http://youtu.be/cAe1lVDbLf0
Rufus Wainwright – Across the Universe
“Across the Universe” was deep in the category of songs I put in “time-out” when I first became a Christian due to its Sanskrit guru-talk and dreamy, druggy feel. At the intense urging of some fire-breathing preachers, I had become convinced that I should cleanse my spiritual palette of all artistic influences that were not overtly proclaiming the Gospel. Years later, when I began to realize that God could actually show Himself through those who did not yet know Him, I began to purchase on digitally re-mastered CD much of the music from the 33 1/3 LP’s I had once destroyed. Still, however, songs like “Across the Universe” remained in a gray area (along with things like Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”).
Then entered XM Satellite radio in our cars and the discovery of “classic rock” stations that beam a steady stream of songs from those ground-breaking years mysteriously into our local driving experiences all over America! Not only have some of these songs from the gray areas occasionally bathed my heart in the thoughts of God, but it even seems that the timing of the playlist is available to heaven’s orchestration, as if the satellite beaming them down is just a marionette with controls attached far higher than the skies!
One day last year, I was making the five-minute drive from my home to a community gathering that was an attempt to draw all denominations together around the “Father-Heart of God”. These multi-church experiences had become painful for me, as I had spent a year investing myself as president of the Ministerial Alliance, naively wondering why my passion and vision hadn’t translated into “results” (or even attendance) only to later realize that in fact my gender was the only problem, but what a big problem it was. I’ve never wanted to make women’s rights in the Kingdom a bandwagon or even a topic, but some folks from the other opinion were still making it so! I was feeling deeply the irony of going to hear about the Father’s Heart in a context that had recently slapped a dose of the opposite experience on my little dreamer-soul! Right into the middle of my angst, XM satellite radio inserted Rufus Wainwright’s version of “Across the Universe”—I didn’t have to buy it and commit to the Sanskrit sentiment—it was just there filling my car, and ME.
I wept as I realized the multi-layered message God was sending in the five-minute drive. Though the handful of folks who had shunned me for being a woman in a “man’s position” would also deny me the joy of hearing from God through this “secular” (even false-religion filled) song, God would not be stopped by any human barrier. As Rufus Wainwright sang out the Lennon lyrics, I could feel God saying to me, “Perrianne, I’m coming to you from across the universe to remind you that I made you and I understand you, and I am able to work in you in images and streams and swirling hope beyond words. I am able to conduct the symphony of sound and light inside you and orchestrate it into a beautiful piece of art. I didn’t call you to be understood by all—I called you to demonstrate a realm beyond the naturally ‘understandable’ and I am with you!” Pretty good dose of the Father’s Heart in the car before the meeting—one which got me through the meeting itself!
However, there was one sticky point: there was still the cringe factor provided by the Sanskrit words. What was God’s take on those, I wondered? Did He turn off His heavenly advocacy and communication during this unfortunate departure, where John Lennon waxed more pagan than usual? Did He—as I do during scenes in movies--look the other way for a moment until the “bad part” passed? The Beatles’ tryst with transcendental meditation and pilgrimage to India was obviously an attempt to fill a spiritual void, but surely the inclusion of a mantra in the middle of a song was too "syncretous" to be infused with God’s Spirit!
Crusader/confronter/investigator that I am, I couldn’t wait to Google the lyrics when I got home. Thanks to my new best friend Wikipedia, I discovered that the Sanskrit words that form the link to the chorus can best be translated, “glory to the shining remover of darkness,” or “Victory to God divine.” I marveled, realizing that, even if the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was using them to laud a human guru (and our stomachs turn at the thought of the idolatry), the accolade expressed rightly—and ONLY--belongs to our God. There is no shining remover of darkness that comes close to the God of the universe who revealed Himself through Christ. Amidst the haze of Eastern hippie confusion, a redemptive possibility EVEN FOR THE MANTRA appeared. What does God do with a line like that in a song? The same thing He has always been doing: sends forth His Spirit in the earth with the mission to display the riches of Christ that answer the deepest cries in search of another realm—separating from the picture the droll and limiting realities put there like boulders by the religious and narrow ideas of men—the things which obscure God’s ownership of the shining removal of darkness!
Next I discovered the video (link above) which features a very young Dakota Fanning as if she is walking through a three-dimensional Rene Magritte painting! Although it would be a mistake to be over analyze a video like this, I must admit that the drably dressed unsmiling men suspended in the atmosphere seemed to shout out the ugly structures of religion and narrowness that were causing me pain, and I too readily felt like the little girl with a balloon walking through it all trying to trace the path of the song. At the very end, the release of the balloon moved me deeply and I wept again.
I can walk through this jungle of misguided worship (sometimes the Christian stuff seems more incomprehensible than Sanskrit), just marveling and observing like little Dakota Fanning. I don’t have to engage—I can just trace the song, follow the Voice, and feel the comfort of heaven. But there are times and places along this journey where a “letting go” will be in order. Can I trust the “balloon” of my hopes and dreams—the precious things of my heart—in an atmosphere where people are looming large floating above, waiting to criticize and condemn? Surely I better hold on and keep things close—I trust God, of course, but I had better wait for a better time to release what is inside me, right? There’s a better environment than the Bible belt of Texas—New York City maybe? England loves me, yes, they LOVE me in England….. (She repeats over and over and then gets hold of herself once again….!)
“No my dear,” God seems to be saying with a gleam in His eye, even as I write this now. “There will never be a perfect atmosphere to release what is inside you. The time is now and the place is where I put you. It turns out that you are not speaking to the immediate surroundings alone. The wisdom in MY global economy is in play here and the orchestration of my Spirit far transcends whether people switch on the applause sign immediately or not! You are on an odyssey of discovery and My Hand is guiding you---from across the universe! You can let go because I AM the glorious and ONLY remover of darkness. I choose to go for the big things, and though I comfort you in your temporary rejections, they don’t stop Me! And with regard to the place inside where you and I journey together—My heaven meeting your earth in surprising ways—the communion made possible by redemption—the filling of the void that all things Eastern seek but fail to fill---regarding that inner sanctum of spirit: NOTHING’S GONNA CHANGE THIS WORLD…. Go ahead and let go…It is safe…I am here….”
Though this is all very personal to me, I share it here in hopes that it connects to someone else out there—perhaps a disenfranchised dreamer or two. Fifteen years ago, a man prophesied to me that there were indeed others out there who were “just like me”….(be afraid, be very afraid…) It’s time for us to release what we have into the atmosphere and trust the God who paints with color and continually surprises us with the unlimited access His Spirit has to the things religion has told us are off limits. What is He saying to you from “Across the Universe?” Maybe you want to watch the video once more...and think about letting your red balloon go, too…. It IS worth enduring the pain…pools of sorrow do turn to waves of joy...in God....
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Times Square Moment
Years ago, when I read George Harrison’s description of India, it connected to something I felt deeply about God. He said, “India is an assault on the senses.” God Himself is that to me—and then some—but definitely in a good way! I had often (and pardon me John Denver fans) lamented that the love song “You Fill Up My Senses” was so mellow and sweet because it actually expresses this for me—minus a few million watts of power! To be filled with God is to have a window open inside (in the software metaphor, not the house one) that is continually taking in the grandeur and beauty of the simple, daily processes of life and living with worshipping wonderment. From childhood, I have carried that sense of awe regarding the created world—molecule to mountain—and it has never left me. I suppose that is why, in my own creative endeavors, it is that kind of sense-assaulting moment that I seem to be going for! For instance, even the simple act of placing a group of art objects on a wall, for me becomes the creation of a mini-panorama which will richly drip inspiration for its viewers! (OK, at least some viewer…) After I have hung them all according to my inner vision, I walk away with my back turned, placing a good distance between myself and the wall, and then suddenly spin around as if to take it in visually for the first time. If the beauty of the arrangement does not meet some inner threshold value, I’m back tweaking until the effect has passed from a good idea into an inspired one! (My friend, Ben Hodgson describes this personality as “helplessly creative.”)
One day before our recent (and first) New York City adventure, in which we had only 48 hours to take in the capital of the world, a college professor we met at Jack and Trish Groblewski’s church in Pennsylvania said to us, “I’m not a big fan of the hubbub of the city, but I do recommend that you sit on the lighted steps in Times Square at night—it is a must see.” I filed the comment and thanked him, with a disclaimer flagging it as coming from someone who did NOT want to imbibe New York City through their very pores like I did! Besides that, Jack, who was giving us a ride to our NYC hotel, also gave us a very generous orientation session to the city, complete with inspirational AND realistic advice for our impossible 48-hour task! We needed nothing more but a spirit of adventure and a large supply of cash! However, when we got to Times Square, we did remember the professor’s advice and I laugh now to think that his understated endorsement for the lighted steps turned out not just to make a memory, but create a living metaphor.
We arrived in NYC mid afternoon and did a very classic thing first, seeing that our upscale air-miles-paid-for upper west side hotel was just a block away from it: we strolled through Central Park! I had dreamed about it as a little girl and even wrote a song about at the age of 8. It fully delivered! Then, after dinner at a pub on Amsterdam Avenue, where we were partaking and purchasing as much of the “vibe” as the actual food, we embarked, following Jack’s tutelage, on our first New York taxi ride. Proudly sporting our Texan naiveté, we hailed a cab, plopped in the back seat and stated, “Times Square, please!” The driver spoke back some clarifying words about our choices of intersection for drop off, but failing to understand him, we just said, “Yes.” The route he chose that provided me my Times Square first view turned out to mimic my wall arranging technique. He must have driven past Times Square on the street we were already on which was a few blocks away and then turned and approached it from the side, so that when we came upon it and I turned my head, the view would register on my senses all at once, just as if I had had my back to it and suddenly spun around! I was fully unprepared for what followed as tears began to roll down my cheeks in response. I held Paul’s hand as if I were personally being given all that I saw to be my own—without any questioning or analysis of the emotion I felt! (I think Paul may have felt it too, but I was taking up all the oxygen in the cab and there was none left for him to express his response!)
I cannot explain what this man-made festival of power, commerce and technological expression made me feel in that moment. It both overwhelmed me and called me into it. I wanted to both run away and run into the very middle! And I really thought there were probably no lumens available back home in Texas at that moment, as it seemed that all the light energy of the very planet had been pulled by the sheer force of corporate desire right into midtown New York! (And all the while, in the deep space of my heart, I was marveling at a Creator who had made such power available to man—a Creator whose generosity in sharing Himself, even unacknowledged, with those made in his image was the only thing that had facilitated this display!) I was pretty sure that I had just challenged the cab driver’s affinity for Texans if he had any, but I could not help myself nor did I care!
We exited the taxi and began to walk, taking in the Letterman theatre and stopping to post evidences of our presence there on Facebook, to which our very clever friend, Matt Summers, promptly replied, “Is this anything?” We then rounded a corner and found Times Square church and stood outside and read the poster that outlined its history: In the 60’s, David Wilkerson had walked around the Times Square area, crying out to God about the gangs, drugs and prostitution, declaring that someone must do something about it. God responded, as He often does to the person feeling the need, “How about you? You know the city!” And the rest is history. That theatre-like church, like a Mars Hill sermon declaring the altar to the unknown God, now stands amidst a place radically different—radically cleaned up—from the one that first troubled David Wilkerson! The Gospel—the one proceeding from the Creator of the lumens and the ability to harness them—had changed the place—whether or not the place knew it! Though Times Square Church is not ancient or even pretty at least from the outside, it felt as if we were honoring a beautiful holy place of the past.
After that “selah” moment, we made our way back to the center of Times Square and followed the professor’s instructions. We came upon the lighted steps from behind and at first couldn’t see the red layers inviting everyone upward. Once in front, we turned and climbed them almost the top and, though the steps were full, found a little clearing just for the two of us—and we sat! (It seems you have to sit.) And in that moment, the full force of the first viewing of Times Square began all over again. I could have sat for hours and, though I am never in want of dialogue with my husband, there was no need to speak. In all the hubbub, noise, color, and crowd, the lighted steps were an amazing island of peace—just as Central Park had been earlier in the day. I began to realize that I was sitting in a place I had only seen images of all my life: in movies, on New Year’s eve, and outside the morning shows’ studios where people from all over the world gathered with signs in an effort to get on camera. All my life, I had viewed Times Square second hand, but now I was sitting there taking it in with my own eyes and letting it be a DIRECT assault to MY senses—and it was filling them up. The distance was removed and I sat emotionally naked before a greater view of man’s mixed bag of dreams, desires and even some debauchery, than I had ever been before. Ironically, I looked to my left and one of the HD message boards—a huge one, but weren’t they all—was sporting a ticker tape of poignant inspirational quotes about facing fear and overcoming the hesitance that keeps us from really living!
Only later, on a Sunday morning, did the lighted steps moment come fully home to me, providing a “story” for my journey (and perhaps yours) that I will never forget. My husband was proclaiming, as he is gifted to do, the huge scope of redemption that Jesus purchased for us. It is, Jesus said, the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom! This is not a one-day promise reserved for the other dimension of existence we call heaven, but rather a promise for all times, for the Kingdom comes in appropriate form on both sides of that life and death line! Because He gave us the Kingdom through Jesus and the redemption He provided for us, the Kingdom is ours to interact with right now! It is ours in every time and every space! With that thought, suddenly I was back in Times Square on the lighted steps, only it was not the glaring lights of man’s arranging that I was taking in, but rather, I was realizing that there are some lighted steps for each one of us to sit on that have nothing to do with NYC!
Inside our hearts, God is guiding us to a place where he wants to simply sit us down and assault our senses with all that the Kingdom is—all that was provided for us through redemption. He wants to unroll in high definition grandeur a panorama so vast and blinding that it will take many, many sessions to take in! He wants to focus so much of his heavenly illumination energy upon our spirits that we can’t accommodate the view standing up! And in that moment, peace will inform the chaos and we too will see inspirational words scrolling through our inner world—words telling us we can be free from fear—or any other limitation that threatens to dull our zeal or sharpness! There are lighted steps in our hearts and God wants to give us sessions that assault our senses with the panorama of redemption and perhaps bring us to tears!
I realized that, related to the Gospel, so many are like I was before I visited Times Square—they are living through someone else’s ability to record or report the experience! They’ve heard from a pulpit, perhaps even on television, that they are “supposed” to be impressed with God and amazed by what He did in Christ. They have accepted and yearned—and maybe even dreamed about visiting in person. But God wants to remove that distance and give them a face-to-face exposure –filling up their senses in some way—or multiple ways--with Himself. The gentle advice of the professor who didn’t even love NYC was so prophetic. You MUST go to the lighted steps, he had said. Our heavenly Father promises the same fulfillment on a level a million times more intense!
Franz Kafka said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” I believed Kafka’s words years ago when I first heard them because I know the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus proclaimed as the One who would be a tour-guide into, not just the world, but ALL truth! I believe them today because I have lived them. You don’t have to go to Times Square to find lighted steps with a view—just go to your room and expect God to do by His Spirit what he promised to do. If you feel that your experience of God’s power and greatness and your view of redemption have been somewhat second hand, know that change is available. If the spiritual realm for you has been more a performance than a panorama, it is time for an assault on your senses. You will never be the same. A window of awe will open inside you and inform the rest of your living. Your seat awaits. Let me be the professor who not-so-calmly gives you the important travel tip!
One day before our recent (and first) New York City adventure, in which we had only 48 hours to take in the capital of the world, a college professor we met at Jack and Trish Groblewski’s church in Pennsylvania said to us, “I’m not a big fan of the hubbub of the city, but I do recommend that you sit on the lighted steps in Times Square at night—it is a must see.” I filed the comment and thanked him, with a disclaimer flagging it as coming from someone who did NOT want to imbibe New York City through their very pores like I did! Besides that, Jack, who was giving us a ride to our NYC hotel, also gave us a very generous orientation session to the city, complete with inspirational AND realistic advice for our impossible 48-hour task! We needed nothing more but a spirit of adventure and a large supply of cash! However, when we got to Times Square, we did remember the professor’s advice and I laugh now to think that his understated endorsement for the lighted steps turned out not just to make a memory, but create a living metaphor.
We arrived in NYC mid afternoon and did a very classic thing first, seeing that our upscale air-miles-paid-for upper west side hotel was just a block away from it: we strolled through Central Park! I had dreamed about it as a little girl and even wrote a song about at the age of 8. It fully delivered! Then, after dinner at a pub on Amsterdam Avenue, where we were partaking and purchasing as much of the “vibe” as the actual food, we embarked, following Jack’s tutelage, on our first New York taxi ride. Proudly sporting our Texan naiveté, we hailed a cab, plopped in the back seat and stated, “Times Square, please!” The driver spoke back some clarifying words about our choices of intersection for drop off, but failing to understand him, we just said, “Yes.” The route he chose that provided me my Times Square first view turned out to mimic my wall arranging technique. He must have driven past Times Square on the street we were already on which was a few blocks away and then turned and approached it from the side, so that when we came upon it and I turned my head, the view would register on my senses all at once, just as if I had had my back to it and suddenly spun around! I was fully unprepared for what followed as tears began to roll down my cheeks in response. I held Paul’s hand as if I were personally being given all that I saw to be my own—without any questioning or analysis of the emotion I felt! (I think Paul may have felt it too, but I was taking up all the oxygen in the cab and there was none left for him to express his response!)
I cannot explain what this man-made festival of power, commerce and technological expression made me feel in that moment. It both overwhelmed me and called me into it. I wanted to both run away and run into the very middle! And I really thought there were probably no lumens available back home in Texas at that moment, as it seemed that all the light energy of the very planet had been pulled by the sheer force of corporate desire right into midtown New York! (And all the while, in the deep space of my heart, I was marveling at a Creator who had made such power available to man—a Creator whose generosity in sharing Himself, even unacknowledged, with those made in his image was the only thing that had facilitated this display!) I was pretty sure that I had just challenged the cab driver’s affinity for Texans if he had any, but I could not help myself nor did I care!
We exited the taxi and began to walk, taking in the Letterman theatre and stopping to post evidences of our presence there on Facebook, to which our very clever friend, Matt Summers, promptly replied, “Is this anything?” We then rounded a corner and found Times Square church and stood outside and read the poster that outlined its history: In the 60’s, David Wilkerson had walked around the Times Square area, crying out to God about the gangs, drugs and prostitution, declaring that someone must do something about it. God responded, as He often does to the person feeling the need, “How about you? You know the city!” And the rest is history. That theatre-like church, like a Mars Hill sermon declaring the altar to the unknown God, now stands amidst a place radically different—radically cleaned up—from the one that first troubled David Wilkerson! The Gospel—the one proceeding from the Creator of the lumens and the ability to harness them—had changed the place—whether or not the place knew it! Though Times Square Church is not ancient or even pretty at least from the outside, it felt as if we were honoring a beautiful holy place of the past.
After that “selah” moment, we made our way back to the center of Times Square and followed the professor’s instructions. We came upon the lighted steps from behind and at first couldn’t see the red layers inviting everyone upward. Once in front, we turned and climbed them almost the top and, though the steps were full, found a little clearing just for the two of us—and we sat! (It seems you have to sit.) And in that moment, the full force of the first viewing of Times Square began all over again. I could have sat for hours and, though I am never in want of dialogue with my husband, there was no need to speak. In all the hubbub, noise, color, and crowd, the lighted steps were an amazing island of peace—just as Central Park had been earlier in the day. I began to realize that I was sitting in a place I had only seen images of all my life: in movies, on New Year’s eve, and outside the morning shows’ studios where people from all over the world gathered with signs in an effort to get on camera. All my life, I had viewed Times Square second hand, but now I was sitting there taking it in with my own eyes and letting it be a DIRECT assault to MY senses—and it was filling them up. The distance was removed and I sat emotionally naked before a greater view of man’s mixed bag of dreams, desires and even some debauchery, than I had ever been before. Ironically, I looked to my left and one of the HD message boards—a huge one, but weren’t they all—was sporting a ticker tape of poignant inspirational quotes about facing fear and overcoming the hesitance that keeps us from really living!
Only later, on a Sunday morning, did the lighted steps moment come fully home to me, providing a “story” for my journey (and perhaps yours) that I will never forget. My husband was proclaiming, as he is gifted to do, the huge scope of redemption that Jesus purchased for us. It is, Jesus said, the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom! This is not a one-day promise reserved for the other dimension of existence we call heaven, but rather a promise for all times, for the Kingdom comes in appropriate form on both sides of that life and death line! Because He gave us the Kingdom through Jesus and the redemption He provided for us, the Kingdom is ours to interact with right now! It is ours in every time and every space! With that thought, suddenly I was back in Times Square on the lighted steps, only it was not the glaring lights of man’s arranging that I was taking in, but rather, I was realizing that there are some lighted steps for each one of us to sit on that have nothing to do with NYC!
Inside our hearts, God is guiding us to a place where he wants to simply sit us down and assault our senses with all that the Kingdom is—all that was provided for us through redemption. He wants to unroll in high definition grandeur a panorama so vast and blinding that it will take many, many sessions to take in! He wants to focus so much of his heavenly illumination energy upon our spirits that we can’t accommodate the view standing up! And in that moment, peace will inform the chaos and we too will see inspirational words scrolling through our inner world—words telling us we can be free from fear—or any other limitation that threatens to dull our zeal or sharpness! There are lighted steps in our hearts and God wants to give us sessions that assault our senses with the panorama of redemption and perhaps bring us to tears!
I realized that, related to the Gospel, so many are like I was before I visited Times Square—they are living through someone else’s ability to record or report the experience! They’ve heard from a pulpit, perhaps even on television, that they are “supposed” to be impressed with God and amazed by what He did in Christ. They have accepted and yearned—and maybe even dreamed about visiting in person. But God wants to remove that distance and give them a face-to-face exposure –filling up their senses in some way—or multiple ways--with Himself. The gentle advice of the professor who didn’t even love NYC was so prophetic. You MUST go to the lighted steps, he had said. Our heavenly Father promises the same fulfillment on a level a million times more intense!
Franz Kafka said, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” I believed Kafka’s words years ago when I first heard them because I know the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus proclaimed as the One who would be a tour-guide into, not just the world, but ALL truth! I believe them today because I have lived them. You don’t have to go to Times Square to find lighted steps with a view—just go to your room and expect God to do by His Spirit what he promised to do. If you feel that your experience of God’s power and greatness and your view of redemption have been somewhat second hand, know that change is available. If the spiritual realm for you has been more a performance than a panorama, it is time for an assault on your senses. You will never be the same. A window of awe will open inside you and inform the rest of your living. Your seat awaits. Let me be the professor who not-so-calmly gives you the important travel tip!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Giving it Away
My computer just crashed (first time in 10 years of having a laptop!) and I went in search of the only piece of writing that I knew I hadn't backed up (thankfully I had e-mailed to a few people). When I found it, I was freshly struck by the truth that the only things you really have are the things you give away....think about it.....
So, pasted in here below are a new devotional format that I created for Tabitha Summers while she was in England making her first CD. They are each based on a very short youtube video and each limited to one page. Maybe you too find yourself in the place she was in during that week: excited about destiny, but challenged by the demands living toward that destiny daily makes! If so, take a week to breathe and walk this devotional journey, as I once again GIVE AWAY what I feared I had lost!
DAY ONE:
http://youtu.be/47LCLoidJh4
Awareness Test (55 seconds)
In labeling the right brain as the “creative” hemisphere, people might wrongly assume that one of the things it creates is disorder (like some artists they might have known)! But in fact, it is the right side of the brain that orchestrates and organizes left-brain data into a seamless and beautiful whole. Take a golf swing: It is impossible to swing a golf club well when you are consciously working on each component of the swing. The golfer must step up to the ball and clear his mind of the analysis—no matter how helpful it has been or how accurate--and instead hit the ball for the joy of doing it and love of the game! When this happens, there is actually a right-brain burst of alpha waves that calm all the activity in the left, creating a feeling of peace. (This happens in many other sports as well. All the details of training are set aside as the athlete in the starting gate releases them and reaches from a deeper and more intuitive place to actually run the race!)
Life is no different than sport in this respect. The left side of the brain definitely has a role, but when it is taking us over, we need a right brain burst---something has to orchestrate the data and remind us of the joy of living. The left side of the brain can enslave us, but God can bring a right-brain burst to set us free. When Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” he was speaking to a nation who had become so focused on the rules of religion that they had lost the joy of knowing God. He was calling them, in a sense, to have a spiritual “right-brain burst” that would calm the nagging considerations of pleasing and performing and return them to the freedom of just relating! (Matthew 11:28-29)
The Message Bible completes those words of Jesus by saying, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” There is nothing wrong with drive and determination, but it is not a very good drummer—its rhythms will mess you up and ultimately cut off the creative flow that is necessary for efficiency! Life loses its orchestration and you bog down in halting, fragmented and frustrated motion. It is then that you need to return to God and lay it all down again. Trust that if a golfer can swing, knowing that everything he’s worked on so hard will pay off--without him consciously forcing it--surely you can also rest in the big processes of God.
These devotionals are meant to bring a right-brain burst from heaven. They are meant to help you run the race from a deep place—a place where God’s reality is not just theory in the mind, but actual efficient orchestration of all things such that they WORK TOGETHER FOR GOD.
The video you watched (if you hadn’t seen it before) gave you a little right-brain burst! When you laughed at yourself for not seeing the man in the bear suit the first time, your mind was also experiencing a moment of wonder: Could it be that the world is parading before your eyes many notable things that you are missing because of your focused expectations in rehearsed directions? You were trying to count the basketball passes—you had a job to do!
Don’t let the job you have to do today obscure your vision. Don’t let focus become a blinder. Let the “moon-walking bears” sent by God be noticed and BREATHE. You’ll get the job done—MORE efficiently!
DAY TWO:
http://youtu.be/BW4LseJp728
YouTube: “Even stars and galaxies show God’s greatness” (1:47)
In December of 2010, a study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum proposed that the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—needed to be tripled. Whether or not this astronomer is correct, that’s a lot of stars! With that in mind, read Isaiah 40:26 with a heart of wonder and pause to stand amazed:
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an
army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
What is even more amazing is that, if we truly have the Spirit of God inside us, each of our creative endeavors is simply a retelling of the ancient story! The God who hung the stars in the sky with has chosen to dwell inside his people. Surely, surely, he knows how to bring out of them the “good works” he has already deposited inside us—each focused point of energy shall come forth in perfect placement. He knows exactly how to decorate, orchestrate, order, energize, strategize, adapt, release, mix, engineer, oversee...and the list goes on. (AND, he even knows how to do it all for an audience: consider the constellations decorating the sky!)
The universe has never stopped expanding because creation is an open-ended process. The energies of God flow through his people and take shape and form, translating themselves into the outflow of men and women’s hearts.
Lose yourself in God’s vast orchestration and take joy in the fact that this current initiative is being summoned forth BY HIM. You—and the relationships that have rallied around you—are a part of an intricately beautiful wisdom that has been at work from time immemorial. Your life and projects are a part of a display of power that is God showing off who HE is! You are proclaiming the Creator by participating in the creative release that He began!
Take a deep breath and revisit the last sentence of the Scripture, now applying it in the here and now, since you now know that you are personally cooperating with the expansion the universe(!): BECAUSE OF HIS GREAT POWER AND INCOMPARABLE STRENGTH, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE MELODIES, MEANINGS OR EVEN SUBTLETIES OF THE “STARS” YOU ARE BIRTHING WILL BE MISSING! He has already called each one of them by name!
DAY THREE:
http://youtu.be/AFVac_XzxZA
YouTube: The incredible beauty in the life of cells (3:07)
Isn’t it amazing that even the work of researchers studying what happens when cells “go wrong” cannot help but create a display of intense beauty—the beauty that is present in everything that bears the fingerprint of God! Cells (and you have 50 to 100 trillion of them in your body) are little “storehouses” of the essence of YOU! Each one contains approximately SIX FEET of DNA that is unique to you, coiled up in extraordinarily tight fashion. Every cell is a literal treasure chest of “you-ness”, waiting to be summoned forth for service!
In Matthew 13:52, Jesus was explained the Kingdom by saying:
"That is why every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings both new and old things out of his treasure chest."
God (the same One who summons forth the stars on a large scale) knows how to summon forth every bit of potential that is in each one of us. He has created each compartment of our spirits to house the very things that are needed for us to fulfill our destiny. Though at moments we might feel empty, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are packed with tightly wound spiritual DNA—full of living information about who we are meant to be! It will actually require all of eternity to fully express our individual identities. In a real sense, the odyssey of discovery through which we unravel the spiritual “code” inside us IS the fulfillment of our destiny!
You are a treasure chest of things both old and new. In you (each one of you), all experiences are processed as preparation, according to the information in your spiritual DNA! In the grand scheme of things, every single challenge encountered only serves to summon forth strengths and skills from the storehouse of heaven’s resources inside of us! We were built to activate and release a host of Kingdom traits!
How do we know when the Kingdom DNA has been expressed? Because the end result is always and forever BEAUTY—subtle tones and colors and shadings and contrasting splashes of blinding light, but always and forever, BEAUTY. When Watson and Crick were attempting to construct the first-ever model of DNA, they ruled out several proposals because they simply weren’t BEAUTIFUL and they just knew—even though they weren’t believers—that this amazing molecule of life HAD to be BEAUTIFUL! They were right!
Beauty is in your DNA—reject what isn’t beautiful because it just can’t be God’s fingerprint! Wait for the beauty to fully manifest. Even amidst dysfunction, beauty shines through untainted—it has to: it’s in our genes!
DAY FOUR:
http://youtu.be/IcevP5tkWH0
YouTube: Cell Journey Deep Inside (1:44)
Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body is carrying on life constantly! This video shows the constant activity in just one cell, and it actually happens at this rapid rate. Whenever we feel that “nothing is happening” for us, we should remember that even on a cellular level (much more so on an invisible spiritual level), a whole host of processes are literally working for our good!
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Though most people focus on the command in the first part of the verse, “watch over your heart,” the second part of the verse actually carries the energy of grace to fulfill the command! Out of your heart are flowing springs of life! There are constant processes at work inside you, facilitating life and destiny! The life of God inside you is not stagnant or lacking movement EVER! God in you—every part of you—is dynamic and full of energy. Things are happening, even when you are at rest! Springs of life are on the move and they are available in every moment!
Notice that the word “springs” is plural. Imagine the variety of springs on earth. Some are high in the mountains and some are surprises in the desert. Some are in a well-tended garden and others are waiting to be discovered in wilderness. There are many kinds of springs in you and they flow with different strengths and at different times. They blend their waters into one glorious mixture but still retain the characteristics they took on from their various sources. The rushing water of the springs inside you carries dissolved minerals from its subterranean journey, giving a unique flavor to your particular flow! Every rocky place you have experienced has only served to add texture to your life.
Springs imply energy from another place. Fatigue is not a factor when the springs of life flow. Some springs come from a whole different geography, travelling hundreds of miles to contribute their stream. Heaven’s springs are in you, flowing forth, each carrying its own energy and climate. WATCH as they simply erupt and flow forth from your heart!
DAY FIVE:
http://youtu.be/DQus4je7Jw4
YouTube: Tabernacle _Animated (1:10)
Exodus 30:18 Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.
Exodus 38:8 They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Every part of the Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness portrayed Christ in some way. And now the reality that the symbolism pointed to lives in us, since we have become his dwelling place. The basin for washing was a picture of the grace that not only removes sin, but also cleanses the identity from the desires and memories association with human dysfunction. As the priests entering the tabernacle paused to wash at the basin, they were looking ahead in time to the continual cleansing of being that would freely flow from Christ.
It was no accident that the basin was made of the brass mirrors donated by the women who served. Christ is not just an addition to our identity: He engulfs that very identity with Himself, rendering it unrecognizable apart from him, blending it into the very grace that he gives. And all of this happens as we experience him through living worship. The cleansing of our sin is only the beginning; the REDEMPTION of our very IDENTITY is the real goal of the presence of God!
Our identity thrives on a continual washing in the realities of heaven. I can’t help but think that Bono’s faith along these lines must have informed his lyric writing when he wrote the bridge to the song Walk On. After singing, “You’ve got to leave it behind,” he lists the categories of things that can be left behind:
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress-up
All that you scheme...
We need to see our identity--both the “good” and even the self-perceived “bad” of it—lost in the basin of grace. In the place of worship, we can let the notion of our separateness from Him be just a distant memory. Turning in our mirrors to become a basin for others’ cleansing is MINISTRY…..
DAY SIX:
http://youtu.be/R_w4HYXuo9M
YouTube: How to Turn a Sphere Inside Out (1:38)
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”
The word “transform” in Romans 12:2 is a door into a huge room of truth. It does imply metamorphosis like the butterfly, but there is so much more! The Greek roots of the word “transform” mean literally to CHANGE FORM IN KEEPING WITH AN INNER REALITY, AS AN AFTER-EFFECT OF BEING IN SOME ENVIRONMENT! The verb comes from a noun that means AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION THAT EMBODIES AN ESSENTIAL INNER SUBSTANCE SO THAT THE FORM TAKEN IS IN COMPLETE HARMONY WITH THE INNER ESSENCE! It is not just finally changing into something useful or worthy! True transformation from God is about manifesting the real YOU (which is in every way beautiful).
God is clearly up to just one thing in all our lives: INSIDE-OUTING us so that our inner essence—the expression of HIS creativity—is on display! But, like the mathematicians that know how to inside-out a sphere, he does not cheat! He doesn’t abuse us or break us or force us in any way. Moment by moment, he leads us in a deeper understanding of who we really are so that what we end up giving to the world is an authentic expression of Him in us! The process may stretch us, but will never break us, and if we know that the goal at the end of the road is the giving away of ourselves in complete freedom, then we can endure the intricate twistings and turnings and rejoice in the beauty of his realm of ultimate order!
Death Cab for Cutie’s song Soul Meets Body contains the amazing line, “I still believe it’s true that there are roads left in both of our shoes…” What makes that line so amazing is this: In God’s view of things the paths of our lives aren’t really inanimate things stretching out before us, beckoning us to embark. Instead, the roads of our journey are actually inside of us, waiting to come out! Isaiah 26:12 says, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Our future is waiting to emerge from within! As we are inside-outed by God’s Spirit, our destiny unfolds. The Kingdom of heaven is within….
(You might want to watch the video again with this all in mind. The sphere is you and, by the way, the process of inside-outing you will change the world—but that’s just a glorious side-effect!)
DAY SEVEN:
http://youtu.be/GtiSCBXbHAg
YouTube: Cymatic experiement (2:05)
Cymatics is the study of “visible sound”. The beautiful wave patterns displayed by the sand in this video are generated solely by the frequency of the sound being emitted. The sand is self-organizing according to the standing waves patterns created by the vibrations. You are watching sound energy literally organize matter! The information in the pitch (the wavelength of the frequency) is being translated into a visual form!
This simple experiment provides a great metaphor for our relationship with God. There are really only two “requirements” for flowing with Him:
1. Don’t resist the organizing force of His orchestration! (Release the desire to set up patterns of our own or to take charge of the other pieces involved: imagine a grain of sand in the experiment nervously running around trying to help the patterns emerge!)
2. Hear the frequency of heaven and welcome its energy! (This is just living a life of responsive worship.)
God’s universe is one of both extreme order and beauty and our lives will ultimately reflect that when we rest in Him and simply tune in. The chaos with which we are all too familiar is simply a perception we experience in the moments in which we are temporarily unable to see the pattern, and the lack of a pattern is just evidence that the frequency (energy) is increasing!
In Genesis, we read that God created the universe with his WORDS! In a sense, the world around us is just “visible sound”, still vibrating to the patterns that God generated with His voice! He SAID, “Let there be light….” And there WAS light. And there still is, because when God speaks, the vibrations continue throughout the ages.
In Psalm 51 in the Message Bible, David prays, “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” The voice of the Lord is inside you today saying, “Let there be light” and calling for that light to be divided from the darkness. The sound of heaven is organizing your energies and even your thoughts (which are just biochemical events, really) according to his patterns of beauty! You cannot fail and you cannot fall. You are simply responding to the creative sound of His voice. And you are becoming “visible sound” for others who have never heard Him! He is acting on you in unseen ways in every moment.
So, pasted in here below are a new devotional format that I created for Tabitha Summers while she was in England making her first CD. They are each based on a very short youtube video and each limited to one page. Maybe you too find yourself in the place she was in during that week: excited about destiny, but challenged by the demands living toward that destiny daily makes! If so, take a week to breathe and walk this devotional journey, as I once again GIVE AWAY what I feared I had lost!
DAY ONE:
http://youtu.be/47LCLoidJh4
Awareness Test (55 seconds)
In labeling the right brain as the “creative” hemisphere, people might wrongly assume that one of the things it creates is disorder (like some artists they might have known)! But in fact, it is the right side of the brain that orchestrates and organizes left-brain data into a seamless and beautiful whole. Take a golf swing: It is impossible to swing a golf club well when you are consciously working on each component of the swing. The golfer must step up to the ball and clear his mind of the analysis—no matter how helpful it has been or how accurate--and instead hit the ball for the joy of doing it and love of the game! When this happens, there is actually a right-brain burst of alpha waves that calm all the activity in the left, creating a feeling of peace. (This happens in many other sports as well. All the details of training are set aside as the athlete in the starting gate releases them and reaches from a deeper and more intuitive place to actually run the race!)
Life is no different than sport in this respect. The left side of the brain definitely has a role, but when it is taking us over, we need a right brain burst---something has to orchestrate the data and remind us of the joy of living. The left side of the brain can enslave us, but God can bring a right-brain burst to set us free. When Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” he was speaking to a nation who had become so focused on the rules of religion that they had lost the joy of knowing God. He was calling them, in a sense, to have a spiritual “right-brain burst” that would calm the nagging considerations of pleasing and performing and return them to the freedom of just relating! (Matthew 11:28-29)
The Message Bible completes those words of Jesus by saying, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” There is nothing wrong with drive and determination, but it is not a very good drummer—its rhythms will mess you up and ultimately cut off the creative flow that is necessary for efficiency! Life loses its orchestration and you bog down in halting, fragmented and frustrated motion. It is then that you need to return to God and lay it all down again. Trust that if a golfer can swing, knowing that everything he’s worked on so hard will pay off--without him consciously forcing it--surely you can also rest in the big processes of God.
These devotionals are meant to bring a right-brain burst from heaven. They are meant to help you run the race from a deep place—a place where God’s reality is not just theory in the mind, but actual efficient orchestration of all things such that they WORK TOGETHER FOR GOD.
The video you watched (if you hadn’t seen it before) gave you a little right-brain burst! When you laughed at yourself for not seeing the man in the bear suit the first time, your mind was also experiencing a moment of wonder: Could it be that the world is parading before your eyes many notable things that you are missing because of your focused expectations in rehearsed directions? You were trying to count the basketball passes—you had a job to do!
Don’t let the job you have to do today obscure your vision. Don’t let focus become a blinder. Let the “moon-walking bears” sent by God be noticed and BREATHE. You’ll get the job done—MORE efficiently!
DAY TWO:
http://youtu.be/BW4LseJp728
YouTube: “Even stars and galaxies show God’s greatness” (1:47)
In December of 2010, a study by Yale astronomer Pieter van Dokkum proposed that the estimated number of stars in the universe—100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 100 sextillion—needed to be tripled. Whether or not this astronomer is correct, that’s a lot of stars! With that in mind, read Isaiah 40:26 with a heart of wonder and pause to stand amazed:
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an
army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
What is even more amazing is that, if we truly have the Spirit of God inside us, each of our creative endeavors is simply a retelling of the ancient story! The God who hung the stars in the sky with has chosen to dwell inside his people. Surely, surely, he knows how to bring out of them the “good works” he has already deposited inside us—each focused point of energy shall come forth in perfect placement. He knows exactly how to decorate, orchestrate, order, energize, strategize, adapt, release, mix, engineer, oversee...and the list goes on. (AND, he even knows how to do it all for an audience: consider the constellations decorating the sky!)
The universe has never stopped expanding because creation is an open-ended process. The energies of God flow through his people and take shape and form, translating themselves into the outflow of men and women’s hearts.
Lose yourself in God’s vast orchestration and take joy in the fact that this current initiative is being summoned forth BY HIM. You—and the relationships that have rallied around you—are a part of an intricately beautiful wisdom that has been at work from time immemorial. Your life and projects are a part of a display of power that is God showing off who HE is! You are proclaiming the Creator by participating in the creative release that He began!
Take a deep breath and revisit the last sentence of the Scripture, now applying it in the here and now, since you now know that you are personally cooperating with the expansion the universe(!): BECAUSE OF HIS GREAT POWER AND INCOMPARABLE STRENGTH, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THE MELODIES, MEANINGS OR EVEN SUBTLETIES OF THE “STARS” YOU ARE BIRTHING WILL BE MISSING! He has already called each one of them by name!
DAY THREE:
http://youtu.be/AFVac_XzxZA
YouTube: The incredible beauty in the life of cells (3:07)
Isn’t it amazing that even the work of researchers studying what happens when cells “go wrong” cannot help but create a display of intense beauty—the beauty that is present in everything that bears the fingerprint of God! Cells (and you have 50 to 100 trillion of them in your body) are little “storehouses” of the essence of YOU! Each one contains approximately SIX FEET of DNA that is unique to you, coiled up in extraordinarily tight fashion. Every cell is a literal treasure chest of “you-ness”, waiting to be summoned forth for service!
In Matthew 13:52, Jesus was explained the Kingdom by saying:
"That is why every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings both new and old things out of his treasure chest."
God (the same One who summons forth the stars on a large scale) knows how to summon forth every bit of potential that is in each one of us. He has created each compartment of our spirits to house the very things that are needed for us to fulfill our destiny. Though at moments we might feel empty, nothing could be farther from the truth. We are packed with tightly wound spiritual DNA—full of living information about who we are meant to be! It will actually require all of eternity to fully express our individual identities. In a real sense, the odyssey of discovery through which we unravel the spiritual “code” inside us IS the fulfillment of our destiny!
You are a treasure chest of things both old and new. In you (each one of you), all experiences are processed as preparation, according to the information in your spiritual DNA! In the grand scheme of things, every single challenge encountered only serves to summon forth strengths and skills from the storehouse of heaven’s resources inside of us! We were built to activate and release a host of Kingdom traits!
How do we know when the Kingdom DNA has been expressed? Because the end result is always and forever BEAUTY—subtle tones and colors and shadings and contrasting splashes of blinding light, but always and forever, BEAUTY. When Watson and Crick were attempting to construct the first-ever model of DNA, they ruled out several proposals because they simply weren’t BEAUTIFUL and they just knew—even though they weren’t believers—that this amazing molecule of life HAD to be BEAUTIFUL! They were right!
Beauty is in your DNA—reject what isn’t beautiful because it just can’t be God’s fingerprint! Wait for the beauty to fully manifest. Even amidst dysfunction, beauty shines through untainted—it has to: it’s in our genes!
DAY FOUR:
http://youtu.be/IcevP5tkWH0
YouTube: Cell Journey Deep Inside (1:44)
Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body is carrying on life constantly! This video shows the constant activity in just one cell, and it actually happens at this rapid rate. Whenever we feel that “nothing is happening” for us, we should remember that even on a cellular level (much more so on an invisible spiritual level), a whole host of processes are literally working for our good!
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Though most people focus on the command in the first part of the verse, “watch over your heart,” the second part of the verse actually carries the energy of grace to fulfill the command! Out of your heart are flowing springs of life! There are constant processes at work inside you, facilitating life and destiny! The life of God inside you is not stagnant or lacking movement EVER! God in you—every part of you—is dynamic and full of energy. Things are happening, even when you are at rest! Springs of life are on the move and they are available in every moment!
Notice that the word “springs” is plural. Imagine the variety of springs on earth. Some are high in the mountains and some are surprises in the desert. Some are in a well-tended garden and others are waiting to be discovered in wilderness. There are many kinds of springs in you and they flow with different strengths and at different times. They blend their waters into one glorious mixture but still retain the characteristics they took on from their various sources. The rushing water of the springs inside you carries dissolved minerals from its subterranean journey, giving a unique flavor to your particular flow! Every rocky place you have experienced has only served to add texture to your life.
Springs imply energy from another place. Fatigue is not a factor when the springs of life flow. Some springs come from a whole different geography, travelling hundreds of miles to contribute their stream. Heaven’s springs are in you, flowing forth, each carrying its own energy and climate. WATCH as they simply erupt and flow forth from your heart!
DAY FIVE:
http://youtu.be/DQus4je7Jw4
YouTube: Tabernacle _Animated (1:10)
Exodus 30:18 Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.
Exodus 38:8 They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Every part of the Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness portrayed Christ in some way. And now the reality that the symbolism pointed to lives in us, since we have become his dwelling place. The basin for washing was a picture of the grace that not only removes sin, but also cleanses the identity from the desires and memories association with human dysfunction. As the priests entering the tabernacle paused to wash at the basin, they were looking ahead in time to the continual cleansing of being that would freely flow from Christ.
It was no accident that the basin was made of the brass mirrors donated by the women who served. Christ is not just an addition to our identity: He engulfs that very identity with Himself, rendering it unrecognizable apart from him, blending it into the very grace that he gives. And all of this happens as we experience him through living worship. The cleansing of our sin is only the beginning; the REDEMPTION of our very IDENTITY is the real goal of the presence of God!
Our identity thrives on a continual washing in the realities of heaven. I can’t help but think that Bono’s faith along these lines must have informed his lyric writing when he wrote the bridge to the song Walk On. After singing, “You’ve got to leave it behind,” he lists the categories of things that can be left behind:
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress-up
All that you scheme...
We need to see our identity--both the “good” and even the self-perceived “bad” of it—lost in the basin of grace. In the place of worship, we can let the notion of our separateness from Him be just a distant memory. Turning in our mirrors to become a basin for others’ cleansing is MINISTRY…..
DAY SIX:
http://youtu.be/R_w4HYXuo9M
YouTube: How to Turn a Sphere Inside Out (1:38)
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….”
The word “transform” in Romans 12:2 is a door into a huge room of truth. It does imply metamorphosis like the butterfly, but there is so much more! The Greek roots of the word “transform” mean literally to CHANGE FORM IN KEEPING WITH AN INNER REALITY, AS AN AFTER-EFFECT OF BEING IN SOME ENVIRONMENT! The verb comes from a noun that means AN OUTWARD EXPRESSION THAT EMBODIES AN ESSENTIAL INNER SUBSTANCE SO THAT THE FORM TAKEN IS IN COMPLETE HARMONY WITH THE INNER ESSENCE! It is not just finally changing into something useful or worthy! True transformation from God is about manifesting the real YOU (which is in every way beautiful).
God is clearly up to just one thing in all our lives: INSIDE-OUTING us so that our inner essence—the expression of HIS creativity—is on display! But, like the mathematicians that know how to inside-out a sphere, he does not cheat! He doesn’t abuse us or break us or force us in any way. Moment by moment, he leads us in a deeper understanding of who we really are so that what we end up giving to the world is an authentic expression of Him in us! The process may stretch us, but will never break us, and if we know that the goal at the end of the road is the giving away of ourselves in complete freedom, then we can endure the intricate twistings and turnings and rejoice in the beauty of his realm of ultimate order!
Death Cab for Cutie’s song Soul Meets Body contains the amazing line, “I still believe it’s true that there are roads left in both of our shoes…” What makes that line so amazing is this: In God’s view of things the paths of our lives aren’t really inanimate things stretching out before us, beckoning us to embark. Instead, the roads of our journey are actually inside of us, waiting to come out! Isaiah 26:12 says, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Our future is waiting to emerge from within! As we are inside-outed by God’s Spirit, our destiny unfolds. The Kingdom of heaven is within….
(You might want to watch the video again with this all in mind. The sphere is you and, by the way, the process of inside-outing you will change the world—but that’s just a glorious side-effect!)
DAY SEVEN:
http://youtu.be/GtiSCBXbHAg
YouTube: Cymatic experiement (2:05)
Cymatics is the study of “visible sound”. The beautiful wave patterns displayed by the sand in this video are generated solely by the frequency of the sound being emitted. The sand is self-organizing according to the standing waves patterns created by the vibrations. You are watching sound energy literally organize matter! The information in the pitch (the wavelength of the frequency) is being translated into a visual form!
This simple experiment provides a great metaphor for our relationship with God. There are really only two “requirements” for flowing with Him:
1. Don’t resist the organizing force of His orchestration! (Release the desire to set up patterns of our own or to take charge of the other pieces involved: imagine a grain of sand in the experiment nervously running around trying to help the patterns emerge!)
2. Hear the frequency of heaven and welcome its energy! (This is just living a life of responsive worship.)
God’s universe is one of both extreme order and beauty and our lives will ultimately reflect that when we rest in Him and simply tune in. The chaos with which we are all too familiar is simply a perception we experience in the moments in which we are temporarily unable to see the pattern, and the lack of a pattern is just evidence that the frequency (energy) is increasing!
In Genesis, we read that God created the universe with his WORDS! In a sense, the world around us is just “visible sound”, still vibrating to the patterns that God generated with His voice! He SAID, “Let there be light….” And there WAS light. And there still is, because when God speaks, the vibrations continue throughout the ages.
In Psalm 51 in the Message Bible, David prays, “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” The voice of the Lord is inside you today saying, “Let there be light” and calling for that light to be divided from the darkness. The sound of heaven is organizing your energies and even your thoughts (which are just biochemical events, really) according to his patterns of beauty! You cannot fail and you cannot fall. You are simply responding to the creative sound of His voice. And you are becoming “visible sound” for others who have never heard Him! He is acting on you in unseen ways in every moment.
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