in returning and rest

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.

 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Isaiah 30:15-21

 

on and on

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

-The Old Walking Song, The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

come and live

Below is what I wrote in my journal a few years ago after reading Matthew 11:
28-30:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
 rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and 
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke 
is easy and my burden is light.”
I am not asking you to
 complete yourself and then come to me.
I am asking you to come to me.
 Broken and burdened, infested with the most hideous lies about me and 
my nature. Covered in perpetual sin that you just can’t seem to shake.
 Because I don’t see that.
I see Christ. I see the blood of my son all
 over you.
I know you think you need to work through your doubt
 before you come to me. But that’s not true. I can’t wait that long for 
you to come. And how ridiculous is that lie? That you have to figure me 
out, know me and trust in me without fail before you can come to me and
 get to know me. I do have gifts for you. Big crazy gifts, but the
 biggest of all is my presence.
That’s what I am inviting you 
in to. My presence. That’s a gift I am inviting you into. My presence.
 That’s a gift I am going to give you every second for every hour of
 every day for the rest of eternity. Come to me. Come be in my presence.
It’s so crazy to think you have to perfectly accept that gift before
 you can stand in that gift. I’m just saying, “Come stand in it. Bask in
 it.”
Come stand in it filthy and let me cleanse you.
Come stand in it broken and let me heal you.
Come stand in it drunk on doubt and fear and let me renew a spirit of confidence and trust in you.
Just come stand in it.
Come 
stand in it with a past you can’t fix and a future you can’t look at 
without grimacing and I will comfort you in this very moment.

-Jon Acuff


I printed this out and stuck it where I could read it until I believed it after I read this for the first time.

Come stand in it filthy and let me cleanse you.
Come stand in it broken and let me heal you.
Come stand in it drunk on doubt and fear and let me renew a spirit of confidence and trust in you.
Just come stand in it.

Just come stand.

All is such grace.


Love:)

R

our response to grace

We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.

-Brennan Manning

thus the quiet

When this space is quiet next week,
I'm still here.

I get to go kayaking on a river in Idaho,
and it
will
be
awesome.

I'm just a little LOT excited!
Can you tell? :)

I leave Tuesday,
and will be gone eight days,
thus the quiet.

I may schedule something to post part way though,
but I will have pictures
and thoughts
and wild grace to share afterwords.


Love:)

R

and yet

We are so small.

We are an alien people on a small planet spinning around an average sized star among 300 billion stars in our galaxy,
light years away from the countless other galaxies.

And yet.


We are loved.

We have a God-
God who is the creator of this tiny planet, and the ends of the universe, who flung the galaxies into being-

and He loves us.

Enough to take our humanity upon Himself and die for our brokenness.

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10

All is grace.


Love:)

R

small

If a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small.

-G.K. Chesterton, Orthadoxy

His will

speak

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.


-Pastor Martin Niemoller

Haunting words.
How many times have I not spoken?

Too many.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8


Love:)

R