Reconnecting with Eyes Wide Open

Its been awhile.  One of those seasons when I look around and think, Has it only been a few weeks?  How many miles have been trod.  God can transform and move so much that my sense of time is disproportionate. 

What about you?  Where have you been journeying, traveling, or seeing God?  How has your relationship been transformed? 

Big eye openers in the last few weeks:

1. Parts of me have been dying to my true self; those little parts that I've given up.  God's breathing life back into them.  THANK GOD.

2. Learning to ask God to breathe life into my dead and dying parts. 

3. Dreaming bigger.  I'm shocked to see the ways I've let go of my dreams. 

4. Having the eyes to see the journey God is leading.  Seeing His fingerprints. 

5. Surprised to find I have little tolerance for unhealthy patterns.  Not sure if this is good.  Poor family; must be shocking. 


Are you changing?  How do you embrace change?

Living in the Now: Rooted in God's Renewal

N. T. Wright says that "a mission-shaped church must have its mission shaped by hope; that the genuine Christian hope, rooted in Jesus' resurrection, is the hope for God's renewal of all things, for his overcoming of corruption, decay, and death, for his filling of the whole cosmos with his love and grace, his power and glory.... To be truly effective in this kind of mission, one must be genuinely and cheerfully rooted in God's renewal."

While this truth is grand and beautiful, personalizing this mission brings it closer to my heart--

...a mission-shaped person must have her mission shaped by hope; that her genuine Christian hope, rooted in Jesus' resurrection, is the hope for God's renewal....

This is a song of Gomer and Hosea, of the restoration of lost love, death of desire. Being rooted in God's regeneration is deep, heartfelt, and soul shaking.  Mission shaped by hope is rooted in the stump of Jesse:

Then a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.    Isaiah 11:1

Living in the Now: Seven Mile Liturgy

There is a really good post I found that is worth reading, centering on the seven mile journey Jesus trod with his disciples to Jerusalem.  From wrestling with God in times of heartache, from renewal in Eucharist, to a beautiful Kenyan liturgy, its truthful and provoking. Check it out.

Practically Speaking: Land of a Thousand Hills

Every once in awhile, God gives us something big to do.  Every day, God gives us something small to do.

This is a great video introduction to my favorite coffee, Land of a Thousand Hills Not only is this coffee ministry a beautiful reconciliation project in Rwanda, but it has now expanded as a restoration project in Haiti.  Drink coffee, do good.  As if I needed an excuse to drink good coffee.