For the Love of God

 
For the love of God
Stop politicizing your faith
The God of the nations does not identify with your sides
The God of the galaxies is not concerned with your categories
For the love of God, stop speaking so much
sit in the discomfort of silence and examine your heart
Stop projecting, expecting more from others than you give yourself,
stop painting a picture of how you want to be seen
in a desperate attempt to rid yourself of guilt or prove your personal goodness,
stop denying, stop condemning;
You are not a righteous judge.
Human, think of the conflicts within yourself
the areas of your thinking and believing that
you cannot reconcile or redeem
Do you want reconciliation and redemption?
Surely, you will not find it within
you cannot go a few days with out
opposition and pain
You inflict problems simply by existing,
lay down your pride
And understand that you are not the answer
you are the problem.

You seek your own comfort over the well being of your neighbor
you focus on the materialistic, superficial, and transient
you make idols out of lust, money, dreams, and passions
you lie for your own gain, you love for your own satisfaction
Do you truly believe that a collection of your own thoughts and ideals would bring
hope to the most broken and desolate parts of your country, your world?
You have not defied death or disease,
You have not conquered the grave,
no, you are headed for death and on a
consuming path of destruction
Everything you can hold in your hand will soon rust,
and those intangible accomplishments that you identify with
Are of no greater value than dust
If you are remembered at all after you are gone from this earth,
you will have no knowledge of what they will say or believe
About who you were, or what you did
And if you knew, would that be enough?
You are not satisfied with the words that they tell you now,
their praise and approval does not remedy the ache and void inside of you

Human, each day your body is weighed heavy by the pressure
of aging, the elements of time and space are working together
To prove your fragility and your mortality
Do you see how great of a predicament you are in
with out Grace?

Apart from Christ, there is no good
There is simply fleeting pleasure and
hollow contentment
With out the atoning blood of Jesus
you are left to your own devices
to your own efforts,
emotions, disappointments,
successes, memories, mistakes,
futile attempts at building something that will last
that cannot last,
that will burn up and
if anything at all
simply and solely be a part of the
past
Human, sit with your soul
attempt to cradle the wounds and complexities
of this strange existence,
Slow down for a moment and face the
reality of the grandeur of the skies and
the smallness of your being

I choose the everlasting,
I choose the abundant life
the one that is not dependent upon anything that I have done or will do –
The one that is given full and complete meaning
because of the perfect life of a man,
who was and is God, who was killed
who bled vibrant, pulsing blood for the
nature of my being that
was enslaved by sin
but designed for communion

I live in wholeness now,
because of the breath that returned to his body
and the purpose that was restored to me –
completely and fully alive now,
no longer defeated by the daily
anxiety and hopelessness of the temporary
I live in truth now,
I can see the world for what is is now,
an aching collection of breathing bodies
and immortal souls that will not stop
killing, lying, stealing, fighting,
dying, mourning, crying, deceiving,
breaking, aging, enslaving, and groaning…

Until, the glory of God is revealed
And the nations are healed
and every tongue declares
Jesus; savior of the world.

How do I live now? I pursue Him now,
what does he require of me?
To do justice, to love kindness,
to walk humbly with my God

Have you grown weary yet,
of eating and never becoming full?
Of drinking, only to thirst again?
The hunger within you will
only be satisfied when you no longer
Eat of this world

For the love of God,
dismantle your pride,
turn your eyes

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Overwhelmed

Would I have been the one who hated you, who stood in the crowds and yelled?
Would I have been the one to judge you, to claim your ungodliness in the midst of your perfection?
Would I have been the one to disgrace you, to invite you to my home in an attempt to prove you wrong?

I want to see the depths of my unworthiness,
the grandeur of my sin,
I want to know it well and never forget it,
so that when I remember your mercy towards me
I will not take it lightly

So that when I think of the way you have redeemed me,
I will not be able to glance at another and have a single condemning thought
You said that you hate six things,
and I have done every one of them
I’ve been consumed by my arrogance,
seen myself as more important
I’ve been a part of a culture that consumes at the expense of others,
I’ve made my plans and drawn out my days, ignoring your truth and existence
I’ve spent years hurrying to my own depravity, running to a relationship
that perpetually produced brokenness and separation from you
I’ve breathed out lies, failed to speak truth, allowed rumors to thrive
I’ve been the cause of discord, hosted hostility in my heart and opposition in my words

Oh, how I need you
Every hour, every minute, I need you

The notion that I am not enough, will never be enough, will always come up short
is the most freeing conviction
In my desperation and weakness, your grace is sufficient
The concept that I could never do enough, achieve enough, work enough
is the liberation my soul desires
You have already finished everything I have yet to start,
you are the beginning, the end, and the most important thing in between

Oh, my soul is satisfied and wanting more at the same time

Do not let my distracted mind forget the crimson blood you shed for me,
Overwhelm my quickness to settle in the temporary with a vivid vision of eternity

Although I have yet to carve idols out of wood and stone,
I’ve set my eyes on things a part from you
This is an endless plea from my mouth,
let me see your goodness and not stray from it

I remember the wormwood and the gall,
and then I look to see your face
In your truth I am free from a life of bitterness,
In your love, you’ve eradicated my transgressions,
redefined my future, and justified my presence

Each new morning, I am met with your mercy
and it will carry me through every day
Silence is unwelcome here, in the light of your grace

Let this be a declaration of my hope in you,
let my words saturate the emptiness of life a part from you
let this be an invitation, like the one you’ve given to me
for any soul that is aching, to finally be redeemed

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child

in the face of a child
i find myself helpless
confronted by innocence, and she shows me how tainted
i have let me life become
tainted by selfishness and anxiety
by heartbreak and relationship,
i find myself complex and irritated
but in the face of a child
i am shown that this life still has something to offer
and by the grace of god that all of the grown have somehow forgotten
we are free.
i am hurt by disbelief
i am broken by sorrow
i am twisted by change,
she tells me a secret
and i will never forget it,
knowing that every whisper holds a truth,
and that in the face of a child
i can find purpose,
confronted by innocence
i will shake this stain and bitterness