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