20060121

the beauty of creating

i received an encouraging email today.
from a woman who was encouraged by the words on my website.
in response, i shared that i, too, am often encouraged by the words,
even those that are my own.
that is the beauty of creating, in whatever form:
it sets something beyond yourself that can give unto to others
and even back to you.
what a delightful thought then,
to think of how God,
the Creator,
might be encouraged and blessed by His creations...
including us.
He has set something beyond Himself
that can give to others
and to Himself.
sixpence none the richer, indeed!
the economy of God is truly strange and beautiful.
i am grateful to be made in the Imago Dei,
with the power to create.

20060118

if i ever

if i ever knew just how you love me
if i understood the way you feel
if i ever called just at the right time
i might know what i'm supposed to do

if i ever saw the view from your side
if i only knew all of the truth
if i could hold my gaze at your eyes
i might always agree with you

but i'm calloused on the inside
i've been crooked way down deep
i am used to just pretending
that i'm as good as i can be

if i ever told you how i love you
if i could ever show the way i feel
if i can stand naked before you
i might have your point of view

but i am calloused on the inside
for so long crooked way down deep
and i'm used to just pretending
that i'm as good as i can be

save me jesus, kill me quickly
i must die a thousand times
before i will believe you love me
before i stop buying my own lies

these words fall easily from my lips
like so many words before
but have i ever really meant them
if i never love you any more

someday i'll see the bigger picture
and not this dim and mirrored view
but until then i'm just trusting
that you love me and i love you

still i'm calloused on the inside
i'm still crooked way down deep
i'm just trying not to pretend
that i'm as good as i can be

20060103

rights

i don't think i believe in unalienable rights.
at least, i'm pretty sure i don't like the modern american version of them.
right to choose, right to life,
right to privacy, right to liberty,
right to pursue happiness, right to marriage,
right to vote, right to health care,
right to this, right to that...
i see no end to claims of "rights" these days,
and i'm sick of the idea.
it has become unabashedly selfish;
perhaps it has always been intrinsically so.
i can see no love in it.
if unalienable rights do exist, they must be divinely endowed.
the only way a "social contract" can make an "unalienable right" is to qualify the definition of "unalienable" until it is meaningless.
for a truly unalienable right to exist, it must come from an eternal Authority.
it must be a gift, as life itself is.
it is grace.
and i see no grace in our modern claims of rights.
debates over human rights largely amount to "deserves"...
"i deserve better!"
"we deserve this!"
"they deserve that!"
there's no grace in giving people what they deserve.
rights have become justice without love.
i think very little of things lacking love.
besides, we truly only deserve very little that we want and very much that we do not want.
a demand for justice can be a dangerous request.
love must rule or we are in serious trouble.

so i don't believe in a right to life.
i believe in a divine command to love one another.
i don't believe in a right to liberty.
i believe in a call to be gracious and patient with one another.
i don't believe in a right to pursue happiness.
i believe we are to love God with our all, for He loves us all dearly.
and if we love Him, we must love those He dearly loves.

so take whatever hotbutton political issue you like,
ignore all the foolish bickering over so-called rights,
and consider, "God loves them, how can we do the same?"