Freedom

Canola field and clouds in Alberta, Canada

We are meant and created to live life in a
limitless field without fences. 

With endless grass and freedom of movement.  No hindrance, or restriction, with vision as far as the horizon and beyond.  Beautiful breezes and freshness.  There are things in life that cause us to feel fenced in, restricted, … trapped.  Sometimes these hindrances on our freedom have nothing to do with people or structures or circumstances, sometimes it is walls built through our history, our life experience, things we came to believe that yet live within ourselves.  These are walls made of the brick and mortar of fear or lies.

Other times there are outside structures or people that perpetuate fences we believe in and operate within as our own.  Some religions say you cannot do this, or act this way, or say that thing, or believe that idea.  Some work environments project that you should esteem this certain thing or success should look like this for your life.  Some relationships say you are worth only this much or you are only this type of person or you should reflect themselves to make them feel comfortable.  Some of the above bodies intentionally use fear directly and freely to control your open wanderings.

‘The world is coming to an end’ the media says, ‘ciaos is around the corner, you must give us your attention, your well being depends upon us’.  ‘You must never do x,y,z’ some religions say ‘because God hates that’, implying the imminent relational rejection from him, eternally forever, don’t forget the eternal punishment and torment on top.  Other organizations say you must be productive, you must appear productive, you must work and manage your life to appear to be working, you must stay busy, keep working, for your value lies in your profit or productivity; rest always equals laziness.

Life Outside the Fence

BUT all of the above are just examples and ways ideas, worldviews, and thoughts cause fences to spring up in our field of freedom, the plot of freedom purchased for us through Christ’s blood.  It was actually for freedom’s sake you have been set free.  Because you were meant to move like him.  What hinders God?  What restricts his movement?  The great part about each and every barrier in your life is that you are actually not bound by it at all.  You cannot lose Christ by crossing that boundary therefore you will lose nothing if you step outside of society’s or culture’s fences.  Let me be clear in saying I am not advocating self-destructive or other destructive behavior, not at all, just actions or choices that others say are not available to you, but in reality they are entirely options for you to posses.

Don’t listen to your upbringing or where you came from or the culture you came from or the economic class to dictate what is possible for you.  Anything really is possible for your life.  Freedom costs you nothing but requires only the passive ignoring of every voice that tells you no, it is not possible, not for you, not with the time you have and the choices you’ve made.  You are free my friend and your freedom has been bought with a price.  You can love extravagantly, change extravagantly, think differently, speak up, be different from everything the media tells you is normal, you can be yourself, remain unseen if you wish, experiencing the fullest expression of Christ alive in you.

Watching People Climb Over

I remember hearing a beautiful story of freedom I will share with you as an example here.  There was a man who worked for a boss who often used anger and fury to invoke fear and submission into his employees.  After experiencing freedom during travel, this employee was finally going to stand up to his boss and quit even though he didn’t know where he would work.  He went into the office and as soon as he let out the words the boss proceeded into a rage when out of the belly of this employee sprung such a laughter and joy he could not contain it.  Soon after this now former employee got a grant form the government to take care of his vast inheritance of land and maintain and develop it and now he spends his days raising his children and with his wife in the literal open planes of his own land without the fences of control constricting his heart.

Let me give you another example.  A young man heard a call from God on his life for a certain profession.  Fast forward a decade of following that call.  His heart was burnt out, he didn’t have joy, and was literally sick to his stomach in his final days of preparation for this career field with zero desire to practice it and dread at the thought of it.  With encouragement, he quit.  He breathed again and remembered the joy of being alive.  He will return one day in some form but he is not a slave to something he heard from God ten years ago without any grace or life on it now, struggling and striving to work it out in our own timing and ways.  Knock the suffocating fence down and get out of there.

If you feel an area of your life you are tied to a chain.  You can recognize the feeling that is void of giving you life, turn and break that chain, start a new way, remember freedom.  I am not talking about break your word or covenants that carry with them responsibility, I merely am saying you don’t have to tolerate those irritations because society says you have to, because other people put up with it.  Live and live your life.  Live free and follow your heart.  Don’t just look through your fence at other people’s freedom.  Step over your fences and live your own.  Your fears are lying to you to keep you from following your dreams.  Don’t listen to them and do what has persevered staying alive inside you all these years.

One more story.  This powerful woman ran free within an organization that sent her in the nations.  This organization came to make the decision of letting her go.  She could have seen it as person rejection, disqualification, or failure.  Or there was divine orchestration for her personal promotion into a level of freedom she had never fathomed or experienced yet in her ministry.  She climbed over that fence into a place that looks so scary, new beginnings.  She began her own organization and now calls the shots, leads the creative flow, and decides when and where and how long she goes with no strings or expectations attached.  She is free to be the beautiful gift of herself.

These are just examples I am referring to.  If you don’t know what this looks like in your life, it is probably the thing that makes you most excited inside, whether or not you have ever shared it with anyone.  The thing that enthralls your heart and mind and imagination. That excitement inside of you exists for a reason and is not shared with everyone, it is unique to you in your own specific way.  Follow that.  It will give you life.  I am just telling you that you really have the freedom to follow, the freedom to fail, the freedom to live.

Okay one more example.  Sometimes in people’s relationship with the holy spirit we can experience this tight rope of obedience or bust that causes anxiety.  Let me explain.  You feel or hear something you think it specifically is referring to this one thing and this one time and if you don’t do it you are deserving of punishment and chastisement.  Granted if the Holy Spirit is inviting you to do something its probably in your best interest to take his advice but what is not from him is the confusion or anxiety that call follow this decision making process.

Sometimes if things don’t go well we think we missed it or got it wrong or failed but what if you heard right and there’s lessons to be learned in process?  What if your getting it right and his getting it right don’t look anything alike?  I just want to tell you God did not create humanity because he needs slaves.  He created you as his child, his growing developing, likeness of himself.  That includes your relationship with him as well. Step outside of your own fences with Him.  You can be powerful, free, and full of joy because his love has cast out all fear between the two of you in your relationship with him.

I could probably go on about freedom forever.  Literally forever, but I am going to stop here and move on.  My freedom and your freedom are what excites me.

Character     Covenant     Creativity

Family     Freedom    Gift Giver

Joy    Judgement    Kindness    Trust

Love     Praise      Prayer     Self-love

 

Gift Giver

laughing-santa-merry-christmas-2015
Spreading Kingdom Cheer For All To Hear

I wanted to lighten the mood and communicate some truth through this next piece entitled Santa.  There are some really healthy concepts we can take from the fairy tale relationship society has with Santa that would be correctly applied to God.  If this offends you, you should probably stop reading this and do something else that makes you happy.  🙂

Here we go.  For some reason Santa always is depicted as the nice guy, he’s in a good mood!  God, however, he’s the scary guy.  He’s the mean, tight-fisted, we gotta perform for him to get us to love him guy.  Santa on the other hand loves us all unconditionally.  He doesn’t put anyone on the naughty list because he wants to, its just what he’s gotta do and that’s on you.  God on the other hand sometimes get depeicted as delighting throwing people in a hell they deserve.  That that kind of justice makes him happy inside.  Mr. Cruel.  😦

Joy, abundance, generosity, celebration, warmth, comfort, safety, color, wonder, awe, love, and all those other things so many people associate with the idea of Santa and Christmas all come from God, that king born in a manger.  He’s the guy that’s not a stubborn, boring, unfriendly stoic savior.  He nice.  And not only that, he’s funny.  He’s understanding and patient.  He likes you and enjoys your company.  He delights in your creation and is full of wonder of the person you are becoming.  He looks forward to time with you and believes in you more than you believe in yourself.

Stickler

When it comes to giving Santa’s reputation far exceeds Gods.  When it comes to getting something from God, I picture intercession, fasting, declaration, and sacrifice.  When I picture getting something from Santa, all you have do is tell him and sometimes he just knows because he’s that good and nice!  And he always wants to know and give us what we desire just because he’s that awesome!

In my dreams I sometimes have Christmas dreams.  I know God is revealing himself to me as the generous giver of glorious, wonderful gifts.  He’s doesn’t mind the correlation when it raising our expectations of receiving good things from him.  He loves giving good gifts to each of us.  It brings him delight.

People always depict Santa as being for us! He’s on our side, but God, sometimes he likes us, sometimes he likes us less, or at least that’s what people believe!  I’m sorry to say this but Santa didn’t die for you.  He didn’t need to because Christ already did.  If Santa died for you, he would have died, but you would still have needed an incarnate savior.  Santa doesn’t possess within his endless resources the gifts we truly need in this life.

We never question where Santa gets his funding or what his real motives are for all of this generosity.  We never wonder if he has enough resources or enough gifts that pertain to our specific desire.  Availability is never questioned.

What’s In His Bag?

For some reason we put limits on gifts from God especially when it pertains to ourselves.  God can’t possibly have enough joy for each of us, can he?  I don’t really deserve that much joy?  There obviously isn’t enough peace for my enemies and me, is there?  I can’t possibly have peace and health today if I had it yesterday, right, I mean, that’s just not the way God works right?  What does God want from me, what is he trying to do, is he just going to take this thing that I like away? We never just reason that God’s good to us because he’s good.

I’m not talking about God giving us plastic junk (not that he can’t communicate love to us through those things).  I’m talking about our lives being filled with abundance of his goodness and our hearts overflowing with heaven’s wonders.  Goodness no price tag can buy and the stuff rich men long for, sometimes found in abundance among the poor.

I love the Christmas season.  It is a tiny prelude to the abundance of heaven’s eternal warmth, goodness, love, forgiveness, togetherness, sparkle-y-ness and generosity.  Merry Eternal Christ-season.

Character     Covenant     Creativity

Family     Freedom    Gift Giver

Joy    Judgement    Kindness    Trust

Love     Praise      Prayer     Self-love

 

Family

Happy family standing on the beach at the sunset time. Parents hold in the hands inscription "Family". Concept of happy family.

Intro

In my mind family and the trinity are the same expression.  God himself lives in community.  Three in one.  The individuals within God, the trinity, are separate persons yet one. They have individual expression, purpose, function, and yet are one. They move separately yet are one. How God relates to himself, or how the trinity relates to one another is the self-sustaining heaven humanity gets to partake of. Everything is satisfied within God himself, yet he invited us to experience the glory of his nature. And not only to experience it, but embody it through him indwelling within us. I no longer live, yet Christ in me.

Living Heartbeat

Family. Let’s start with marriage. God said let man and woman be made in my image. Himself, not fully expressed in man, or woman, but their functioning together. God could have made us asexual able to regenerate ourselves but he didn’t. He purposed for two genders to live their lives together, living it through him, by him, and in him, as two separate beings functioning as one. He said I have made you one flesh. Of course wedding partners don’t become Siamese twins but they are one person, one flesh, not a trinity but a binity?  And then comes the third element, children.

We are never called to be one with are children, but one a larger scale we are called to be one as Christ’s body. We are all called to be one. How do we all become one? How do we become one with our spouse? Our children?  We become one with Holy Spirit.  Well you already are one with Holy Spirit as he lives inside of you and your spirit is one with his, but when we become one with him, we become one with someone who is already one with that other person, whether it be your child, your spouse, whomever. Fear in our relationships doesn’t lead us to love others well, Holy Spirit does. And often loving others well often begins with healthy love for ourself.

This might have gotten a little confusing but we don’t become one in family by forcing it. Any family with a teenager has probably seen that doesn’t work, but God is one with his children, he knows them, he knows you. Everyone wants to belong somewhere. Everyone wants to be accepted somewhere. These wants and desires have their origins in the innate purpose of family. If the church is ever to become one with each other, it is not a matter of church membership. It is a matter of holy spirit living. But this post isn’t my church post, this is my family post, but perhaps, just perhaps the function and purpose of the two are the same.

In the absence of family, or even with a healthy one, God is family to us. The trinity is our eternal family, always has been, always will be.  Our natural families merely reveals his expressions. He is our mother, he was our mother’s love to us in our lives, that was him loving you. God is our brother, our friend, our counselor, our husband, our leader. He is all those things and so much more. He is the love you are experiencing every day through the people around you. It is him. He is that love. He is actively in love with you through your family, or those who play that role for you in your life.

Why Not?

So if family is created to be so wonderful and amazing and heaven on earth, why is it so often not?  I’m not even referring to mine specifically, just in general it seems so many hard things can come our way through family itself, the very thing meant to be a blessing to us.  Whether you feel misunderstood, neglected, abused, or abandoned, you are worth far more than any negative thing a family member believes about you.  In fact you are a blessing to your family.  God can give you love for your family with healthy boundaries even if they don’t have them.

You can not change people and others actions and words are out of your control.  But you have the power to fully control your thoughts, actions, and words and when the opportunity arises, you can love.  You can think and speak blessing.  You can ask questions and listen.  You can celebrate and you can serve.  You may not be able to make others love you but you can celebrate them just as they are still fully possessing the full value of Christ’s sacrifice.

Interdependent Beauty

I know that my husband embodies Christ to me. And God wants me to get that. He wants me to connect that reality to my mind even beyond my heart. He wants us to be interdependent and needing one another. He wants life to be enjoyed being shared. This can also happen through community outside of the conventional family structure. The same healthy exchange of love is still lived, witnessed, and experienced through friendship and covenant amongst people outside of traditional marriage roles. But that’s still family. It still embodies the destiny and purpose of family.

Summary

The family entity embodies the presence of God. It can be heaven on earth as God lives through and in the participating people. We are not slaves or zombies, we get to live the fullest expression of ourselves in complete freedom and that reveals him as we get to love others and share life with them in all its ups and downs. A family living in the strength of love reveals the exchange that has eternally existed within the Godhead.

The kindness in your tone towards your husband reveals him, the empathy you show towards your wife reveals him, the joy you share your children reveals him. Heaven is community living in healthy love. No self-destructive or other-destructive behaviors. This is where things are headed. Loving people loving people. Family is meant to be the canvas that reveals a servant lover, a humble savior, a faithful friend. Healthy family is the breeding ground for courage.

Family is a safe place to fail. Without faithfulness beyond failure, it is not love and you can catch up on that in my other piece called LOVE.   This piece on family may expand later but this is all I have for now.  Moving along.

Character     Covenant     Creativity

Family     Freedom    Gift Giver

Joy    Judgement    Kindness    Trust

Love     Praise      Prayer     Self-love

 

 

Covenant

the-last-supper-04
Introduction

We serve a god not of contract but a god of covenant. The idea of covenant is largely lost on the modern western world.  Nothing is forever. There is always a loophole, fine print, an agreement that’s been arranged, an appeal. Prenuptial marriage arrangements, abortions, and a world of child support regulations, etc.,we swim in a world prepared for escape, a way out, an exit.

What if that wasn’t the way things weren’t meant to be. What if there was glory in taking responsibility for our choices. What if there was honor in being faithful, in following through, even when everything’s gone to shit. Even when convenience is lost and it seems as if all hope is gone. Welcome to covenant.  The essence of covenant is something unbreakable.

Covenant = Freedom

That’s where the idea of blood came into covenant. As long as my blood is coursing through my veins, as long as there is life in me, our agreement between one another stands and is alive too.  Covenant is an irrevocable thing. This can seem a suffocating concept, but when its in your favor, covenant is the one thing that causes the breathe of relief and the removal of all fear. This thing is unchangeable and isn’t going anywhere.

I could’ve researched covenant but I don’t think one understands it until they’ve experienced it. I am in covenant relationship with some people. No matter my mistakes, no matter my failure, no matter my performance, love and connection is still the standard of the relationship. Understanding is something enjoyed as life experience is shared within covenant.

Good always overcomes evil. My experience of covenant in this life was the recipe for the uprooting of rejection within me.  Someone’s commitment over the period of years was the only thing that eventually quieted that voice in my mind that whispered, “You better perform right, or relationship will end.” The fear that would haunt, “If you fail too much, you will be abandoned and justifiably so.  Rejection will be what you’ve earned and deserve.”

When people won’t be distanced, won’t be pushed away, won’t believe the worst of you, the barriers for the needed self-protection of independence dissolve. Covenant between people in regards to union is the antithesis of abandonment and rejection.

Covenant Anyone?

In Jewish culture, marriage is a covenant. The terms of covenant would be laid out in a dinner with both families present. The groom-to-be would lay what conditions he would fulfill if the covenant was received. After finishing stating his end of the deal he would offer a glass of wine to the bride-to-be. If she drank, the covenant terms were accepted and the covenant locked in place but not consummated yet. It was a the beginning of a covenant that was soon to come.

At the last supper, Jesus was proposing to humanity as a lover right before their eyes. He said the terms of this covenant was the laying down of his life – his very blood – in exchange for redemption of all loss, union, and fulfillment of design. He offers us still the cup of his blood and the brokenness of his body in the vulnerable offer of our inclusion in himself and righteousness unto peace that is a free gift. He says drink of me. You must drink my blood and eat my flesh he said.

It was his invitation of union. God doesn’t half ass anything. He’s an all-in kinda guy. This is the indestructible union of spirit with no fine print clauses underlying our relationship with him. Covenant is the only way he presents himself to us.  I will never leave you or forsake you, he says. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. All this extreme and dramatic language starts to taste like candy when it leaves no room for a draft of rejection to seep through, no room for the whispers of the coldness of a contract relationship to rear its head.

Conclusion

God is not into contract relationships, and his relationship towards you was set in blood, his blood and nothing in heaven or hell can legally undermine this spiritually, and eternally binding contract that God has made with humanity—with you. Nothing. Breathe. The nature of your relationship with God is indestructible and unthwartable by any force. This is the environment of safety meant to provide any child of God with the limitless freedom his secure love provides. This covenant is the foundation of joy.

Character     Covenant     Creativity

Family     Freedom    Gift Giver

Joy    Judgement    Kindness    Trust

Love     Praise      Prayer     Self-love