Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I love it when Faith refuses to die. That's real victory. Grabbing hold of something and not letting go- like Jacob, who wrestled with God and said he wouldn't let go till he was blessed. That's a tenacious spirit. Call it the spirit of a warrior. Call it guts and hope mixed together. Call things that don't yet appear in physical reality as though they already exist. Faith.
I'm after that. I don't make any apologies about it. In a sense,I perceive myself as destitute if I don't have Faith. But with Faith, the life giving well of God's Spirit overflows in me, charges me, causes me to reach out and lay hold of bigger things, larger missions, impossible scenarios- to the human eye. But not to the eye of Faith.
I look out... and I see.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

It's the middle of August, and the new school year looms before me: I've got pencils and notebooks to buy, new clothes and back packs must be bought, and this isn't even for me! My two kids are probably preparing for the future in a minimal way; I, on the other hand, am racing to get them prepared, thinking of what they need, picturing the homework load that will affect our whole family- because if they have homework, I have homework!

Yet, I am in school too- the school of life, the school of "make your dreams come true- because no one else will do it for you". It's true- I'm piloting the boat, riding the bull, walking the path- whatever metaphor you want to use- and I've got to move myself foward, intentionally, towards the reality I want to experience: fruitful, productive living with all gifts and talents used, ignited, blazing.

I'm in the school of life, and it's not that I get a final grade at the end of my life (I do); it's that I also get a grade for each day I live. Today is going to be an A+ day- not because I won't make mistakes, or crumble momentarily; it's that I will not forget that all I do can be done in love, by grace, pardoned mercifully where I fail, and then touched by Him in such a way that I keep going, I keep riding the bull, holding on....for more than 8 seconds.