+Arriving and Departing+

I was in *$'s (it's code for Starbucks, it's a star * plus a dollar sign for bucks $'s... haha) the other day and I overheard a really good conversation that got me thinking. An older man, probably about mid 60's walked in, ordered a drink, smiled at me as if to say hello, and proceeded to sit in a comfy chair in a corner while waiting for his drink. I was drawn to him immediately. There was an air about him that was really attractive. No, I'm not gay. I promise. But there was just a presence about this man that I was drawn to. I watched him very carefully as a he sat down. He crossed his legs and then began reading a novel he had brought.
He reminded me a lot of my grandfather. Sounds weird right? Some random man, walks into Starbucks, and I stalk him while he reads his novel. It took me a second to figure out why I was drawn to him. The reason he reminded me of my grandfather was because he had the character of someone who just loved life and loved people. If you ever knew my grandfather, he was known as someone who was always very relaxed. His type of entertainment was reading a good book or engaging in conversation. He was the kind of person you could go to for anything. You could tell him anything and everything and he would just smile or laugh or give advice. He never, and I mean never, treated you differently no matter what you told him. He loved unconditionally. I don't know why, but somehow this random man at Starbucks reminded me of him.
Anyway, after about a couple of minutes, the man's name was called (I could not remember his name to save my life), and he got up to retrieve his drink. Immediately after getting his drink, he began talking to the batista (I think that's what you call them) almost as if they were good friends. However, both of their body languages said otherwise. I forgot what was first said, but somehow the conversation ended up on the subject of "Departial and Arrival." The guy behind the counter was describing the constant state of movement from one place to another. For example: When you leave your house to go somewhere, you depart from your house, but you arrive outside. Or when you get in your car after leaving your house, you depart from being outside and arrive inside your car. So you are always arriving to or departing from somewhere.
This got my mind racing. Then the thought came to mind, "is there a place where I am never arriving or departing?" I had to think for a while... I probably sat there for about ten minutes pondering over this question. "Where could I go that I would never depart or arrive?" I was stumped. My mind changed directions after the man got up from his seat and left. I then began asking myself again, why I was drawn to that man. There had to be something more. What was the connection?
Then it hit me... and it was awesome. The only place that I could not arrive to or depart from was God's love. God's love for me would never change directions. It would always be constant. I would never have to arrive or depart from it. It would always be there. Then I finally made the connection to the man. The man reminded me of my grandfather and my grandfather reminded me of God. I wasn't drawn to the man because he reminded me of my grandfather, but because his character reminded me of my ultimate father.
I knew without a doubt that my grandfather loved me the same if not more no matter what I told him. I was awestruck when I made the connection. Just like my grandfather's love, God's love was the same no matter what. Not only does he love us unconditionally, but he has loved us all of his existence. He has and will love us longer than we can put a number on. I've always known that, don't get me wrong, but I guess I had to be reminded.... but don't we all! How cool is it to think about a God that loves us the same, and no matter what we think, say, or do... he still give us grace, he still loves us without ceasing, and he will for the rest of eternity. We will never arrive or depart unto or from his love. It's always been and will be there.

~Distractions~

Thus says the Lord: What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me?They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
Jeremiah 2:5

"If you will return, O Israel, return to me,"declares the LORD. "If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory." This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it.
Jeremiah 4:1-4

Those verses were part of my quiet time a couple of days ago... they really struck home to me. I've been very distracted lately... not nessarily with the big stuff. But with the little stuff. I've been giving up my time to things that are worthless. I was a bit convicted when I read over Jeremiah 2:5. It basically says that if you follow worthless things, you become worthless. This got me thinking, I had to ask myself... "what is worthless in your life?" What a great question ask yourself in order to check up on where you spend your time!
As I kept reading, I stumbled into Jeremiah 4 where the Lord revealed to me that I needed to "put away detestable idols" and "not to sew among the thorns," but to "circumcise" or commit myself to the Lord and a life of purity. Not a bad thought, eh? Get rid of all the stuff that keeps my attention off the Lord and focus on spending my time on eternal things. Sounds pretty simple, huh? Not so fast! Spiritual growth is a looong process. I've been learning a lot about this by reading a really good book called The Green Letters by Miles Stanford. It talks a lot about the process of spiritual growth and how the beauty of character is best developed over long periods of time and experiances. A really good quote that comes to mind from the book is this: "When God wants to make an oak, he takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months" (pg. 14)
Pretty simple thought, pretty hard to grasp in reality. God reveals himself in his timing, not ours. Despite the fact that we all want to be stronger instantly, God takes His time and as a result we are stronger people and stronger followers. Sometimes the only thing we can do is trust. Even though it may be a slow process, I would rather be an oak tree rather than a squash anyday.
Thoughts?

*refraction* (aka entree numero uno)

I was thinking about these lyrics with my buddy Ben one day... and All these cool thoughts came up... so ya. We just kinda typed what God had revealed to us till we had to stop. Lyrics from Hosanna:

heal my heart and make it clean
open up my eyes to the things unseen
show me how to love like You have loved me
break my heart for what breaks Yours
everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause
as I walk from earth into eternity

As we were thinking about the words, "Heal my heart and make it clean..." and a really cool story came to mind: A friend of mine was out filling up his dog's water dish and he noticed it was dirty. As he was filling the water dish with clean water, he noticed how all the clean water kept flowing and kept pushing all the dirty and unclean water out of the water dish... untill all that was left was pure, clean water. How cool would it be to live in such a way that your "water dish" or life is constantly getting filled so that it can't become dirty with any bad water? We came to the conclusion that ONLY if the Holy Spirit is the water hose constantly pouring into us, our lives will be clean like the water dish.

"Open up my eyes to the things unseen..." But how do we live on constant dependance on the Holy Spirit and see what He sees? By letting go of all that we are, our selfish wants, and making ourselves totally dependent on His voice at all times. As we begin to die to ourselves, the Holy Spirit will begin to open our eyes to what Jesus sees. It's like a crack addict. They start off enjoying where the crack takes them, how it moves them. Eventually, they need it more and more, to the point where it controls them, their every action, their every moment of their lives. As we let go out of ourselves, release our "right" to be right, and tune our frequency to the Holy Spirit's channel and let Him take control (or get high on Him), we will begin seeing what he sees or what he reveals to us.

In "The Green Letters", a theology book I've been reading based on spiritual growth, Miles Stanford writes that spiritual growth always starts with hunger. But how do we become hungry? How do we get to know God so well that we can't live without Him? We need to get so used to the Lord that we are broken without Him. We need to so pure and filled with the Holy Spirit that anything without God is painful to us. Just like the crack addict, If they don't have their daily dosage... well, we all know what happens to them.

"break my heart for what breaks Yours"... as we become a *refraction* (look it up - it's a fantastic word that is so perfect for our walks) of Christ, we will take on His heart so His desires become our desires, His word becomes our word, and whatever pains Him will pain us, as His heart changes ours. This ties in with the Holy Spirit as our water hose. :)

"everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause". Most people in life don't have a purpose, or a cause. As believers we do, and we should seize onto our only purpose in this earth, which is to hear and obey God's voice and walk out what He tells us. That is the ultimate purpose, the highest calling, the purpose driven life: hearing God's word and refracting Him on the earth. Getting to know Jesus, and making Him known.

"as I walk from earth into eternity"........ pretty self explanitory.