life happens... have you ever felt that when it seems that you have it all figured out, and you started mapping your life, making plans, smiling at what it seems to be an incredible future waiting ahead of you to walk into everlasting happiness... life happens. something changes in the pictures, some things are simply not the same, people changes... you changed.
the simple questions of life that you were so certain less than a week ago have turned into the most complicated and hidden mysteries, you start looking around and the green valleys somehow turned into a grey, cold, dark, and lonely labyrinth.
desperation arises, confusion and doubt begin to crawl around a corner getting ready to jump on you like a spider monkey... suddenly you see the starting line and the race is on... you run run run with all of your might, but you haven't moved yet, behind the line you still can see yourself...
life happens.
you look around and you see Job, who was a righteous man, just, fearer of the Lord, who had done no wrong... being hit by disgrace, loosing his material wealth, his family, his health, even his friends turned their back on him with judgment and condemnation.
In the same path we can also see Abraham, the friend of the almighty God, the father of the Faith, the one who without seeing obeyed the command of the Lord leaving everything behind just to follow Him... yes we can see Abraham, walking slowly, dragging his weary steps... he is going up a mountain with his son, the promised one, the joy of his earth, the one of who is supposed to be a blessings to all nations... the one who he is getting ready to kill.
It doesn't really make sense does it? when it seems that for no apparent reason and with no prior notification God decides to change everything around you, leaving you with nothing but pain, and a 10000 pieces puzzle still unresolved... or maybe it does...
All through history we can see that God seems to choose ordinary people to do extraordinary things; as long as they are willing to believe and to obey... if you are willing to let everything aside, your family, name, position, reputation, friends, relationships, status quo, pride, your self... to follow him with reckless abandon.
we must come to the realization that we truly begin to live for Him when hearing that tender, sweet, and gentle voice early in the morning whisper into our sprits “I am yours and you are Mine” is all we need and all we long for... When we would go unto the uttermost parts of the earth to carry His message regardless of what would it take not for an other reason that to please Him... our Beloved.
Job on the midst of the chaos that hit his life, even when his own wife was telling him to curse God and die, simply lifted up his eyes to the heavens and a statement that was more than just a well constructed phrase came out of his lips... the essence of a soul completely lost in love with its creator saying “my love... you give and you take away... blessed be your name!”
Abraham reached the top of his mountain with the only thing that he asked the Lord for... He had already left everything behind, family, name, fame, reputation, wealth, all that the Lord asked of him, he did or gave... but still one more thing was pending... But Abraham did not hesitated; he lifted up the knife and was about to kill his only beloved son... the measure of his love for God was that he loved Him beyond measure...
But God.
But God who can do exceedingly and abundantly more than what we think, who can give to us even what we are afraid to ask for, He the one whose plans are plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... He won’t ever leave us hanging or empty handed...
In the life of Job we find this two statements at the end of this book:
“After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before”
“The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first”
At the moment we chose to leave everything behind to follow him, answering to His call with obedience, following carefully his steps and direction; we begin to see what it means to be an ambassador of the King of the universe... His favor, goodness, and grace overflowing in every single aspect of our lives...
And that is something of which I am being able to testify today one more time... after what I thought was going to be a long journey of pain and desolation, I find myself once again in the embrace of my Love like C.S. Lewis said about his own life experience “surprised by Joy”.
Sunday, June 29
Saturday, June 28
Change of mind... Change of heart
I think that we need a shift in the paradigm of how relationships are approached now days, a realization and understanding of the true priorities that we should focus on, and a deep comprehension of God’s involvement in this process.
The truth is that we are relational beings, since the moment we were born we start longing for relationship... first with our mom, we know there is a link there a connection and we pursue it, then we grow up some and family becomes the world to us, the list of personal traits determined by our family is endless! moral values, religious beliefs, who we are, and many more... no long after we start looking for friends, peers, those individuals that will help us shape our identity and affirm our sense of belonging... the ones that look, dress, smell, and live somewhat like we do.
for a while we are ok... until a big reality hits us square on the face, still we are incomplete... in some point between the ages of 10 and 15 we realize that this is not how things are supposed to be, be must find our better half, and the search begins...
of course as it happens to almost everyone, we have the tendency to search in the mistaken places and to find the mistaken people. Can you remember your first grand love? wow the world was perfect, bells were already perceptible in the atmosphere, we were already planning the wedding, the colors, we had the song and the first dance... but details aside it is a constant among most of us that we ended up heartbroken, with this deep feeling of unworthiness, worn and used, forgotten, and blah blah...
tears that only He knows.
the saddest part is that young people today after they are hurt and heartbroken have the inclination to jump so quickly into other relationships with the fake illusion that having someone else will fulfill that sensation of emptiness and worthlessness that after a wrecked relationship can be so overwhelming... not really giving time to their hearts to be healed and restored, for their emotions and self esteem to be whole again... following this pattern brokenness is around the corner, again.
i said all that to begin this paragraph
We need a deep change in our minds and hearts, because the deep truth is that our focus is totally and completely jacked up! we look and long for significance, relationship, to love and be loved in return, to belong, to feel like home... and we keep going to dwells that are dry and will never quench the thirst that are consuming the depths of our souls...
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart...”
Psalms 37:4 (NIV)
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus...”
Hebrews 12:12 (AMP)
In this last 20 days I’ve learning the true depth and meaning of some of the wildest and radical love declarations of the Lord for our lives... for example to hear the creator of the universe whisper into our ears “I am yours and you are mine”, our to know that he thinks that we are “the apple of His eyes”, or that “In you I delight”, or my personal favorite, to know that “He dances over me...”... understanding that the source of life is pursuing you and me with endless love, that he is the one that wants to take our shatter hearts and make them whole, He is the one who wants to be the center of our attraction, our love, our delight... and as a gift of grace because we have gotten lost in His embrace, He will grant us the desires of our hearts...
We don’t need no looser (I know double negation, intentional) to come and tear us down, or to play with our emotions, our to try to sweet talk us to simply satisfy his/hers selfish desires... we are safe now, our heart has gotten so so lost into his presence, into his love, into his embrace that there is no room for any joker to try to play games with us... our heart is now hidden in his heart, and in order to reach our love that person now is going to have to find Him first...
much love!
max
The truth is that we are relational beings, since the moment we were born we start longing for relationship... first with our mom, we know there is a link there a connection and we pursue it, then we grow up some and family becomes the world to us, the list of personal traits determined by our family is endless! moral values, religious beliefs, who we are, and many more... no long after we start looking for friends, peers, those individuals that will help us shape our identity and affirm our sense of belonging... the ones that look, dress, smell, and live somewhat like we do.
for a while we are ok... until a big reality hits us square on the face, still we are incomplete... in some point between the ages of 10 and 15 we realize that this is not how things are supposed to be, be must find our better half, and the search begins...
of course as it happens to almost everyone, we have the tendency to search in the mistaken places and to find the mistaken people. Can you remember your first grand love? wow the world was perfect, bells were already perceptible in the atmosphere, we were already planning the wedding, the colors, we had the song and the first dance... but details aside it is a constant among most of us that we ended up heartbroken, with this deep feeling of unworthiness, worn and used, forgotten, and blah blah...
tears that only He knows.
the saddest part is that young people today after they are hurt and heartbroken have the inclination to jump so quickly into other relationships with the fake illusion that having someone else will fulfill that sensation of emptiness and worthlessness that after a wrecked relationship can be so overwhelming... not really giving time to their hearts to be healed and restored, for their emotions and self esteem to be whole again... following this pattern brokenness is around the corner, again.
i said all that to begin this paragraph
We need a deep change in our minds and hearts, because the deep truth is that our focus is totally and completely jacked up! we look and long for significance, relationship, to love and be loved in return, to belong, to feel like home... and we keep going to dwells that are dry and will never quench the thirst that are consuming the depths of our souls...
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart...”
Psalms 37:4 (NIV)
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus...”
Hebrews 12:12 (AMP)
In this last 20 days I’ve learning the true depth and meaning of some of the wildest and radical love declarations of the Lord for our lives... for example to hear the creator of the universe whisper into our ears “I am yours and you are mine”, our to know that he thinks that we are “the apple of His eyes”, or that “In you I delight”, or my personal favorite, to know that “He dances over me...”... understanding that the source of life is pursuing you and me with endless love, that he is the one that wants to take our shatter hearts and make them whole, He is the one who wants to be the center of our attraction, our love, our delight... and as a gift of grace because we have gotten lost in His embrace, He will grant us the desires of our hearts...
We don’t need no looser (I know double negation, intentional) to come and tear us down, or to play with our emotions, our to try to sweet talk us to simply satisfy his/hers selfish desires... we are safe now, our heart has gotten so so lost into his presence, into his love, into his embrace that there is no room for any joker to try to play games with us... our heart is now hidden in his heart, and in order to reach our love that person now is going to have to find Him first...
much love!
max
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