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6/14/2018 0 Comments permanent grace there is
permanent grace stained on your worst mistakes when the whole of you ached that you gave in again. & there is permanent grace stained on your best days when you thought you had it all right. there is permanent grace stained underneath the clouds & inside hospital waiting rooms & all around summer days & behind bedroom doors where newborns are sung over & only God & His angels are there to hear it. there is permanent grace, stained on every single petal & inside every single breath & maybe the bravest thing we can do is believe that we are taken care of. believe that because of the cross when His blood & grace poured itself out on our record of debt, it stained it. permanent grace. how beautiful it is that all has been taken care of.
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6/12/2018 1 Comment somersaults & space to be last saturday, i watched as my two-year-old niece somersaulted her way up the entire length of a large & crowded room to make it to her parents who were standing at the front of it. i watched as her legs came around & whipped the legs of a high school boy who laughed & stepped out of her way, creating space for her to keep on somersaulting. i watched others stare at her — some laughing & others smiling cautiously — & i watched as every person stepped back so she could continue in her wildly creative way, all the way up to the front of the room.
recently, this whole idea of “creating space” has been a phrase somewhat trapped inside my mind. i’m only now trying to put words & concrete ideas down on a doc because if i’m honest, i think that phrase has something real to it — something needed in our day, something of value, even wonder. a friend reminded me on the phone the other day that words create space. & i kept that phrase on repeat in my mind because i realized that more than anything, i want everyone’s spoken & written words to create space for others : space to process & space to stay silent, space to sob & space to laugh, space to share raw thoughts & space to speak wild dreams & space to be whatever someone needs it to be. we need to give each other the space to simply be, regardless of the state we come in because when we step back, we realize we’re all made of countless inconsistencies & in our inconsistencies, we are still loved, regardless. & maybe love’s goal is to create space. maybe this whole journey is about creating space for each other over & over again. because honestly, what do lose when we step back, open our arms & our homes, hold out our hands & a cup of coffee to someone — anyone — who needs some space to just be? to be — not to be told what to do, not to be held at arms length, not to be controlled, but simply to be, in all their inconsistencies & to be loved — still loved — regardless. so, in the midst of all the busyness, i say we create space for long pauses & deep breaths & heart aches & raw feelings & seeming inconveniences & soft tears & hard cries & wide smiles & loud interruptions. because i really think we’re all just somersaulting through our days, making our way, & hoping someone will pause to stare at our wild creativity, step back & create the space for us to live honest & free. 6/4/2018 2 Comments the point is to stay i get caught up in life’s details - the kind of details that don’t necessarily solve anything, or provide any answers. like, i couldn’t tell you what highway i’m on or what direction i’m headed, but i could tell you what i imagine the woman in the lane next to me is smiling about or about the shape of the branches that dangle over the potholes. i love memorizing details that have depth, that are echoes of a larger love, a larger story. like a a wide smile & a thumbs-up from the groom’s dad right before the wedding starts, or an elderly woman’s steady hand on her husband’s knee cap, or strangers passing each other in grocery aisles & smiling. i love memorizing the details that are crammed with various expressions of what it means to live because i’m learning that the point is to stay.
when i think of some of my favorite moments in life, the ones that shed layers of gold & grace, each moment includes someone who stayed. someone who chose to not pull away, someone who held my eyes in theirs for longer than i expected them to, someone who shielded their attention from the time, someone who asked more questions, someone who refused to turn when i broke. i want to be that someone. i want a world full of those someones. because the point is to stay & to choose to stay means to not look away from whoever is in front of us, regardless of how much it hurts to keep staring at the bruises & sifting through the mess & the chaos & the unfinished. it means to not pull away when someone says, “well, i don’t know, it’s a long story…” it means to ask questions, & then to ask more. it means to make the phone call. it means to tell people who they are becoming. it means to speak to them as the Father sees them. it means to seek out the ones left behind & engage them in tenderness. it means to give people the space to grow crooked & understand that it’s the only way to grow. it means to know with every square inch of our hearts that love transforms more than a set of rules. the point is to stay, with each other, for each other, like how the stars stay with the sky. how they shine brightest when it’s darkest. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
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