you have got to be kidding me!

DANCE

God does not love us because there is something in us that attracts his affection. God is like the sun, and it is the nature of the sun to give off light. It is the nature of the sun to give off heat. The sun does not warm the earth and give light to the earth because the earth has somehow attracted the warmth and the light of the sun. The sun just shines!! And that’s the way God loves. God does not love us because of what we are, God loves us in spite of what we are. God doesn’t love you if you shape up or whether you don’t shape up.

Do you believe that?

God doesn’t love you because of what you are, God’s grace is abounding toward sinners, and listen, and there has never been a god on earth like that!! Who loves sinners. Who loves wicked sinners. Who loves stumbling, repeat offenders. Who loves sinful sinners. He isn’t a god you have to carry, He’s a God that carries you. The father of Jesus not only loves you, but he’s VERY FOND OF YOU. Whether you feel like you’ve lived your life to the hilt or lived it stupidly, He’s fond of you! When that dawns on us, it sets our soul at rest. We discover there is a kind of compassion that comes to us. We can quit with the put-downs and the sarcasm, the gossip that makes us feel good about ourselves because we can point out what’s wrong in other people. It’s amazing what it does. When we realize we don’t have to impress anybody, because the father of Jesus is very fond of you.

Sometimes when I see Christians and I look at the religion they’ve got, they look like Atlas, carrying the world on their shoulders. They’re underneath this burden, and you can tell because you can see it in their grim lifestyle. It’s hard and restrictive, and majors on the routine and performance and image. Sometimes I just want to say to those people THROW THE THING DOWN AND DANCE ON IT, YOU’LL LOVE MY GOD!! THE FATHER OF JESUS IS FOND OF YOU!!

What a difference it makes. When you realize you don’t have to keep working to get him to love you. There’s no such thing as a ‘good’ Christian. When you realize you don’t have to keep working with your ‘shoulds’. You don’t have to keep being down on yourself because you’re not worthy of his love--- you’re right about that, but nothing you can do is going to change it. In fact there is nothing you can ever do that would make God love you less.

It seems to me, that the question that often comes up when people realize that there is nothing we can do that would make God love us less is, why serve him? I mean why obey him? Why give your life in the cause of the Kingdom? That’s a logical question, but it’s just not the question you ask if you’ve been embraced by love.

My wife Kay, loves me. For 23 years now. She knows that I have clay feet, clear up to my armpits, but she loves me anyhow. It doesn’t occur to me to say, “How can I put her down?” “How can I hurt her?” or simply “How can I do the least possible for her?” When she loves me, she sets me free to do my own thing, and my own thing is to respond in love to her.

Augustine said: “In loving me, you made me loving.”

There’s no other way to get there, except to relax in the power of God’s love. Whatever else you know about God, you better know that the father of Jesus is (always) very fond of you…otherwise you’ll be lugging around an idol that will just wear you out.

The father of Jesus is fond of me. That makes all the difference for whether your religion is a weight or a wing.

Just keep playin' !

clear ?

My baby, my daughter, ....My God!

my baby, my daughter, my god....
Judith Ann Hillard

we wrap her in pink
tape a bow to her head
we show her off to grandma
and our people at church
we celebrate each word, each step, each tooth
we chase scary monsters from beneath her bed
and hold her at night praying she will grow well

we cry as we take her to school the first day
and prop ourselves up for recitals
and kid plays and pta
we cart crates of cookies to neighbors and friends
and try to sew badges on vests for her chest
we drive her to ballet and soccer and swimming

when suddenly she doesn't want to be tucked
we still check her sleeping, our baby, our doll
her friends grow more creepy each year
and she shuts the door now and hangs hours on the phone
instead of at my feet asking endless questions
she cares not for my opinions on any subject at all
i once lit her face when i walked in a room
where is my baby? my child? my angel?

she goes off to college and sometimes comes home
clothes scraggly and dirty, i launder and fold
she talks online and whispers in cells, she leaves
late at night
as she borrows our car
i pace through my home, her room, and the
windows
and wonder what happened? where is she? how
late?
how can i love her through heartbreaks and braces
and skinned knees and not know her now? she told
me
every story every day after school. she cried every
tear in my arms or his.
so who is this tall child putting drugs in her veins?
where is my darling? my baby? my child?

Let's play!!

Another Chinese toy recall:

Surely We Can Change

In Christian traditions that observe these things, today is the day that people celebrate the life of a man named Francis, who lived in a little village in Italy almost 1,000 years ago.

Legend has it that Francis, just before he died, asked that his faithful donkey be brought to his bed-side. Francis apologized profusely to the donkey for all the work & struggle he had caused the donkey. Legend has it that these were Francis's last words - upon his death, the donkey is said to have cried.

It's myths or truths or stories like that which remind me that surely we can change, that all of the love in the world is right here.



the music is Surely We Can Change, lyrics here, David Crowder Band, Remedy (2007)

and the problem it seems is with you and me,
not the Love who came to repair everything
and i don’t know what to do with a love like that.
and i don’t know how to be a love like that.
when all the love in the world is right here, among us.
and hatred too and so we must choose what our hands will do.

where there is pain, let us bring grace.
where there is suffering, bring serenity.
for those afraid, let us be brave.
where there is misery, let us bring them relief.
and surely we can change something.

Somebody should really do something!