this vision
American mind
now we are known as the American blind
our form of justice is freedom –
for us
Why don’t we cry?
content in our ignorance
our mothers and daughters are fine
what about her life?
opposing popular belief is:
TRUTH
JUSTICE,
in its righteous form, does not exist today
their daughters die
while we applaud progress in our lives
Who are we?
JUSTICE – contorted to fit our minds
WE LIE
TRUTH is objective
CHANGE is imperative
if we call ourselves people –
i t ’ s t i m e
to care for all of mankind
JUSTICE
Yearns
to wake tonight
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Sunday, January 6, 2008
There Must Be a Change
Something needs to change. That is clear. There is so much that is simply just not right in this world. I’m not stupid – I know that as long as this world exists there will always be evil and pain and wrong. But I also believe in the existence of GOOD. I believe that as people become aware of these evils and the good that can exist in the world with even just a little bit of effort from us, they will choose to pursue this good.
Right now I hear a lot of complaining from people, including myself, about the presidential candidates. There is not one that I completely agree with and can throw my support behind, and I know there are a lot of other people that feel the same way. I am convinced that the lack of good candidates is because there is a lack of people desiring the GOOD speaking out. Before we have a president that is going to truly represent our interests and bring change to the obvious injustice and wrong in this country and world, there need to be people that demand this change. There need to be people that demand a MOVEMENT.
If we don’t speak, who will? This country will continue to decline and the wrong will rule. I am not talking about a certain party or a certain person or a certain denomination being right. I am not speaking on behalf of a certain political party or ideology. I am speaking on behalf of Truth. This country has been so successful in its 300 years of existence because it is founded on fundamental principles that all human beings believe in. Principles that people crave, that people need, to survive. Freedom, justice, liberty – the Framers understood that the key to a country’s survival was not a particular leader or location or amount of wealth, but these principles that our human nature craves and thirsts for. No matter your belief system or fundamental values, everyone desires freedom, justice, and liberty on a basic, carnal level. We were born with a hole in us that only these things can fill. The farther our country moves from these principles, the more our country will flounder, the more people will suffer, and the farther we will be from the nation the Founders believed in and gave their lives for.
I am not writing to say that we need religion in government, that we are a godless nation and we need to Bible-thump and force religion on everyone. Also necessary for our country to survive is a separation of church and state. But church and God are not one and the same. We need God in this country. The Founders knew that, and along with the separation clause they included the Establishment clause – they wanted God to be a part of America, to be protected in America, because they knew God was essential to the survival and the success of our country. And God is essential because at His core, God IS freedom, justice, liberty, equality, peace…..God is all the things we desire most, we crave most. When we push God away, we push these principles away. Separate religion from our government, from our policy decisions, from foreign affairs. Separate the religious institution from the governmental institution. Don’t separate God from this country. Religion brings problems, not God. What bad can come from keeping Him in this world? He is essential. We have justice peace, freedom….all in its purest form. Why do Communist governments always ultimately fail? Because it is a godless government. A government without God is a government without freedom, without liberty, without equality. This is who God is. If the government does not allow freedom to worship God, they probably don’t allow freedom to do much else.
Our government needs to be reminded of what it was created to be. It was created to protect the right of God to be in this country, to in essence protect our right to be FREE. Today we are so far from the original vision. Looking at the candidates for my possible future president, I don’t see one that encapsulates the leader our country needs: one that pursues peace, stands for freedom, works for the abolition of injustice. But why would there be this type of leader if the people don’t demand it? In a democracy, the people decide who lead them. Now the people need to step up and demand what is GOOD. We need to forge something new, not a Republican or a Democrat but something different, something that pursues what is RIGHT without having to fit a certain mold to get anything done. God needs to be allowed in this country. Because everything that is RIGHT is from God. Lets not be Republican or conservative or liberal or whatever, but something new, something that pursues only what is truly GOOD. Not religion or a Christian government. But God. Because with God comes all that we stand for as a country, all that we inherently desire as human beings. With God comes nothing but the GOOD: freedom, justice, peace…..there must be a movement. This needs to be what our country is about again, because it is not what we are all about now. But for our country to be about it, the people need to be about it. So let’s start a movement toward it. There MUST be a change.
Right now I hear a lot of complaining from people, including myself, about the presidential candidates. There is not one that I completely agree with and can throw my support behind, and I know there are a lot of other people that feel the same way. I am convinced that the lack of good candidates is because there is a lack of people desiring the GOOD speaking out. Before we have a president that is going to truly represent our interests and bring change to the obvious injustice and wrong in this country and world, there need to be people that demand this change. There need to be people that demand a MOVEMENT.
If we don’t speak, who will? This country will continue to decline and the wrong will rule. I am not talking about a certain party or a certain person or a certain denomination being right. I am not speaking on behalf of a certain political party or ideology. I am speaking on behalf of Truth. This country has been so successful in its 300 years of existence because it is founded on fundamental principles that all human beings believe in. Principles that people crave, that people need, to survive. Freedom, justice, liberty – the Framers understood that the key to a country’s survival was not a particular leader or location or amount of wealth, but these principles that our human nature craves and thirsts for. No matter your belief system or fundamental values, everyone desires freedom, justice, and liberty on a basic, carnal level. We were born with a hole in us that only these things can fill. The farther our country moves from these principles, the more our country will flounder, the more people will suffer, and the farther we will be from the nation the Founders believed in and gave their lives for.
I am not writing to say that we need religion in government, that we are a godless nation and we need to Bible-thump and force religion on everyone. Also necessary for our country to survive is a separation of church and state. But church and God are not one and the same. We need God in this country. The Founders knew that, and along with the separation clause they included the Establishment clause – they wanted God to be a part of America, to be protected in America, because they knew God was essential to the survival and the success of our country. And God is essential because at His core, God IS freedom, justice, liberty, equality, peace…..God is all the things we desire most, we crave most. When we push God away, we push these principles away. Separate religion from our government, from our policy decisions, from foreign affairs. Separate the religious institution from the governmental institution. Don’t separate God from this country. Religion brings problems, not God. What bad can come from keeping Him in this world? He is essential. We have justice peace, freedom….all in its purest form. Why do Communist governments always ultimately fail? Because it is a godless government. A government without God is a government without freedom, without liberty, without equality. This is who God is. If the government does not allow freedom to worship God, they probably don’t allow freedom to do much else.
Our government needs to be reminded of what it was created to be. It was created to protect the right of God to be in this country, to in essence protect our right to be FREE. Today we are so far from the original vision. Looking at the candidates for my possible future president, I don’t see one that encapsulates the leader our country needs: one that pursues peace, stands for freedom, works for the abolition of injustice. But why would there be this type of leader if the people don’t demand it? In a democracy, the people decide who lead them. Now the people need to step up and demand what is GOOD. We need to forge something new, not a Republican or a Democrat but something different, something that pursues what is RIGHT without having to fit a certain mold to get anything done. God needs to be allowed in this country. Because everything that is RIGHT is from God. Lets not be Republican or conservative or liberal or whatever, but something new, something that pursues only what is truly GOOD. Not religion or a Christian government. But God. Because with God comes all that we stand for as a country, all that we inherently desire as human beings. With God comes nothing but the GOOD: freedom, justice, peace…..there must be a movement. This needs to be what our country is about again, because it is not what we are all about now. But for our country to be about it, the people need to be about it. So let’s start a movement toward it. There MUST be a change.
Grace
Our minds can’t comprehend it. They really can’t. If they could, everyone would believe in Christ, no doubt about it. But we can’t. Our lowly human minds can’t comprehend the GREATNESS of God. He lowered himself to our level by coming to earth and becoming like us as Christ, but in His very nature is still too GREAT for us to comprehend, to understand and believe by relying on or own knowledge. And this is why we need GRACE.
I am living this lesson. I never before understood fully the concept of grace, and I am convinced I never will until I see God face to face. But I understand it a little better than I did before and I write about it now because it is a concept that will save all of us much grief if we understand it sooner rather than later. Although I am fully aware that everyone needs to experience it on their own to get to this point – it can not simply be understood by words – it is too amazing a realization NOT to write about. I AM NOTHING.
Once you realize this, it is like a weight is lifted off your shoulders. An invisible burden is gone and a wave of understand replaces it. I have been brought to my knees these past couple months like I never have before, crying out to God, questioning His purpose and His love for me like I never thought I would. I have been trying to figure out why God would let this thing happen to me, what I did wrong and what I can do now to make it right and please Him and be the person I have created in my mind that I am sure He wants me to be. I am creating reasons why this happened and solutions to the problems and things I can do and say. And then as I was sitting here on my knees, thinking so hard I could feel the thoughts pushing on my brain and pouring out of me, reviewing the same details as before and thinking the same thoughts, God put a new thought in my head:
I don’t believe in His love. It hurts me to think that and I can’t believe it but it’s true. I have relied on me, on my ideas and my thought and my concepts of love and the identity I have created for myself in Christ. I am so affected by this situation in my life right now because I have gotten to the place where I am finding my identity more in being a Christian than in Christ. And when that identity I have created is questioned, I fall. Because I was not leaning on Christ. I was leaning on my thoughts, on my ideas of who He is and who I am in Him. I did not truly understand or believe that He just loves me. He loves me. I am nothing and I can’t do it anymore and I need help. And He gives it to me. I’m beginning to understand what true love is now. I really am not good enough to please God, I keep messing up, but it’s ok. Christ loves me anyway and He does it all for me.
I can’t comprehend it. This love that causes Him to have such grace, grace that brings Him to die for me and forgive me again and again. He wants us to know this love and trust it. Trust that He loves me despite myself and it is that love that does everything. It is that love that gives me grace and makes me who I am. I don’t need to do anything or redo anything or fix anything. I just need to believe that He loves me this much. Because if I believe this, then I’ll believe that it’s not about my ideas or my plan or what I can do or say. I am loved by Christ and I am the woman he wants me to be and will do what he wants me to do, and what others say or do and what experiences I go through can not take that away. If I truly believe in Christ’s love, I will trust that. His grace covers me and I am His child no matter what happens. I just need to believe that he loves me that much.
And this is why I am so broken right now. It has taken a time like this, the lowest time in my life, to feel like I am really beginning to understand God’s grace, for the first time. I needed to learn that I can’t do it. That it is not about me and my vision and who I think I am and what I should say and do. I needed to learn that I am who I am because of Christ. Because God so loved me that he gave me indescribable grace played out in the form of a man giving His life for a world that does not even understand His purpose. And I am the queen of that world of doubt. Christ loved us so much he died to save a world of sinners, sinners who don’t even recognize their need for a Savior, of whom I am the worst.
Tonight my despairing, wondering heart turned to a heart of praise, because I saw God’s purpose. God had to push me to my knees to lift me closer to Him. It is only the beginning, but for the first time I am realizing I can’t have the control, I can’t rely on myself to be the person I want to be in Christ. I have to believe in His grace. I have to realize that I need Him. I have to believe in His love. Not know it in my head but really believe it and feel it. And it sets me FREE. I understand now what it is to feel FREE. I am who I am because of His grace, not because of anything I have done or can do now. All I have to do is believe in this love. Not understand it, because this is a love that “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18). But BELIEVE. It is so hard to give up that faith in myself and place it on Someone else. And the miracle is He won’t hurt me. He loves me despite myself.
I am living this lesson. I never before understood fully the concept of grace, and I am convinced I never will until I see God face to face. But I understand it a little better than I did before and I write about it now because it is a concept that will save all of us much grief if we understand it sooner rather than later. Although I am fully aware that everyone needs to experience it on their own to get to this point – it can not simply be understood by words – it is too amazing a realization NOT to write about. I AM NOTHING.
Once you realize this, it is like a weight is lifted off your shoulders. An invisible burden is gone and a wave of understand replaces it. I have been brought to my knees these past couple months like I never have before, crying out to God, questioning His purpose and His love for me like I never thought I would. I have been trying to figure out why God would let this thing happen to me, what I did wrong and what I can do now to make it right and please Him and be the person I have created in my mind that I am sure He wants me to be. I am creating reasons why this happened and solutions to the problems and things I can do and say. And then as I was sitting here on my knees, thinking so hard I could feel the thoughts pushing on my brain and pouring out of me, reviewing the same details as before and thinking the same thoughts, God put a new thought in my head:
I don’t believe in His love. It hurts me to think that and I can’t believe it but it’s true. I have relied on me, on my ideas and my thought and my concepts of love and the identity I have created for myself in Christ. I am so affected by this situation in my life right now because I have gotten to the place where I am finding my identity more in being a Christian than in Christ. And when that identity I have created is questioned, I fall. Because I was not leaning on Christ. I was leaning on my thoughts, on my ideas of who He is and who I am in Him. I did not truly understand or believe that He just loves me. He loves me. I am nothing and I can’t do it anymore and I need help. And He gives it to me. I’m beginning to understand what true love is now. I really am not good enough to please God, I keep messing up, but it’s ok. Christ loves me anyway and He does it all for me.
I can’t comprehend it. This love that causes Him to have such grace, grace that brings Him to die for me and forgive me again and again. He wants us to know this love and trust it. Trust that He loves me despite myself and it is that love that does everything. It is that love that gives me grace and makes me who I am. I don’t need to do anything or redo anything or fix anything. I just need to believe that He loves me this much. Because if I believe this, then I’ll believe that it’s not about my ideas or my plan or what I can do or say. I am loved by Christ and I am the woman he wants me to be and will do what he wants me to do, and what others say or do and what experiences I go through can not take that away. If I truly believe in Christ’s love, I will trust that. His grace covers me and I am His child no matter what happens. I just need to believe that he loves me that much.
And this is why I am so broken right now. It has taken a time like this, the lowest time in my life, to feel like I am really beginning to understand God’s grace, for the first time. I needed to learn that I can’t do it. That it is not about me and my vision and who I think I am and what I should say and do. I needed to learn that I am who I am because of Christ. Because God so loved me that he gave me indescribable grace played out in the form of a man giving His life for a world that does not even understand His purpose. And I am the queen of that world of doubt. Christ loved us so much he died to save a world of sinners, sinners who don’t even recognize their need for a Savior, of whom I am the worst.
Tonight my despairing, wondering heart turned to a heart of praise, because I saw God’s purpose. God had to push me to my knees to lift me closer to Him. It is only the beginning, but for the first time I am realizing I can’t have the control, I can’t rely on myself to be the person I want to be in Christ. I have to believe in His grace. I have to realize that I need Him. I have to believe in His love. Not know it in my head but really believe it and feel it. And it sets me FREE. I understand now what it is to feel FREE. I am who I am because of His grace, not because of anything I have done or can do now. All I have to do is believe in this love. Not understand it, because this is a love that “surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18). But BELIEVE. It is so hard to give up that faith in myself and place it on Someone else. And the miracle is He won’t hurt me. He loves me despite myself.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
TRUTH
There is a time in everyone’s life where they are hit with the realization that they are made for more. There is a bigger purpose. No matter how fleeting or in what form, people understand that there is MORE. There is an ultimate TRUTH in this universe that goes deeper than ourselves. Maybe something in you burns when you hear of an innocent girl abused or millions of people killed because of the color of their skin or a father abusing his children. Something in you shouts. It’s like you can feel your soul.
That’s because there is more to us than just this. We inherently desire more than the here and now, than the parties or the money or the relationship. We are DEEP. Deep cries out to deep. And you will feel that. A part of you will cry out against injustice, against pain, against evil. A part of you will always demand freedom and liberty and love. That is what we were created for. There is a greater purpose to this world and whether we acknowledge it or not, we feel it. Our human nature is all about control, and this world is the way it is because we try to control it but in the process we destroy it. Instead we need to be the people we were created to be. We need to acknowledge the TRUTH inside of us and let God bring us back to our original form, to the GOOD. I have so often struggled with the question: how do I actually make the world better? How do I actually stop the suffering and make a difference in this horrible place? The answer is actually just to strive to be who the little part of us wants to be. The part of us that cries out, that thinks, My God, there has to be more to life than this. I have to be meant for more than this. We were created to be someone greater, and we will never feel completely right until we acknowledge that disquieting voice in us and allow it to grow. You will worship something and try to fill your life with someone, some hobby, or some random thing until you realize that what you are feeling is a desire to be the person God created you to be.
If we all listened to the Deep crying out in us and called back to it, things would be different. We would be on the way to becoming who we were meant to be. The world would be a more natural place. We would be pursuing justice, peace, and equality. Hate and pain and injustice would fade as we listened to the cry of our hearts and became the people we were created to be. The world would be more RIGHT. This world will never be perfect because we are an imperfect people. But individually we can change things. What would it look like if we lived the lives we are meant to live? We will never be satisfied until we are walking in the way God created us to walk. Simple things of this world can’t satisfy something indescribable inside us not of this world. God is love, peace, justice, freedom. That is WHO HE IS. He is not religion, church buildings, laws. And God created us to be like Him, to carry out His purposes. He created us to live lives that do His work, that bring love, peace, justice, and freedom to this world. That is why we know these things to be good and we desire them. If we actually acknowledged this about ourselves and strived to become this person, we would therefore strive for love, peace, justice, freedom. Individually pursuing these things, we join together to make a whole. Whole nations of people pursuing this equals a world better than this one. If we continue to ignore this voice inside of us, this TRUTH, than we ignore the solution. We ignore what we actually can do.
In Christ, God shows us the life He created us to live. Not a religion to follow but a LIFE. True life. A life dedicated to more, to deep things we feel that lets us know there is a greater purpose to being alive. We can become like Christ. We can know a life better than one we can ever try to create for ourselves. Nothing will still our hearts except for becoming this person in Christ. Because in this person we find who we truly are. And who we are is living God’s purpose, bringing good and truth into the world. God is love and justice and freedom. This is what he made us to pursue. This means just by being who we truly are we are making a difference. If we would only listen to the cry in us and let it change us, we would change the world. Why are we not listening?
That’s because there is more to us than just this. We inherently desire more than the here and now, than the parties or the money or the relationship. We are DEEP. Deep cries out to deep. And you will feel that. A part of you will cry out against injustice, against pain, against evil. A part of you will always demand freedom and liberty and love. That is what we were created for. There is a greater purpose to this world and whether we acknowledge it or not, we feel it. Our human nature is all about control, and this world is the way it is because we try to control it but in the process we destroy it. Instead we need to be the people we were created to be. We need to acknowledge the TRUTH inside of us and let God bring us back to our original form, to the GOOD. I have so often struggled with the question: how do I actually make the world better? How do I actually stop the suffering and make a difference in this horrible place? The answer is actually just to strive to be who the little part of us wants to be. The part of us that cries out, that thinks, My God, there has to be more to life than this. I have to be meant for more than this. We were created to be someone greater, and we will never feel completely right until we acknowledge that disquieting voice in us and allow it to grow. You will worship something and try to fill your life with someone, some hobby, or some random thing until you realize that what you are feeling is a desire to be the person God created you to be.
If we all listened to the Deep crying out in us and called back to it, things would be different. We would be on the way to becoming who we were meant to be. The world would be a more natural place. We would be pursuing justice, peace, and equality. Hate and pain and injustice would fade as we listened to the cry of our hearts and became the people we were created to be. The world would be more RIGHT. This world will never be perfect because we are an imperfect people. But individually we can change things. What would it look like if we lived the lives we are meant to live? We will never be satisfied until we are walking in the way God created us to walk. Simple things of this world can’t satisfy something indescribable inside us not of this world. God is love, peace, justice, freedom. That is WHO HE IS. He is not religion, church buildings, laws. And God created us to be like Him, to carry out His purposes. He created us to live lives that do His work, that bring love, peace, justice, and freedom to this world. That is why we know these things to be good and we desire them. If we actually acknowledged this about ourselves and strived to become this person, we would therefore strive for love, peace, justice, freedom. Individually pursuing these things, we join together to make a whole. Whole nations of people pursuing this equals a world better than this one. If we continue to ignore this voice inside of us, this TRUTH, than we ignore the solution. We ignore what we actually can do.
In Christ, God shows us the life He created us to live. Not a religion to follow but a LIFE. True life. A life dedicated to more, to deep things we feel that lets us know there is a greater purpose to being alive. We can become like Christ. We can know a life better than one we can ever try to create for ourselves. Nothing will still our hearts except for becoming this person in Christ. Because in this person we find who we truly are. And who we are is living God’s purpose, bringing good and truth into the world. God is love and justice and freedom. This is what he made us to pursue. This means just by being who we truly are we are making a difference. If we would only listen to the cry in us and let it change us, we would change the world. Why are we not listening?
Control
As humans it is our nature to control. We want to control our lives and plan and do what we think is best. But to truly live the lives we were created to live, we have to do the opposite of control. We have to surrender. If you have control you don’t have to have any faith. And can you know Christ without faith? Therefore by trying to control, you are not truly trusting and having faith in Christ. And I’ve realized: this is me. I want to do this and say that and be this certain person. Even if I have good intentions, it is nothing in God’s eyes. I am nothing. Christ is everything. He is greater than I can even imagine yet I dare to think that my plan could be better than his. That my way will be more pleasing to God’s than His. He can not even look at me unless Christ is covering me. Yet I do not rely on this grace - I continue to rely on my own strength simply because I want control. And this is why He breaks us. We have to be broken of this control and this pride in our human nature and stripped bare and brought to our knees to realize that our works are nothing. That nothing good comes from us. That it is by the grace of God we are saved and it is by His grace we stand and live. We fall over and over and hurt others and hurt ourselves and make a mess of the world when we try to control, when we live by our own plan. We are nothing except in Christ. Our purpose is being recreated in Him to do the will God has for us. I am on my face right now, stripped down to nothing. Everything I have, even my identity in being a Christian, is stripped away, because I was using all of it. It was all me, my control, my purpose twisting God and what He has given me to fulfill my plan and my vision. But all that brought me was pain and failure and not what I had in mind. No matter how good the intentions, if Christ is not in control, not the center, then you fall. It hurts, but God loves us so He strips us of anything we have to rely on but Him. The cross is heavy but it is the only thing we need to cling to. Only when God is the center, when He has control is life RIGHT. We need to be stripped of our purposes, of our control, so He can make us the people He created us to be. It goes against our human nature, but we need to give up. Then will we truly LIVE.
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