he says i’m ‘confused’ because I’m attempting to be safe. he’s right. I knew he was right before he finished the sentence. and yes, i want to feel safe.
but what is safety exactly? i propose it’s actually a bit of an illusion.. it is not real. there is no such thing as life without risk. safety is more like an emotion that comes and goes, than an actual real, tangible thing. i suppose the next level.. the only place to go to from there.. is to choose to trust. in choosing to trust, we’re still at the same exact level of risk yet we now have a firm footing to stand on.
who you trust makes all the difference. with every aspect of my life, i’m learning to choose to trust Jesus with it. this requires me to make room for His timing, His will, His way - every area of my life.. every time. It’s liberating, it’s exciting, it feels a little risky, yes… and it’s the only way to know for sure you’ll end up safe & sound.
wow, we don’t deserve this kind of security… but this life’s a love story.. surreal, yet so real and it’s all thanks to Jesus. i love Him. He assures me ((not makes me feel)) that I am safe.
Matthew 10:39 (Contemporary English Version)
39If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.
Matthew 10:39 (The Message)
38-39“If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.
this will be short & sweet.
i ::crave:: justice, fairness & right. i’ve been like this since i was a child. just ask my mom… i had a very keen sense of what was fair and just at quite a young age. I drove her insane when i felt like something wasn’t fair! and i’m realizing why, now. at age 10, i had to write my first 1000 word paper for school. it seemed like this mountain of a project and it took me a while to figure out what i wanted to write about - and then all the sudden it HIT ME. I just had to write about slavery. i immersed myself in this whole world of injustice and just couldn’t believe the atrocities that happened to people simply because of skin color, beliefs or gender. i educated/probably bothered plenty of friends with details of what i learned during this project well into my high school years.. and picked up a passion for justice as well.
let’s all commit to right the wrongs we see in our world today, hey? if something isn’t right, use what is in your hand to correct it.. this is the road to significance. this is the key to impacting your world, your relationships in a way you never dreamed.
this could look like:
speaking up for someone at school who is being treated unfairly,
refusing to be quiet in a situation where someone is being physically or verbally abused,
carrying around extra cash for when you bump into a homeless person,
returning a wallet you find with ALL the money still in it, etc.
just attempt this - you might be surprised at what happens.
AMOS 5^24 MSG
“Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
PROVERBS 11^1 NIV
“The LORD abhors dishonest scales,
but accurate weights are His delight.”
spent so much time as a child/pre-teen/teen asking ‘why me?’ and maybe it was a legit question because i was dealing with A LOT of consequences to choices i didn’t make.
then Jesus entered the scene.. entered my life. and it’s amazing how He FLIPS everything.
now as i see the hurting all around me.. the neighbor, the lady at the grocery store, the young homeless female on the busy street.. or on a screen seeing people in dire circumstances far, far away… i ask.. ‘why isn’t that me?’
as easily as i was born into an urban area of texas, i could have been born into a village somewhere overrun by rebels, or with polluted water, or sold into sex-slavery… so ‘why not me?’ is the question i’ve been asking God lately. it’s humbling, and yet it’s motivating. because now i’ve seen, i care… and most importantly: i’m resourced to be a SOLUTION.
i’ve decided after 20-odd years that I’m ok with my odd name that seems to fit my odd-self. my heritage is compiled of a blend of ethnicity groups, had an abnormal childhood (but what is normal, really), i’m ambidextrous and a million other things are weird or ‘unique’ (if you want to call it that) about me…
my names are greek (and my parents just named me what they liked.. they didn’t research this - i did)…
in greek…
tasia means resurrection.
lanae means light.
it’s pretty rad. just saying. :)
this is the one who thinks endless thoughts about you.. endless, innumerable good thoughts. knows every hair on your head.. obsessively adores you and i.. this is HIM. this is OUR GOD.
Isaiah 40
2-17Who has scooped up the ocean
in his two hands,
or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth’s dirt in one of his baskets,
weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
showed him how things work?
so we worry… why? and we lack trust in God… why? and we bother to ask God, ‘why’… why? if we trust that He loves us.. we will trust everything else about His nature. please know He loves you tonight.
i’m talking to myself.
Needing other people is a wonderful part of being human. Self-sufficiency is grossly overrated.
— Brooke Fraser Ligertwood
soon i will discover whether birds of the summer fly in circles or just fly away
— a fine frenzy
At the beginning, maybe? It’s been a gnarly week. There’s been loss. There’s been gain. Sadness & laughter. Stress & ease.
The underlying & overlying factor throughout it all though.. and throughout all of my life.. is God’s faithfulness. Ecclesiastes talks about how there are times for different occasions & emotions in our lives…….
ECC 3
1 There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
2-8 A right time for birth and another for death (don’t i know it),
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
I love this statement a little further down::::: God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time. ((Hold onto this.. it is truth)).
Stuff… crap… disappointment… it’s going to happen in life. Crying, lamenting, letting go, hating, parting, counting losses, ripping… those are not words used at Disneyland!! Definitely not fun… but part of life. But that’s just it. Only a part.
God is essentially… good. And I trust Him. I know in every season I have the Faithful & True One looking after His Word.. to always look after me and those I love. He’s a good God.
you’re about to be my fondest memory
— me
