this world in order to grasp what's being offered.

And so God says to us that we should fix our eyes on Him.  He is built to last.  He is made of quality stuff.  And He has made it possible to really see Him in this life.  

How is this possible?  God sent Jesus to show us it's possible.  The only way to see beyond this world to something that is truly valuable is to trust Jesus and invite Him to show you the way.  

Yes, it's possible to have 'x-ray eyes' that can see a life that is worth living.  It can sometimes take super-human effort to fix our gaze on Him when this world gets in the way.  But it's worth it.  And it's there for you.

Many blessings friend,

B

The Dream is Real

 

I love to dream.

I can see pictures and images of new ideas that take on shape in my mind and they always speak to me of possibilities of things not yet seen.  It's beautiful and powerful to me. I can feel inspired and these inspirations can lead to thoughts of: "Wouldn't it be amazing if this was something that really happened?"

But there is another side to this coin, a side that is a little hidden from the sun.  On this shady terrain these ideas are not as easily embraced.  This is the 'real life' side, the place where dreams often come to die, or at the very least exist on life-support.  The voices here say that dreams are impractical and cause problems because in order for them to be implemented, they must be embedded in real-life amidst all the different opinions, traditions, power-structures and practicalities.  

It takes a lot of work, perseverance, determination and commitment in order for a dream to be made a reality.  To be honest, it takes a lot of things that are polar opposites of what makes up dreams in order for the dreams to be born and take on life. What a paradox.

One thing that I have noticed is that if a person is not careful the pressures of life can begin to suppress dreams.  What once felt like a vibrant source of life can, over time and through lenses of hard-fought life-battles, be seen now as almost dangerous.  Something like protecting safety seems to settle over the landscape and terms like 'new', 'innovative' and 'dynamic' become things to avoid.  

We have now entered into the world of status quo.  And here the mortality rate of dreams is high. 

But a dream that has no chance of being born into reality is somehow lacking.  It lacks substance if it has no chance to exist so that others can experience it as well.  And it is onto this stage that Jesus steps and begins to show us just how incredible He really is.

There is an amazing scene that is painted in John 13:3-5 about how Jesus lived out his thought-life with real-world impact.  And the only way I can really describe it is like this:  it is simply beautiful. 

This passage says that Jesus had come to realize that he had come from God and had all encompassing power at his disposal.  That in itself is simply an incredible revelation!  It would take more space than I have here to really describe the implications of this.  Suffice it to say that the vastness of scope, and the infinite possibilities that arise from realizing this, is something that might have elevated Him beyond normal experience. . .could I say almost like a dream?  But Jesus knew that the maginificence of this mind-bending thought was meant to impact others.  It needed to be made really real.

And that leads to the unbelievable way in which He pursued making his 'dream' a reality.  He didn't take his God-status and his unmatched power to launch a winner-take-all campaign of self-elevation throughout the world.  Instead he did this:

He took off his coat, got down on his knees, and washed his friends feet. 

This all-powerful God-man took his 'dream' and made it a reality by expressing love.

All I can say to that is a stumbled-mouthed 'thank you' because he does that for me every single day.  He is still in the business of pouring out his unbelieveably humble love over me every day.  And in the process causes me to see that it is possible for me too to live out the dreams He puts in me. New life!  New hope!  All backed up by His power as He shows me how to make His dreams a reality through me so others may be blessed.  Unbelievable.

Maybe this is important for you to hear today.  Maybe you need to know that Jesus is all about using his incomparable strength and status in order to kneel down to make you know that you are loved.  

If it seems to good to be real, well then, welcome to the dream-made-reality, because it's true for me and it's true for you.  

Much love to you today,

B

 Who Am I?

I think that one of the greatest questions that is being asked in our time, by every generation, is what you read in the title of this post.  And I think it's a question that is so deeply ingrained in every one of us that when the answer doesn't seem to come, we press and press, and begin to feel that desperation that arises when you know something important needs to be addressed but there seems to be no way to 'fix it'. We begin to scream like little children that just don't know any better way.

It's all around us.  We see it in the political realm that seems to be more defined in the public's mind by shouting matches and deception rather than sharing common ground in the very real challenges that face our world.  We see it in families where the fallout of disagreement and disillusionment leads to the only option that seems viable, which is to leave.  And we see it in the Family of God that is meant to portray the kind of love that is supposed to bind people together; to show the world that there is another way that doesn't lead to leaving.  And yet it still happens. . .

I don't think most people realize that the burning question that smolders at the base of these feelings and actions, is one of identity.  People don't know who they are, and yet they know they should.  So it becomes a question that breaks us: it breaks us because it's knit into our DNA.  We can't escape it, and yet we struggle so mightily to find the answer that eludes us.

Until. . .

Until we find ourselves being found.  I know it sounds strange, but it's true.  Until we are found by someone who has the ability to speak to who we really are, through all our turmoil, inside us and around us, we will continue to scream into the wind that same question.

Being 'found' means that we are no longer wandering aimlessly, without purpose or direction.  Being found brings a sense of stability and peace.  It brings order out of chaos.  It sets the world right.  And that's exactly what needs to happen within the heart and soul of every human being.  It's what we long for: to be set right; to be found; to be known.

Jesus was sent to this ball of dirt in order to set us right.  He came to meet our greatest need.  He came to help us to know who we are and to tell us that we are known by Him.

I still struggle to really know who I am.  I still wrestle with feelings that confuse and frustrate me.  But I am growing in my understanding and acceptance that I am truly known by Jesus and that makes all the difference in the world to me.  He continually speaks to me about who I am and it slowly changes me from the inside out.  He says to me through words found in His Book that 'I am rooted and established in love.' He says to me that His love for me is too wide, high, long and deep for me to even comprehend.  And He tells me this to convince me that it's real.  I am known by Him.  I am loved by Him.  

I am no different than everyone else.  I have an intense longing to know who I really am.  And I can still struggle to see and feel that clearly.  But there is a rising sun in my heart that shines this truth with growing intensity that says this to me through the fog: Jesus knows me and He loves me. 

And that's enough.  

Be blessed friends,

B