Meet me today, Lord
In the commitments that I’ve made
In the places that I go
In the conversations that I have

I long to sense your presence
Not just in this moment now, but in
The ups and downs
The have to’s and want to’s of this day you’ve made
And given as a gift to me

May I speak with your love and truth
May I be clothed in your joy and peace
May I be a blessing and an encouragement
to those who need strength in their weary hearts 

I make my life an offering
I long to bring into being
your great love for the world

Amen

In a dark room there was a big stage 
And on that big stage there was a rock band 
And that rock band was playing loud songs 
And those loud songs were for the glory of God 

(I sure hope God likes this kind of worship, 
Cuz he’s gotten loads of it lately)

The loud songs were being sung by a singer
And the singer was commanding us to
“Magnify Him! With a shout!
With loud music and dancing! 
For He is worthy! Magnify Him!” 

...

In a dark room there was a thousand people 
And in a thousand people there was (at least) one 
And that one could not stand with hands raised
That one could only sit and mumble

“There is no shout in me. There is no dance.
All I have is a life split open
And tears streaming down my face”

Lord, I need you today.
Anchor my heart. 
Order my steps.
Lighten my load. 
Refine my priorities. 
Balance my chemicals. 

Help me to rest, and to dream, 
and to see all the goodness around me today. 

Help me to take off the pressure I’m putting on my own shoulders. 
And put on the relief of your light and easy yoke. 

I am yours.

Amen.

We see you, tender shoot
Teenager with growing pains
Coming of age
Trying to find your place

We know it isn’t easy
When all the world’s been set against you

How can a planted seed 
Break the ground and spring up 
If it has not been watered or warmed by the sun?

Yet somehow, you have endured
And we see you breaking through

Lord, I love you
And I need you.
Would you come and dwell here with me?

Would you make me sensitive,
not to the words and actions of others,
but to the sound your voice?

Would you help me see a few layers deeper,
Stopping to ask — “Lord, what do You see?”

Help me live at peace with things being left undone.
Help me give up my pursuit of a balanced life
and move about freely in your grace.

There is no recipe for reaching You.
You hold no expectations over me.
You are everywhere.
Help me find you today.

Probably not. 

Because you never say more than you mean to. 
You never fall off the cliff of your reactions,
And grab for affirmation on your way down.

You never love with mixed motives,
Or serve with an approval monster lurking nearby.

You say what the Father says.
You do as the Father does.
You’re a clean vessel.
He is never picking up debris of self on the way out.

Oh, but with me…You are gentle. 
You know that I am dust. 
And you have chosen to use me in my imperfection. 

To speak through a mouth that lacks self control.
To move within hands that could turn against you.
To beat within a heart that is prone to wander.

Chesterton said, “The mysterious maker of the world visited the world in person.” 
What a wild idea! 

Yet, You ascended so something much more wild could take place. 
“The mystery of Christ within us.”

You voted against one perfect man making all things perfect
And opted for billions of insecure creatures with mixed motives 
making all things new

Countless 
Imperfect beings stumbling upwards toward your light
Vessels being emptied and filled over and over again
Hands learning to reach and feet learning to walk
Mouths unlearning a language of death, 
To call up their mother tongue from the deep

Are you sure this is a good idea, God?

I spent my birthday at the beach last year. When I was waking, I heard the word “REPAIR”  as if someone said it in my bedroom.

I thought to myself “Do I need to be repaired? Am I broken?”


REPAIR (/rəˈper/): to restore, mend, set right, see to, reconstruct, rebuild, attend to.


As I spent the morning thinking about that word, the Lord revealed to me that He was not talking about repairing something broken. He was talking about “tending to” something that is precious and caring for something that has reached its limits.

We are eternal, but we have not yet been clothed in eternity.

What is valuable is still temporary. If you love it you must tend to it. If you care for it, you must repair the ways that time has diminished or degraded it.

REPAIR is an invitation out of prideful days...
Thinking “I must be strong for the Lord at all cost, because He is worthy!”...treating my energy like an infinite resource, because “the Lord is my strength, right?”

He is worthy.
He is my strength.

But I must receive His strength on His terms.
And His terms are rest, and repair.

This year, I will not neglect to care for what is most precious to me — my mind, my soul, my body, my spirit and my home. I repair them because I love them, and because they are not (yet) infinite.

This is what YAHWEH says:

Doomed is the one
who places trust in human power,
and removes trust from the LORD.

She has exiled herself to the desert,

And like a shriveled plant, 
she searches for water, 
but she will not find any.


However


Blessings will pour on the one
who stores up hope in YAHWEH,

Who leans all her weight upon Him,
and does not remove confidence placed in Him.

She is a tree planted by the river,
growing tall and strong because of it.

Her roots reach down deep
and bring up all she needs,

So that in heat or drought,
she is not afraid,
and will always remain in bloom.

If I collide with you,
I will not remain the same.
I will lose some of myself and I will gain some of you.

So, I "draw near to you and you to me”
But the drawing feels more like hurtling, careening.

And the softer rock shall break.

May the impact shatter
my shortsightedness, 
my self preservation, 
my inflexibility,
and scattered them in every direction.

Collide, and leave yourself on me.

Your JOY, eternal perspective that brings lightheartedness.

Your PEACE, that does not ignore, but upholds within.

Your SELFLESSNESS, that refuses to place self at the center.

Your FLEXIBILITY, a holy openness to the river of reality.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit, 
God within me. 

Crash into me today, Lord. 
I yield to you.
Amen.

The Father is patient. 

He is tender toward your reactivity, your quick and wrong judgements.

He is kind with your negativity and your habit of dwelling on what you don’t like.

He never complains about your ups and downs.

He’s not embarrassed by your passion, even when your verdict is wrong.

You are impatient,
With yourself and the season you’re in. 

Part of you runs ahead,
Annoyed that a truer part of you is lagging behind, chained to reality.

Exasperated, you try to pull yourself forward.

But God is not in a hurry.

He is so patient with you.

He is proud of where you are right now.

He has a vision for your future and a plan to get you there. 

This vision does not consume him or distract him.

He is fully present, fully loving, fully proud, fully joyful. 

He is at peace with things.

Will you join him?