You Think You've Seen the Sun

There must be something about the stars....

Okay so maybe this time it was more the campfire under the stars, but that's neither here nor there.

For two days now I've been trying to write what has been rolling around in my mind for a while now, one of the reasons I decided to republish that story that I hope you have sifted through and enjoyed. I was planning on having that lead up into a thought I've been digesting lately...but apparently it's going to have to wait for another time when God decides to let my thoughts coagulate enough to focus on it. Instead, for the last two days, it has been this thought that has been running past my eyes and through my mind...

When we recognized the awesome Love that Jesus lavished on us, when we finally embraced all that He had and wanted for us, to be with Him and to love Him, He gave us His very best. We didn't deserve it, and we still don't and never could, but there it is. I think it's wired into every part of our humanity, to somewhere desire the very best, to want only the utter prime of what life, and for us what God, has to offer.

So why do we so often compromise?
Why are we so tempted to give up on that dream of attaining the absolute perfection of everything we desire?
In life, in joy, in peace, in who we are, in what we can do, in what we are called to do, in Love.
Why are we so often content with merely being content? With lowering our standards even just a smidge or two. Of settling.

We don't ever have to settle. Not us.

We were promised the very best in everything we have and do in this life. We were already by the grace and mercy and Love of our God and the incredible sacrifice of Jesus Christ given the very best of hopes, of futures, of Love. And so shouldn't we also after having tasted that perfection so desire the same for every other aspect of our lives?

We should want the best. His best. But here's the thing about the best. In this world of depravity, of darkness, of loneliness and heartache, that though seems so messed up manages to somehow keep spinning, everything around us, even down our very humanity, is fighting full throttle against the best. It is a war after all. And so the best will not come easy.
It will take focus, it will take time.
It will take prayer, and it will most likely take pain.
But still, it is the best, and when God is the one dealing it out who can even imagine what kind of awesome power can transplanted into our lives.

What could that kind of thinking do to our pursuit? Of God. Of Love.
Even on a day to day basis, the consequences are staggering. Awesome.
To never settle, to never back down...oh I how I pray that I could live like that.

Of course the danger in all of this is fooling ourselves into thinking that what we believe to be our best for us is automatically God's best for us. And discovering the difference is a road to be traveled by prayer and patience, a journey for you and God and can be a wearing task of its own. But with the best at stake...

We don't deserve it by any means or stretch of the imagination. But there it is. That is what has been offered to us.

So we can either wonder what could happen, what could have happened, why it didn't happen as we planned, why something like this could happen to us because all the while were too afraid to for once take a leap of faith and pursue with as much reckless abandon as our Savior pursued us that very best...or we can jump...and pray to God we can fly.

"Have you never heard?
Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.

Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint."
~Isaiah 40:28-31

So will we soar? Will we launch ourselves off of that cliff of the unknown, of the uncertain, certain only that we already have the best? And that we can have yet more of the best, in every avenue and facet of life, if we will only pursue it. If we would just fly, or even dive. Dive deep into His best. Into His Love, determined never to come up from the fathomless depths of what our glorious God has to offer: His best. Because of His perfect Love, the ultimate best that we already have.

What could happen, in the space of just one second, if the Love of Jesus showed up?
If we just allowed to let that love be unleashed...
All that unimaginable power, allowed to be released in the space of just a single second.

Awesome.

If we would just Dive Deep.

A Story (Part V)

I must drown.

Without giving even a chance to a whisper of a second thought to enter my mind, I inhale deeply, filling my lungs with this death-bringing flood from the one who had broken through the tunnel that does not exist.

I inhale, and inhale, until my lungs become saturated with blood and begin to burn with even greater and greater intensity. I gag and sputter and writhe in pain, but I know that I must drown. Above all else, I must die.

Then I drown.

Then I die.

My corpse lies there as, all around it, the blood rushes away, leaving the pathetic lump of flesh that once housed my soul lying on its back, limp.

Dead. Very much dead.

I lurch forward, sitting up and spurting and hacking that life-bringing blood from my lungs.
Alive. Very much alive.

Then I notice something. Two somethings actually.

One: the laughing is still very much filling the tunnel, though the blood has completely receded. Two: I am no longer in a tunnel.

The tunnel that does not exist truly no longer exists. There are no walls, no void, no tunnel.
Just white.
Just light.
And just laughter.

And so, I simply sit, allowing the light to cascade over my body and the laughing to warm my heart and soothe my mind. And I begin to laugh.
And I really laugh.

And I laugh and I laugh and I laugh, for there is no end to the laughter where there are no walls, no void, no tunnel.

There is just white.
And just light.
And just laughter.
And my laughter merges and mixes with the laughter of the one whose wounds I had held in my hands, whose light had pierced my tunnel of anguish, bitterness, solitude, rage, helplessness, hopelessness, and darkness, whose blood had brought me death and set me free to life.

Life.

Just White.
Just Light.
Just Laughter.
And in that laughter, there is just love.

A Story (Part IV)

It is blood.

My first reflex is to run, for I know that inside this tunnel I will be crushed underneath the power of this red river.

A River of Death.
Pure Death.

But even as I begin to attempt to flee, the current of surging blood that is rapidly filling this tunnel that does not exist overpowers me and takes me under, and the further down I find myself, the darker it seems to become, until even the darkness I had always known in the tunnel that does not exist sees warm and comforting. I strive for the surface, for air, my mind screams that even the blackness of the tunnel will save me from the flood.
So I struggle and struggle and struggle, fighting to hold on, even if it is only to survive and stay in the tunnel. I am frantic, heart and mind racing.

I struggle and I struggle and I struggle until I cannot possibly struggle any longer, and just as I begin to lose all hope and succumb to the darkness the blood seems to be bringing...

I hear a sound.

The laugh.

It is the laugh of the one who had created that crack, who had authored that paper. It is coursing through this river of death, more vehemently and thunderous than ever, rushing through the crash of blood against the walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnel and that which is still gushing through the crack until everything seems to be saturated by the laugh, every molecule vibrating with the joyous glee.
I forget my struggle for a moment, intently focused on the laugh. And I notice something.
Something I had never noticed before.

The laugh.
It isn’t just a laugh.

It’s words. A message. Three words. The same words I had seen flawlessly scribed on the white piece of paper. That simple phrase:

“I love you.”

Over and over, that message is echoed in the laugh. Over and over and over. I float, suspended, for a few moments in the pool of blood, mesmerized by the laugh, unaware of all else.

Then my lungs begin to burn, like the very fires of hell were clawing at them, trying to tear me down from the inside into the abyss. But the laughter only grows more intense, almost to a point of pleading, and that’s when I finally realize it.

This blood.

This River of Death.
No.

This River of Life.
Pure Life.

It is his.

It is the same blood that had covered me as I had lain in hopelessness in the darkness of the tunnel, the same blood that had flowed from the wounds that were not mine, from the lacerations to my hands that did not exist. As I allow this recognition to once again spread throughout my body, engulfing my heart and mind, I also recognize something else...

I must drown.

A Story (Part III)

…But why am I laughing so?

I can do nothing but lay on the ground, holding my sides which seem are going to burst because of the joy that is surging through my body because of the agony of the owner of the affliction in my hands that does not exist. And as I laugh, I begin to cry, cries of ecstasy and bliss because of the agony of the one whose agony pierced through the walls that do not exist of the tunnel that does not exist, the agony of the one I know sent that flawlessly white piece of paper down on the light that now carries his agony.

So I continue to laugh and cry, the sounds of overflowing and overwhelming emotions rebounding around the walls of the tunnel that does not exist, laughter and agony merging and reverberating all around me, all around the tunnel that does not exist. The most glorious sound that could ever be made or heard.

After an eternity over, I notice something.

I still cannot make a sound. I cannot pierce the darkness of the tunnel.

Mystified, I sit up and anxiously search the darkness of the tunnel for the one who is able to penetrate this void.

Who is laughing in pure joy, and yet still crying in utter agony?

But as I listen further, I notice that there is no scream of agony. Only those cries of ecstasy and bliss, ricocheting from wall to wall. The walls do not exist. The tunnel does not exist.

But the laugh. There is no doubt that the laugh exists. The laugh is real. So the owner of the laugh, the author of the note, he is real. He must be. And there is no doubt.

I know. I know that he is the only one that can get me out of this tunnel that does not exist. Inexplicably, I know.

The laughing still encompassing me, the light flowing through the crack in the tunnel still slicing the darkness and showering me, I allow this recognition to spread throughout my body, engulfing my heart and mind.

And just as suddenly as they had come, the cries are gone.

And in its place, another sound comes. The sound of a cascading waterfall. I once again frantically search the tunnel, until my eyes fall upon the crack. Light is still pouring through it.

But something else as well. Though this thing does not hinder the light in any way.
In fact, it only magnifies it.

The sound I hear is like that of rushing water, but just as I knew it was not sweat that covered my body, I know that it is not water rushing through the crack.

It is blood.

A Story (Part II)

It's blood.

But wait...
I feel no pain.

I feel no pain because I have no wounds. No wounds that would allow this cascade of blood.
Then I look down at my hands and see complete mutilation, right in the center of each palm.
But I feel no pain because I have no wounds.

I have no wounds.

So I peer down at the deformations in my hands that do not exist, and I see wounds that are not my own.

Wait...

I see the defacement of my hands.

I can see in the endless black that is the tunnel that does not exist.
I see what is not mine, but there nonetheless. I peer frantically around this tunnel that does not exist, then in the direction I think is up, if there truly is an “up” in this tunnel that does not exist, there I see it. A crack.

A crack in the wall that does not exist of the tunnel that does not exist.

And coming through the crack...
Light.

And coming down on that light, floating through the air, piercing the darkness of the tunnel that does not exist, is a small, almost impossible to notice piece of paper.

But also impossible not to notice.

The paper continues its descent until it lands directly on my hands, shrouding the maiming that is not my own. A flawlessly white sheet, but obviously nothing special... and at the same time the most awe-inspiring object that could be beheld. And on the sheet is writing.

My eyes begin to slide across the page and see a message in ink.
Three simple ink words.

“I love you.”

Instantly, something else begins to come flowing down on the light: the most terrifyingly extraordinary sound that could ever be heard.

It is the sound of someone screaming.

And not just screaming; this is the sound of a man in the most complete of agonies.

But I am still unable to scream...

Besides, this sound makes the screams I had so desperately longed to cascade from my chest seem like peals of thunderous laughter.
It is the most horrifically terrifying sound imaginable or not, going beyond any possibly coherent word, explicable only by the most utter of anguishes.

A living hell.
No.
Worse.
Much worse.

…But why am I laughing so?

A Story (Part I)

I run. I run and run and run until I cannot possibly run any longer and collapse on the ground, curl up in a ball, and cry. And I cry and cry and cry until I cannot possibly cry any longer. I try to scream, to call out, plead for help, weeping and wailing with all that is in me for comfort, but that same utter void that has engulfed me for so long now simply destroys my cries of pure agony before they are even formed in my throat. I am trapped. I've been trapped for...

for.....

Was there really even ever a time when I was not lost in this abyss of emptiness and solitude? It's like a tunnel with no light at the end, where the walls seem to just keep closing in...even though there really are no walls. There isn't even really a tunnel. Just black. Nothing but endless black. So I lay there, wanting to scream but being unable to draw a sound, longing to cry but having no tears left to shed, yearning to run but being inescapably overwhelmed by the knowledge that I have nowhere to run to.

There is no way out of this tunnel that does not exist.

Suddenly, I feel the anguish, the bitterness, the solitude, the rage, the helplessness, the hopelessness, the darkness seem to compound all together with full force in the very pit of my stomach.

And I want to die.

I so want to die, but I know that even death will provide no escape from the black. So I just lay there, on the floor of the tunnel that does not exist. I bring my hands to my head and begin to rock myself back and forth.

Unable to run...

Unable to cry...

Unable to scream...

Unable to die.

I feel the sweat on my forehead mix with that on my hands. My entire body is saturated with sweat. But then, I realize, in that moment of utter hopelessness, that it isn't sweat.

It's blood.

One More Second

As i stood outside underneath the stars this evening, for the first time in far too long, I couldn't help but yet again, as I always am, be utterly taken aback at the breathtaking beauty of the stars. Innumerable, glorious and brilliant, they never fail to leave me in silent wonder at the incredible power, and of course you should have seen this coming, the awesome Love of my God.

I made the point I am about to revisit in my last post, in which I mainly tried to emphasize the significance of the second greatest commandment, to "love your neighbor as yourself," in the life of any and every Christian. But as I've continued to toss that idea around in my mind, the more I needed to make sure this point is recognized, the more and more I cannot shake the desire, no the complete compulsion, to say what I am about to say because of just how spectacular it would be if we can really grasp, continually remember, just begin to comprehend...

What could happen, in the space of just one second, if the Love of Jesus showed up?

If you've read anything I've ever written, I hope you've realized the complete passion I have for the love God has for us, and may even be completely sick of me always reiterating how remarkable, unfathomable, immeasurable, boundless, endless, limitless, spectacular, fantastic, awe-inspiring, impossibly awesome, and pretty much every other such expression humanity has ever contrived and even those it hasn't and can only be described by the insane joy and hope we have in and because of that love.

But do we really believe it? I mean, do we really remember what that love is like?

On a day to day basis, in every thought, every word, every action, if we truly believed in the indescribable power that is the Love of Jesus Christ, what could that do in even the space of one second? If we just allowed to let that love be unleashed...

As I stared up at the stars, compelled by these thoughts, how could I not but be totally dumbfounded by the fact that a God with the power to paint the night sky with a mere breath, create those stars, and those incredible people around me that I am blessed enough to call my friends, that this is the God who did all that because of His ridiculous love for us. His passion. For us. All He desires is to lavish us with love and for us to desire to do the same to Him and those around us. Him, with all that unimaginable power.

All that unimaginable power, allowed to be released in the space of just a single second.

Awesome.

Now just imagine if we were to live our entire lives, our every moment, with this thought at the forefront of our existence. Just try to imagine the repercussions of such a thing, if unquenchable Love were to rage through us in such a way, what a mere glimpse of that power would do, how it could and would change things. Cure all of our worries, carry all of our troubles? That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

Oh what intoxicating joy, what uncrushable hope, what magnificent transformation it would be if the true power, the true Love of Jesus, was allowed to be unleashed for even just one second.

If we just let it lavish us.

One second. Just one more second...

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are." 1 John 3:1

Dive Deep.

One Second

A breath.
A blink.
A beat.

What can happen in the space of just a moment, of just one second?
Nothing.
Everything.

We are told that this life is as but a vapor in the wind, here today and gone tomorrow, barely even a blip in the scope of eternity. How much more insignificant one mere second of one minute of one hour of one day of one week of one year of this life...

What good is one mere second?

Every good.

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Matthew 22:37-39

In the space between breaths, in the blink of an eye, in the pause between heartbeats, everything can change. Eternity, held in a second.

In the journey of discovering just how incredibly, unquestionably, astonishingly, astoundingly, resoundingly awesome the Love of God is we cannot forget this. It just takes a second. And we cannot ignore the Second.

I especially have found it so ridiculously easy to remember the Greatest Commandment and yet somehow manage to let the Second Greatest slip right past me. I pray that I be all about loving the Lord my God, pouring myself into building my relationship with my Savior, constantly striving to please Jesus in the things I do, praying for His help, His support, His blessing. In my life. And that's great! Our God loves we when finally recognize His Love, that we desire to desperately desire it, and that we wish to continually build a real relationship that will carry over into eternity. The importance of such things cannot be undermined or over emphasized.

But we can't stop there.
Because that's not it.
Not even close.

If you've been following some of the things I've written, you've probably seen and I hope you realize that the Love of God is impossible to stop, impossible to cap, impossible to contain. And for those of you who haven't, I'll say it again...

The Love of God is impossible to stop, impossible to cap, impossible to contain.
Plain and simple.

So what does that say if we choose, of even simply fail, to allow that love to flow not only in but through us in every possible and imaginable channel by any means necessary?

To call it a failure is a vast and dangerous understatement.

"All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:40

Jesus Himself put loving God Himself on the same playing field with loving anyone and everyone around us. And everything we can know or do about Christianity is not only directly connected but utterly dependent on these two things.

Whoa. Now that's heavy.

As Christians we simply cannot afford to live in our own little worlds. Because that's not what Christianity is at all. That's not what Love is. Love is designed to flow to us, in us, and through us, a glorious cascade unlike any other the universe has ever known. We are the church. And we are to share this love with each other.
And of course you can't speak of such things without contemplating the effects such a thing would have on those who haven't experienced the Love of Jesus like we have. He ceaselessly loves them as well, and is in agony of the fact that they will not return His undying affection, or that they may not even realize. How can we with a clean conscience truly allow our incredible Love to endure such a thing?

(In speaking of Song of Solomon 3) "Solomon is describing the desperation that comes when we seem unable to capture the heart of the one we love. I wonder if it ever occurs to us that God feels like this. But if God's love is immeasurable and unending, as the Hebrews describe Him, how deep and profound must be His sense of sorrow and rejection. If anyone knows the pain of a love unreturned, it must be God." (Erwin McManus)

That alone should be enough to get us going.

What would happen if we invested just a second into the Second? What if it was the second that was needed? What flat out, straight up miracles could occur if by the grace and Love of God if we were there in that one second where everything matters...

When nothing else matters...

With the boundless, endless, limitless, incomprehensible, unfathomable power that is the Love of Jesus, if we can really try to grasp that, to actually believe it, do we have any idea just what could happen in the space of just a second?

I caught a glimpse of Your splendor
In the corner of my eye
The most beautiful thing I've ever seen
It was like a flash of lightning
Reflected off the sky
And I know
I'll never be the same
~Third Day

Just try to imagine the repercussions of such a thing, if Love were to rage through us in such a way, what just a glimpse of that power would do, how it could and would change things. Maybe change others. I guarantee change us.
So I would challenge you, whether or not you were able to follow my ramblings, to not forget the Second. To not forget the meaning of the second.

Nothing, or everything.
In a mere second, a thought can be born, a seed planted, a heart transformed.
Granted, hardly is anything ever carried to completion without a foundation or a follow through.

But it all begins with a second.

Because it only takes a second. The space of a breath. A breath carrying a name.

"Jesus."

And everything changes.

Dive Deep.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

A year.
Two years.
Fours years.

The older I get, the faster the days seem to slip away, time seems to simply disappear.

In one of the ridiculously rare instances of my spring break during which I was not remarkably and appallingly lazy, I found myself a sincere desire to take a little adventure down memory lane. It had been quite some time since I had done so in this particular manner, and I was intrigued by the notion of what I might find in a place I hadn't stepped foot in since I had first begun my expedition into the chaotic enigma that can be college life. In a room where God found me, or maybe more accurately I finally realized He had for so long been frantically trying to draw my attention and focus in any and every way possible, jumping up and down, waving His arms like a madman. A Man mad with Love, that is. Ok so maybe not exactly but still you get the picture and I'm just rambling...

It was in this place that I finally, truly, let the Love of Jesus bind itself around my heart and mind, and I in turn embraced the desire to cling desperately to His heart. My old youth group. And I was amazed at what I found.

It didn't quite look the same as when I had left. The setup of the room itself was different, for one. There seemed to be fewer people, and ever fewer familiar faces. Those that I did recognize had obviously grown in the years since I'd been in their shoes.

And then like diving into the part of the pool that is way too shallow for intelligently attempting such a thing, my head slammed into a thought and I had to stop for a moment.

Over the past almost two years now since I began college I have experience things I never could have seen coming, learned things and been changed in ways that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. I am nowhere near the same person I was even a year ago, let alone when I graduated from Dayton Christian High School and especially my sophomore year of high school when God monumentally rocked my world. And neither were those that I was seeing for the first time in what seemed like ages, for each and every one of them had barreled and brawled through the tumult that is this life by means I can't begin to know and had been affected in ways I could never comprehend in just growing two years older. Crazy.

You try thinking through it sometime. I guarantee you'll be at least a little surprised at what you realize.

As I continued to be enthralled by this reflection, the band began to play. And it was then that everything fell into place. It was times such as these that I remember most vividly, most fondly about my old youth group. Even since, I have yet to find a place where worship is quite like it is in that room, and though unquestionably the Spirit of God has followed me through every step of the last two years, there's just something about that room. It is undeniable that He shows up. And even though those in the band were older than when I had last seen them, the members different than those I had known, He still showed up. And it was awesome.

I don't remember every song we sang, but there are two that still play through my mind. One was "How Great is Our God," and we just sang through the chorus over and over and over.

Awesome.

The other went like this...

Your love is pure, Your love is precious
Your love is all I need
Your love surrounds me, Your love astounds me
Your love is everything

I run to You when my heart is weak
I cling to You, You're all I seek
It's my heart's desire to be close to You
Here in Your arms I find my strength

You're everything I want, everything I hope in
Everything my heart cries out for
You're everything I want, everything I hope in
Everything my heart cries out for

And we just sang through these verses over and over and over.

And it was awesome.

It never ceases to amaze me how it is in the simplest of words, the simplest of phrases, the most basic of thoughts that we can find the greatest power. The greatest hope. And these words as we sang them over and over and over had both raging through them.

And through all the reminiscing, the remembering, the reflecting, I was reminded of this most incredible and awe inspiring thought, that though over the last year, two years, four years I have been changed, shaped, transformed physically, mentally, and spiritually in ways I can't begin to recall as has everyone around me in some form or fashion, He hasn't.

He's still the same Jesus that I began to fall in love with my sophomore year of high school, the exact same as He is now in my sophomore year of college.

It was then that I began to glimpse just how awesome His Love is, just how wide, how deep, how endless, how unfathomable it is, though then I just thought it was merely one little area of this thing called Christianity.

And now here I sit knowing that really, it is absolutely everything. And it always was.

And it is here we can take comfort and find hope in the fact that even if the world or just our world goes to Hell in a handbasket, despite however we may change, however our minds may form, however our hearts may mold, wherever and whenever life takes us, He will always be great.

How great is our God
Sing with me how great is our God
And all will see how great, how great
Is our God.

It all comes back to Love. And Love never fails. Love never fades. Love is never finished.
And our Love reigns totally, unparalleled, unstoppable, unquestionable, awesome, mighty, and great for all eternity, never to change, never to leave.
Always to Love.

You're everything I want, everything I hope in
Everything my heart cries out for

Dive Deep.

B-E-A-utiful

Life is so not fair.

I mean really, how many times have we thought it, said it, ranted and raged about it, cried about it. Isn't it the favorite argument of every little kid, "But that's not fair!" And of course the classic response would almost always be, "Well, life is not fair!" Obviously no one needs to see me write this statement, for really it is more than just my opinion and indeed a statement of cold, hard fact, as we all see day after day after heartbreaking day...

It's not fair that they have all of that.
It's not fair that they get all the attention.
It's not fair that she looks like that.
It's not fair that he can do that.
It's not fair that she has him.
It's not fair that he has her.
It's not fair that I have to be alone like this.
It's not fair that I have to hurt like this.

My God, why is life not fair?! I am yours! Why am I still plagued by the insanity, the chaos that is the unfairness of this life...

How often is that our cry...

But really, just how cold and hard is this reality that we must face time after time, that we constantly wage war against?

In fact, I would argue that this is quite possibly a, if not the, statement from which we should find incredible amounts of flat out, bursting at the seams, bouncing off the walls, running a marathon in five minutes flat, jumping would make you enter orbit, hugging someone until they turn blue, yelling like some kind of crazy person until you turn blue and people are wondering how you got out of your straight jacket, making the olympic gymnastics team look like a group of toddlers who can't even walk straight, totally unhindered in any way shape or form, complete and utter...joy.

Because really, what would we be if life was fair?

I can guarantee you that I wouldn't be sitting here. I don't even know where I'd be. What I'd be. And the idea of having to live a life that is absolutely fair honestly disturbs me.

Hope. Joy. Even love. How drastically warped our conceptions of these, even our ability to have and hold these things, would be if life was fair.

This is the beauty of grace.

Grace is a concept that I find myself constantly wrestling with, that I time and time again must remind myself of, and am still like so many other things attempting to wrap my mind around. Around its depth, its implications, its beauty.

But what I have discovered thus far is that like so many of those other things, it has very real and direct connection to Love. In fact, it is one of the most brilliant and breathtaking outpourings of Love, and one of the most prominent and essential to those who call themselves the people of God. And we can even use the concept of grace to trace and work backwards to the very nature of Love.

Without Love, there would be no grace. And without grace, Love would not be what it is, maybe not really be Love at all.

The message of God, the Love of God, cannot be truly told, truly shown, without the beauty of grace. Those who were witness to the visitor Western Kentucky University had several weeks ago have seen how tragic the absence of grace and love can be. It is grace that allows each and everyone of us to pick ourselves out of the muck and mire of the tragedy of life, that allows us to have hope, to experience joy, to be exactly who we were created to be, the happy-go-lucky, the kooky, the crazy, the spontaneous, the mellow, the laid-back, the timid, the quiet, the bold, the courageous, the whatever and whoever God has masterfully designed us to be. And it is because of grace that we can experience love.

And still, we are so prone to forget this! Not necessarily for ourselves, but so often for others! For me, I'll be honest and admit it's not the "How could God save someone like them??" that get's me, it's the "How could someone like them actually be a Christian like they say??" I see what a person does, how they behave, how sin may still in some way shape or form have a hold on their lives and they seem not to care, and I shake my head, form my judgment, and instead of loving on them, I slowly back away, or even push them away. And the irony is that if we think about it, not only is what that person may need the most someone with the love of God to wrap their arms around them, how often is the reality that the reason a person is like they are that people like us cast the first stone...

I'm so thankful for the fact that God has been gracious enough with me to help me realize this pitfall of mine and has continually worked to alter that mindset. Because God still loves them, just as He still loves me, and Love is still in work in us. In us. So what, Love might be working in different ways, in different areas of our respective lives, but working none the less. We have to remember that we are the Church, at the heart nothing more than a band of physically and/or spiritually pathetic misfits, of rejects, of failures, of fools, of screwups, of dropouts, of the poor, of the the proud, of the beaten, of the battered, of the broken. Of sinners. Of people who need the love of Jesus.

Thank God for grace. Because love us He does.

This Love is far beyond a list of do's and don'ts, of special recipes for righteousness, of how much we can somehow manage not to fail miserably, of what we can offer. Because really none of that matters.

The penalty for sin is death. Period.

And because life is so unfair, we don't have to face what's coming to us, what we rightfully, fairly deserve. We never have to pay that debt.

Because by the grace of God, that debt was utterly eradicated thousands of years ago.

And it is that one thing in this whole, big clump of thoughts, ideas, ideals, and theology that we call Christianity that really makes any difference, no matter your denomination or what have you. Jesus. Jesus paid the price for us. Period. And all we have to do is let Him totally obliterate any and every debt we owe, is acknowledge that He already did.

"And this life sentence that I'm serving
I admit that I'm every bit deserving,
But the beauty of grace is that it makes
Life not fair."
~Relient K

Ok so what's the catch? Because really nothing in this life ever comes without a catch...
We give Him the failure, the misery, the pain, the imperfection and let Him have it all, let Him transform it, by the beauty of grace. He gives us life, and we live for Him. In that order. It's not a "do this then maybe I'll give you this" sort of thing. No. This is one contract that has no fine print. He gives us life, lavishes us with love, and asks us to love Him and love others. Not too shabby a deal if you ask me.

We fail, we fall, we flounder time and time and time again. And yet, we can still stand back up as tall and confident as ever, absolutely spotless, stunningly beautiful in the eyes of our God. Because of the beauty of grace. And though boundless in every way imaginable or not, grace is far from a crutch, far from an excuse for sin. In fact it should inspire us even more to value the awesome Love of our God, to desire to thank and please and praise Him. To Love Him, and to Love others. Because that's still what this is all about.

Life isn't fair. And I praise God for that.
And as for every other aspect of life in which we are threatened to be crushed by how harsh this reality can be, we just have to remember...

Just how much hope we have...

Even though life is not fair. Because life is not fair.

Because we are His. We have been entranced by the beauty of grace and transformed into children of the King. And oh how the Father loves His kids. And oh how His Love and grace will enrapture even and especially the most desperate of hearts.

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
~Psalm 103

Dive Deep.