Weather and Trust

There is nothing more circumstantial than the weather. and nothing more ephemeral.

I grew up with the phrase admonishing that if you did not like the Illinois weather, all you had to do was wait an hour.  But then there would be those summer days when no matter how long you waited, it never cooled off.

Weather changes when you do not want it to, and will not change when you do desire a change most fervently.

Maybe weather is one of the things about this life that encouraged us to seek the reliable and unshifting, to long for a sure foundation.

I am in a situation where the situational weather, the storms and trials of this life,  blow strong or simmer hot or chill long and hard.  Mild weather is only a predictor that somewhere, a storm is brewing. 

Sometimes I get caught in the storm and consumed by it.  I forget about a sure foundation and despair of survival.  Or at least I get distracted enough by the raging that I think I have lost my way home.

But then I see may way clear.  So many times, like the last time a few days ago, the clear way is not a path forward at all, but the realization that the storm is raging around me, not on me.  The realization that I am standing on my Father's porch.  I feel the wind, hear the clashing, and get the mist of it on my face.  But I am on my Father's porch.

I trust where I am, I just sometimes forget where I am.

Then I look and see that there is still room on the porch for more of my Father's children.

So close

This wilderness path requires clinging to Jesus. Today I found out that trail runs right on the edge of my old rut. At least it does right now. I had a foot slip off the edge today, and I was almost all of the way back in that old grave, walking by habit rather than by faith.

I have gotten accustomed to clinging to Christ, and that makes all the difference. Thank you, Father. Help me to become entirely dependent on You.

Doctrine is Hard To See

The Heart is beating, beating, beating. Right here. I approached and I got swept up in those arms. I got pulled in close. It is a closeness that is never found in human society. There are close approximations. But there is only one Holy Embrace. And it is the very best distraction.

I was trying to think about doctrine, but I got too close. I fell into the gravity well of Love. I was not trying to stay away from my Beloved. I just was not trying to get near. But there I go thinking about doctrine and the divine, and before you know it my head is lifted and there is no resistance. My face is plastered against Him, and he is soaked with my tears. This is the one place that was made for me, so I can rest. This is the safe stable place where nothing is missing. It takes so little effort to enter the presence of the Most High, now that the veil is rent. Now that the blood is spilled.

The really, really cool thing is that He can hold me, and He can hold you. He can hold us both right in the center of His attention, and neither of us is short anything. And neither of us notices the other. Father, you draw me and you catch me. You let me listen to you breathing. Thank you.

My Friend

Jesus said that we are His friends.

I wonder if there is any connection between an earthly fathers relationship with his growing son, and how we Growing Sons relate to Our Heavenly Father?

I think I have it. Jesus is our brother friend because Dad, no matter how intimate and affectionate, still has to be Dad. I need a God who is my friend, but I also need a God who is my Father. I need a father who will correct me, who will teach me painful lessons even though, and because He loves me so much. A father who indulges my foolishness does not love his child. So my Father, Who is Love, is incapable of indulging my foolishness. This is not a friend.

My boy and I have talked about this some, but I guess we will be talking about it more. When I am not indulging his foolishness, his conversations are shorter, and sometimes end abruptly.

Father, thank you for putting the vision in my heart of the day when my son will have passed out of my tutelage, and will be able to be my friend. Help him to find the friendship that he needs now, to go along with the fathering I am giving, and the Fathering he is seeking from You.

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You need a Father. I just heard a man I respect say that from the platform.

I have a Father. My friend Jack introduced Him to me. I had known and trusted His Son for a while. I went dancing with His Spirit regularly. They made a way for me to meet my Father, but Jack was the one who told me I could crawl up there and snuggle. Daddy, give Jack a hug for me.

Aunt Bea paved the way. She told me it was time to stop looking for a teacher. But she did not say what followed forsaking "a teacher."

Then I met Jack and had my answer. All riders leave the train here. Last station stop. Home. Father. Rest. Done. No need to look any further.

You need a Father. With Father is Shalom. Everything needed is here, though there is not much here. The desert wind strips away the decoration, any facade that might be left. The utter cold of night fractures everything that can not gain access to the private family quarters in the back of the tent. Where there is warmth that is and was and ever shall be. There is one resting place deep in my Fathers bosom...and there is plenty of room.

Father, thank you that I need empty hands and shoeless, clean feet to make the toddler climb up into your lap. It is so good to be home.

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Important things can now be important without being crises.

Real heart and energy can be put into the issues of the day, because none of them can drag us of of our foundation. The boundary lines for staying OK are well drawn and accepted. Upon being estabished as OK, the places where there is an intersection of heaven and earth are good places for being in but not of.

Thank you, Father. You make all things new. You make it possible, in fact important, to be in the world. And all the while, I am safe in Your Arms.