from death to life

Tomorrow I will stand up in front of a crowd of high school students and tell them that they are loved so much that Jesus rose from the dead for them.

This is the fourth time I've gotten to share the incredible story of the resurrection at the Young Life club I'm a leader at, and each time I have found that the event becomes more and more magical to me.  And it has also felt increasingly real.  In light of everything we know to be true about the world, Jesus rising from the dead makes very little sense.  And at the same time, it allows everything else about the promises of God and of his great love for us to make the most sense in the world.

I haven't posted a poem in awhile, but today I was in a writing mood and I wrote this one thinking about my great joy for the resurrection and for the magic and glory and deep love that goes along with it.

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I have never had coffee
with or shook the hand of
someone who
will have no ending

and when I think
of all the beautiful buildings
I pass sometimes in cities
unfamiliar to me,
where I might dream of someday
making a life
for a short while,
I am reminded that they will fall,
or someone will take a cat of nine tails
and beat them into concrete dust,
splinters of wood,
and start something
new there that will also
fall eventually. 

I have considered often
how little this world
loves me
because of how little it
can stand up to dying,
and of how all these things
will make me miss them
someday,

or of how they will fool
me into a hope
that I can keep them,
and that is something
that always breaks my heart.

And so it sounds
strange to me,
the type of strange like
the colors on a patch
of wildflowers I see along
the highway, and wonder how
they exist there, and why they are
so beautiful,
to comprehend how much
it means you love me
when you didn’t end –
     and how you are like the dust
of my imagined fallen buildings
rising up again,

bearing all our stories
and footsteps
and closed doors
and quiet whispers
which stretch down each dark hallway,

and how you will hang a silent banner
across every arch
and entrance of that building
and it will say
“I love you this much.”  

letting go


In Anne Lamott's book "Grace (Eventually)", Anne describes a moment when she was trying to explain the concept of "letting go"-giving up your worries to God- to a group of 3-5 year old boys.

not the easiest crowd.

She describes it to them brilliantly though; she tells them that the process of letting go is like holding on to a bunch of pens during snack time. "What if, when we go in for our snacks, someone offers us a juice box, and I won't let go of the pens even though I am thirsty?"

I just think that's so insightful and simple - that sometimes we hold onto burdens or fears that we just don't need to keep anymore. Especially in light of the fact that we are thirsty and in need of a Savior, who can satisfy us only when we let go so we can pick up a grace that is sufficient and satisfying.


photoboth sesh with your dog at 10:30 on a monday night


#normal



a reason to love blogs

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(via Shiflett)