Learning a new language

I feel like the Israelites when they left Eygpt and came to the wilderness, the place between slavery and the freedom of the promised land.... the place where God wanted to reveal His heart, his name, his face to his beloved.

This struggle between structure and freedom is unnerving. I've longed to know life lived naturally, uncontrived ; not forced and mandated. Life that is not based in obligation but in passion. But when you've lived in that for so long, it feels safer than the world without the boxes. This one is unfamiliar territory and I feel frozen in terror. My tongue is tied. My mind fumbling.

In the beginning was life. Without ritual or structure. Just the Father and his children in relationship. In the Son we see this lived. Jesus did not 'go to church' for life and fellowship, he communed with the Father and brought life to the lost and the broken. Jesus did not attend a school, he was taught by the spirit of God. Jesus did not impress his authority on those who followed him, he simply carried it. Jesus did not require submission from his followers, he inspired them to it. Help me see you more. Help me hear you more. Help me live unhindered...ready to fly. Teach me your way.

There is a road

that leads to peace that leads to life

But few will follow

We’re at the crossroad

Which way will we go

There is not today a more holy way than the steps that lead me to the cross

where my will can’t be the priority

and these crowns I’ve gained I count as loss

When I hear the spirit say

that this is the true King’s way

Jason Upton (Great River Road)

"Scientists say if you help a butterfly escape its chrysalis, you actually kill it. God designed the process so that the struggle itself actually strengthens the butterfly so she will be able to fly away when she is finally free. Our struggles accomplish the same thing. They are part of what God uses to invite us deeper into him."

Wayne Jacobson