Context

Lay me down; Lay my will aside

Cast me not from where you abide

Pull me close; Never let me go

I will trust in Your love alone.

Dark clouds gather; I hear their thunder

And lighting reaches to pull me under

But I won’t run and I won’t hide

I’ll cling steadfast to Your side

Your presence surrounds me

I feel it heavily

You take on all my burdens

Set my heart free

Oh Christ, You are my treasure

All that I need

Lover of my soul

Everything to me

When there’s sun; A picture perfect day

And context seeks credit for Your company

I will know and I will say

It is my Lord; It’s by His grace.

Your presence surrounds me

I feel it heavily

You take on all my burdens

Set my heart free

Oh Christ, You are my treasure

All that I need

Lover of my soul

Everything to me

Rain Is Coming

I sat all afternoon at the drive thru teller window and I watched as the sky changed and the wind blew progressively stronger and more frequent. The whole time I wanted nothing more than to go stand in the field that lies behind my job and let the wind envelope me. I’ve seen this on movies. Normally when this happens in movies the character wrapped in the wind is left with, what the audience can infer is, a feeling of comfort, peace, and promise of hope. I want to feel all three of those things.

When I got off I came and sat outside. As the wind blows about my hair and presses against me my mind somehow focuses and my nerves calm. I take a minute to just look around and ask God to show me how to feel and how to face what lies before me. So I watch and I wait and this is what I see …

The trees dance and I’m convinced if they could up root themselves to seek shelter from the upcoming rain, they certainly would. After all, this is what I want to do. But then again the trees need the rain like they need the sun. They take the good with the bad and they stand through it provided they are rooted in a firm and reliable foundation. I am reminded as the wind hits again that just like the trees I am anticipating a storm. I can feel it, see it, and smell it. I am afraid and I will admit to being weakened and wanting nothing more than to pull up my roots and seek shelter. But God, creator of all things, knows that I need both the rain and the sun to grow. And since I am firmly planted in Christ, He will be my strength and sustainer as the storm passes through.

It is through these great storms and trials that our perseverance is tested and our endurance tried. Will we still praise His name and lift high His crown as the rain comes down? Will the testing of our faith reveal our steadfastness or our fickleness? James says to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And that to let steadfastness have its full effect so that we may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.  God is very much present in our times of trouble but He doesn’t remove us from our hardships or heartaches because through them WE have the chance to grow.

Even as I remember James and I’m typing this I can imagine what you’re thinking because it’s creeping up on me too. It’s thoughts like “What if I am not strong enough to go through these trials, What if I am too weak, I don’t think I can do it, I'd rather hide out and wait”. Praise God because He then reminds me of Paul in 2^nd Corinthians who wrote that he pleaded with the Lord to take away His burden and Christ said to him “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

There it is. I don’t have to fear the storms or the trials. They are necessary for the testing of my faith and production of steadfastness. And I don’t have to fear being too weak because Christ grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness. As I am finishing all this up I notice the sky has grown darker with clouds. Ominous as the surroundings are I sit here in the calm before the storm thanking Him for all the comfort, peace, and promise of hope I have in Him. Bring on the rain. 

Climb

Days like today have a way of making me want to curl up in the lap of a protector. I know that my fight is not against the flesh and bone and the physical things that my eyes can behold, but against the dark rulers and realms that go unseen. I woke up today fighting. Not a physical battle but a battle that as soon as I opened my eyes I could feel in my heart. I wish I had stopped then and prayed earnestly. Instead I busily went about preparing for my day of work and school assignments and tried to fight the fight myself.

I spent the day in war over the thoughts of my mind and stayed mostly to myself. This isn’t a problem except that I know that I have specifically been called to love on and to bring comfort and peace of mind to others and in order to do that you have to be open and inviting for others. I feel like today I failed miserably. There was even a couple of times where unprovoked I was tempted to reply harshly or even to not reply at all to someone conversing with me. Each time I would feel God’s voice clearly saying, “why, would you do that, that is not of your nature”. I would reply in my heart “but what if I am angry and what if this is just who I am“. He faithfully would reply “you are Mine and I have called you love and mercy and kindness; you were made new in Me; you have a new nature”

When I was little I would watch American Gladiators with my dad. The gladiators were huge compared to the contestants and their only goal was to thwart the efforts made by the contestants to win each challenge. One of the challenges on the show was a huge rock wall that the contestants would have to try and scale before the gladiators, after a delayed start, could catch and pull them back down.

This may be a silly and simple comparison, but in my daily climb to becoming more like Christ there are dark powers and authorities that are in pursuit of my heel. They are trying to slow me, pull me down, and keep me from the goal of living, loving, and becoming more like my Savior. They want me to believe that I am and will always be who I once was, and that I am stuck and tethered to this body and this flesh and this world. But Christ has called me to a royal priesthood. I no longer have to live that way or follow the way of the flesh I once walked in. He made me new. He has set my sight on things above. Not only that, but He himself is the power by which I make the climb. 

Draw

These things I know don’t compare to what I don’t

Things I see can’t compare to what I won’t

Real is real even if it’s make believe

Some places we’ve gone, some people we’ve found

Together we’ve been in and out of this town

Your eyes still roam to find what you can

My eyes are still fixed on an ever-wandering man

Words might sound perfectly, but a song’s not a song without a melody

Day needs night, the sun goes with the moon and me and you.

We're the same kind of different too. 

I hurt you when I go trying to I try to act tough

You hurt me when you don’t care enough

We’ll each have some hurt to pack and take

We keep how we feel just like an iceberg now

Just a little shown, the rest hid somehow

Sometimes you have to let it end in a draw

Who wins or loses, now it’s just too close to call

Words might sound perfectly, but a song’s not a song without a melody

Day needs night, the sun goes with the moon and me and you.

We're the same kind of different too.