Holy Communion

communion |kəˈmyoōnyən|
noun
1 the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, esp. when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level

Communion. The table where we come to remember Christ's ultimate sacrifice for us. God's radical rescue of mankind and the Old Testament sacrifices of blood are tied together in this beautiful Supper of remembrance. Jesus was the innocent lamb who came for us. How could any human turn away from that gift? Christ opened a door from death to life, from disobedience to relationship, from detachment to unity. How lovely is the gift of His love for us. Communion invites us into relationship with Christ. This sacred table nourishes us and strengthens us with heavenly food. It is the table of eternal union and communion.

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Christian, delight in that fact. He will come again. He will come for you.

Participating in the the Lord's Supper is a lovely reminder for me. A reminder of the sacrifice my God has made for ME. He came to earth in human form to die for MY life. He died to save ME. Every time I take communion my heart breaks with joy for His ultimate gift to me. The only thing I could hope to receive from the table is what I do receive. Hope for a better life. Hope in Christ. Hope in Heaven. He gives me hope in Him. I receive Christ at His table.

The Lord of light stepped forth and said, "This is my body broken for you."

Christian, hope in Christ. Commune with Christ.

Gratitude

gratitude |ˈgratəˌt(y)oōd|
noun
the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

How many days do I fill with complaints? How many minutes and hours and days do I waste thinking about the things I don't have? Too many. Every minute we have on this beautiful earth is a blessing. Even when it feels like a curse. God has given us everything. We owe Him our praise and adoration! But what do we do? We complain. Let's remember all we have today that we can be glad and have joy!

Think of this life as a quilt. Let's sow together all of the sadness and happiness, sickness and wealth with the thread of thankfulness. Let's create a beautiful quilt of joy from gratitude. Gratitude to our Savior who owes us nothing and yet so graciously provides us with all things! How lovely is His mercy. How thankful we should be! Gratitude is not because we have perfect lives and nothing goes wrong. Gratitude is because the Spirit of God is within us. He is ever present in our lives! That is reason to have gratitude!

Dispositions often influence our attitudes toward or against gratitude. For me personally my disposition is a huge indicator of whether or not my heart wants to be thankful. But why does what you want win over what you should do!? I should be thankful for all my Savior gives me. And yet, I complain. So many people are addicted to criticism, analysis and negativity; me included. Our world gives us a constant view of how things should be, what we should say, how we should look and if we're not up to their standards, we are criticized. Our outfits are analyzed and many times the first thing out of our mouth is not positive. Brother, change this. Be the example of Christ to which we are called. Be full of gratitude and thankfulness. Let it flow freely from your heart.

"Vocatus atque non vocatus, deus aderit." - Erasmus
"Bidden or unbidden, God is present." - Erasmus

BIDDEN OR UNBIDDEN OUR GOD IS PRESENT.

Christian be grateful! Have gratitude to your Lord and Savior for He is present! Always.

Celebration

Celebration |ˌseləˈbrā sh ən|
noun
the action of marking one's pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social, activity.

God invented delight. Has that ever crossed your mind? He came up with the idea of delight, joy and celebration! When we celebrate in the Lord, we are a part of the divine life of the Trinity. Celebration doesn't have to be happy. It doesn't bank on our emotions and feelings. Celebration can be solemn or exhilarating, formal or spontaneous! But no matter how you feel, celebration enlarges our capacity to enjoy and serve our wonderful Father! Perfect circumstances and happy feelings are not a necessity for joy and celebration.

Everyday we are plagued with reasons to be downcast. But God's joy is an unbroken pulse. We are blessed people. We can be freely sorrowful. We do not have to have sorrow like the world's because we have the blessing of a sorrow with HOPE! We have a hope in Christ Jesus that overcomes all else! We are NOT alone---that in itself is reason to celebrate.

Brothers, CELEBRATE!

Two people in my life are phenomenal examples of celebration: my mother and my Aunt Jill. Both of them have a joy in Christ that is not matched by many. They exult in the Lord in everything they do! They are true Proverbs 31 women. They find joy in the dark. They find hope in sorrow. They know they have hope through the sorrow. How wonderful to live a life of hope through the sorrow?

Christian, exult the Lord. Be joyful! Celebrate!

Of vagabonds and vagrants and rest.

Vagabonds.

Those vagrants and derelicts.  They inhabit our very souls.  Something about them draw and allure us.  Though we deny it, they are at our very core.

Oh the life of a drifter.  To be tossed to and fro through life.  To live without care of time or place, status or the implied caste system that engulfs the subconscious of all cultures.  Oh to be free.  Free of the judgement, the worries, the stresses.  The ramblings of such people, when they unleash the inner vagabond, is a beautiful freedom and release.  The liberation of that part of the depraved mortal soul and heart, pouring out in various and sundry outlets is a beauty that cannot be matched or compared to any other.  The intricacy of those wandering desires and intentions is irrefutable.

The human heart is an organ unique and utterly necessary to human survival.  With that simple fist-sized organ, our very existence relies.  It literally pumps life through our veins.  It "stimulates" feelings even the most composed of mortals cannot always deny and repress.  It causes pain unimaginable to any beast without a soul.  

Humans.  

Mortals.  

The beings who are known as little glimpses of the Father due to being made in His image.  We have been pronounced blessed creatures in the Potter's hands.

Blessed with the gift of emotions.

Blessed with a function we often wish to extinguish.

Blessed with the ability to praise with our gifts and talents.  Such gifts!  Such a blessing we so often mistake for cursing.  Oh Creator.  Thank you for such a function.  Thank you for the ability to express our deep love in a way dumb beasts cannot comprehend.  Thank you for worship!

So what will it be?  Continue to repress the amazing beauty that is creativity and feeling?  Or give way to the terrifying truth that seeps into our souls?

Let out the vagabond!

Embrace the vagrants and derelicts.  Rejoice!  Worship!  Seek the Lord!

And when you have found a peace that passes all understanding: rest.

Enter His rest.

I dare you.

Keep asking.

I've been asking a lot of questions lately.

I'm learning that questions aren't a sign of weakness due to lack of knowledge; rather they are an indication of growth, development and maturity.
Growth doesn't end. Especially not spiritual growth. With spiritual growth we become more mature Christians, but we never reach a climax where we know all the answers, and comprehend everything Jesus has left for us in His word. I fear that if we do not feel the need to ask questions, we are in danger of giving ourselves much more credit than we deserve in regards to our salvation and our Savior.

Christians tend to be arrogant people. We tend to be arrogant people. We act like we somehow deserve the salvation that was given us. We act as though we are better than those unbelievers forever wallowing in their sin and self-pity.

As a Christian there is only one thing of which I am completely certain.

Jesus.
His redeeming love.
His never ending grace.
And his atonement that leaves me beautiful and shameless in His eyes.

We are forgiven. Why then, do we not act as His forgiven children? We are blessed with His favor. Remember that.

To do list.

There are so many things that I want to do.

1. I want to start a bakery called the "Pie Hole". I want it to be in the inner city and I want to love the community.

2. I want to be a jazz singer. I want to sing for weddings.

3. I want to pick up and move to Boston. I'll live in a one room apartment with a make shift wall separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. I'll have paints, one suitcase of clothes, a few make shift canvases, and maybe even a piano I found on the side of the road. It will be right on the harbor so every morning I'll wake up to the sound of the fishermen and the market and the smell of fish. EW.

4. I want to be a writer. Maybe someday I'll publish a book of stupid things I did with morals at the end. It would be funny, of course. Or maybe I'll just have a blog that people all over the world read. It will be heartfelt and funny. I will write the type of things I like to read.

5. I want to go to Nashville and work with Charlie Peacock. I want to learn about loving Jesus and how he incorporates that with music. I'll learn about recording and studio stuff. I'll record an album. NBD.

6. I want to direct a movie. Preferably the Spirit Flyer Series, by John Bibee. I have a vision for those undiscovered books. Just lemme at 'em.

7. I want to be a wife and mother.

8. I want to be a wedding photographer. I'm not competitive enough to ever really do this. But I would love to capture their special moments!

9. I want to open a coffee shop. I want to love the community where it's located. Coffee as a profession? Yes please.

10. I want to be a teacher. I want to teach elementary school in the inner city and love people to the best of my ability so that I can make a difference in my kids' lives.

11. But right now more than all of those things, I want to go back to Guatemala.

Maybe my life just changed....

I can't seem to get Guatemala off my mind.  

Fireflies dance and blur my vision as I sit on the back patio, thinking.  Just thinking. 

You hear the cliche, "It was life changing" phrase a lot.  And you wonder how much of that is true.  You ask them, "Really?  Wow!  What made it so great!?"  And oftentimes, they give you a shody, cop out answer.

I felt a lot of emotions when I got home last Friday from Patanatic, Guatemala.  I stepped off the Boeing 737 into the heat of the Houston terminal.  The shock of the heat was paralyzing to the lungs.  I was used to 60's and chilly mountain weather.  Not humidity that made my lungs want to die.  We made our way to the baggage claim so that we could hurry through security and customs in order to wait four hours for our connecting flight from Houston to Kansas City.

I had no idea Guatemala would effect me like this.  I had no idea those people would get a hold of my heart the way they did.  I had no idea those children's smiles would be engraved in my memory.  I had no idea that my bracelet would remind me to pray for them every time I look at it.

A couple of things really struck me in the airport.  1. You could flush your toilet paper.  You might have just chuckled.  But I'm serious.  The water pressure in Guatemala was horrid.  If you flushed toilet paper there was a good chance it would end up on the bathroom floor shortly thereafter.  2. You could literally buy anything in the Houston airport.  Need a watch?  Fossil'll cover you.  Hungry?  You have your choice of any kind of food!  How about your shoes?  I think they need a little shining....

Americans are always going somewhere.  We have a schedule to keep.  We have to get where we're going without interruption so that we can move on to the next item on our to-do list.  We are frivolous with our money.  We buy silly things.  How much do we buy and think, "I need this!"  Malarky, you do!  I've seen people live with the necessities.  I've seen them live with less than the necessities.  It puts a spin on how I view our culture to say the least.  And it puts a spin on the word necessities and what that actually means.

But despite the drastic differences between their culture and my own one things rings true: people are people.  They still have maternal and paternal instincts and they fiercely care for their own.  Humans are incredibly similar.  I think it's our cultures that set us apart from each other.

At first I had all of these emotions and feelings of frustration for our culture and people.  I was so angry that we could have so much and waste so much when people outside of our country are living under such difficult circumstances.  They don't have all the technology we do.  They don't have all the fashion distractions.  They don't have the worries that my culture tells me I must have.  They're happy.  They have nothing with which to compare their lives.  I go there and I think, "How can they live in these conditions!?"  But they aren't coming from my background where I have indoor water that's completely drinkable, and internet access, and my own laptop that cost more money than they might see in a year, and any kind of food I want within a five-mile radius.  God put us each in different situations.  I did not choose to be born in the United States to the amazing family that I have.  God put me there.  Or here, rather.  I didn't know how to deal with our wealth.  Do I get mad?  No.  Do I sell all my possessions?  Maybe.  But maybe not.  Maybe I just need to love.  Maybe I just began to open my eyes.  Maybe that trip was more of a blessing to me, than it was to them.  Maybe God used Guatemala to pull the cloth from over my eyes.

Maybe my life just changed.

My desire is to go back.  My desire is to love.  My desire is to bless and teach.  I can't imagine my life without those things.  And right now, all I can imagine is all of those things in Guatemala.

I have much praying to do.

Maybe my life just changed.  Correction: my life just changed.