There are two streams of Law in Jewish tradition coming down from Mt Sinai: one is oral the other written. I like both, but tend to stream in the oral one-it’s wetter to me.

In Jewish tradition, there are two streams coming down the sacred mountain of God’s revelation: one is oral, the other written. God is speaking, and has spoken.

Of the two streams of law running off Sinai, i tend to swim in the oral one; yet both matter. And there are more life guards along the banks of the written river! Rhema and Logos inform one another. I’ll keep trying to stream and swim in both! What He is saying now, and what He wrote down.

Considering also, the relative speeds of the two streams coming down the mountain! One for longer meditation; one for immediate action. Both, in Him! Both needed. Both always available in Him. Both stream constantly. But, Wisdom shows you which to jump into when. Both are made of Love. Which stream is needed when, requires Wisdom and discernment. But both are living expressions from the same Source. Both Rhema and Logos pour forth from the same Source. It’s almost like choosing which expression of God we need most at each season, is the thing. God is always speaking, and has spoken. Which part do we need to lean into Him in. Which medium is best each season? How is the Cloud wanting to be heard today! Discerning His method of communication each season is a key to spiritual growth!

There’s a great story told about the Jewish teacher Martin Buber. Once, a man came to his door to ask him a question. Buber was polite, but in the midst of deep study of scriptures that day. Buber was cordial, but as he put it: “I did not answer the questions which were not asked.” The next day this man killed himself.

From then on “Buber concluded that encounters with people must take precedence over scholarship and mystical speculation.” (Telushkin)

He soon afterwards wrote “I and Thou”, his famous book about the two types of basic relations or orientations we have with others.

Kindness and depth listening still go a long way with people. Nice to be reminded again today to prioritize souls above study or even art making at times. To keep oil on your door hinges! Even activities which are good in their own right can block us from Love. Good can be the worst enemy of best.

People still matter most. It reminds me of Jesus’ response when asked why he was helping people on the Sabbath, knowing that He was breaking the law. Love is higher than good works or even righteous study. Plus you never know about strangers, as it says, you could be entertaining angels; or a person in true need, as this man obviously was. Good meditation in our times.

Even a 711 convenience store lights can carry, and illuminate, a couple from a pub into their lover’s glory. Watched it happen again tonight. How a common couple just talking trash beforehand, could walk across a street and start shining in neon green and being seen as Chagall’s dream of marriage.

Each of us so capable of carrying seasons in us, of participating in the Great Dream of being and becoming daily! When we are willing to cross the road into our glory–the glories of each season alight on us, repeatedly.

Then, from lovers to elders we pass on the long journey home. But something about that lover’s moment, so stellar in instance and the drama of circumstances, sticks with you long enough to motivate you through all the other seasons of becoming-the long song home. Such a potent radiant shimmering of beginning, these lovers in convenience store light glowing alone for a moment like painting hung on the universe’s gallery walls, deserves a great ending, and the whole story to be walked out towards the endless Altar. So we walk on through many types of lighting, as we go…but we never forget in our skin, that first lover’s glow.

Becoming a professional me! The spirituality of being myself.

Why I became a professional me! I decided to become a professional me instead of becoming just a counselor or art therapist, or minister (though I think I’m all three and a writer of sorts; and have training in all these areas, as well as some in art). Yet, I chose to hang my passing professions on the hook of identity.

I’ve worked to allow Him to make me me, and let all the expressions flow from there. Identity has been my main place of meeting God, or my spirituality. It seems to me, He wanted it that way, in my case, for some reason. To emphasize me, as a way of revealing Himself!

For some people, He likes foregrounding identity through me. So I have to die lots in that area: Not I, but Christ, so I know the real I, sort of thing. At least that’s how my journey has unfurled. When I’m being me, I meet God. I stay in His Name, and He whispers mine.

Professions are sort of like hats I wear. The important thing is that the I is there to wear the hat. So I’ve focused on that part in my life.

My favorite bible characters were very much themselves, and God used their autobiographies as part of His Message: Jeremiah, King David, St Paul etc; those whose personal story were part of their message. Those who became in themselves living portents or signs, as David put it. I’ve always been inspired by that. Sort of like the end of Johnny Cash’s career. The man himself, was the song, or became the song. I’m drawn to that way.

The challenges are, you have to really die to self often. So that it’s not an ego-centered thing. To sing the song of yourself in the right way, as David did in Psalm 139, to really see yourself as God’s poem, you have to die often. Otherwise, like most artists you get narcissistic. There are other challenges, but like Bono, you really do have be dead enough inside to “play” Bono on stage, and not take that persona too seriously. Or know that it’s one expression coming from who he really is.

He chose to make my story His Testimony, and in some sense, He does this with everyone. But some He specifically emphasizes their identities, as His method of telling about Himself. Your personal autobiography, becomes part of His. That’s how it’s been in my case anyway. Who I really am, is where I meet God the most. So I practice being more and more “in Him”. As I do, He lets me be more and more me. That’s His method through me. That’s why I became a professional me.

For, when I’m being myself, others see Him. It’s a little ironic. But the core practice is still, not I, but Christ, yet when I do this, He emphasizes my real “I”–ie the part which is actually “in Him”. Hidden in Christ, we truly are. The part which is abiding in Him, is our true self. For some reason, in my life, He chose to wear my name out, so to speak. He likes wearing me like a garment, so others can see. I like hanging in his wardrobe closet! The wardrobe closet of Christ is the best ever.

I tend to be drawn to others who have this one of a kindness type of spirituality. People like Thomas Merton and Henry Nouwen were so singular, specific, one of a kinders. People you say of: “they’ll never be another like that; after they made them, the broke the mold.” Sometimes God does that to reveal something about Himself. Johnny Cash and even Robin Williams had that type of singularity, where their story became His in some sense. But Jeremiah had it even stronger! I’ve got that type of calling. The calling of authentic identity. It has it’s own challenges, but as I get older, I can’t really not be me anymore.

When I take selfies, I am just letting Him celebrate Himself through how He made me. To celebrate identity itself as a sign pointing to God. It’s really not about, and yet fundamentally is, about me myself. This is why I choose to often tell my own life stories when I speak or write. Like the one of talking that man off a bridge in Paris, or being at 911 etc. When I tell my stories God shows up because that’s where I meet Him. My stories are how He filters Himself. When I am being me, you should sense Him nearby.

So I decided to become a professional me, so others can see and meet My Friend Jesus. And I hope I become the song of myself He is singing through me, because when I do, you will hear The Song of songs–the Song of Christ. And I want to fit Christ like a royal glove, so I keep myself malleable in His Love. For when I am being me, others can see. So I’ll go on being me.

Just praying hoops again today…in waiting for the swish of the resurrection…or perhaps the slam dunk in basketball terms–seemed right, on Holy in between day, where i often find myself, and where we all live most of the time—that already, not yet space in hope based on what we already know, and what we faith to be true.

So just praying around today! Hooping for the best for each of us!
I love the in between in life (even prayer occurs there!), liminal spaces, just between death and resurrection; and Jesus seemed pretty busy in His interim!

The mystery of what He was up to in the grave, has always captivated me but is rarely preached, as there is that holy Saturday silence around it, a clearing of the altars for what is more obviously clear in the story; though, there are hints of what He was up to in the grave. I’m sure on many levels, He was preparing for His after party (the one which never ends, and has already begun)…so, thought I’d just pray around with and into it again today!

Hoping and hooping for a great Easter for all this year. We need a few stones rolled away this year! Glad the big one already was, so our smaller ones roll away more easily. Happy Easter to all my friends! May the power of the resurrection touch you personally, in the way it’s meant to this season!

Celebrating the song of ourselves into the coming seasons!

In Christ, the whole person–heart, mind, and imagination, and body-is meant to house God. For those who highlight one of these aspects, that area must even more regularly be brought to the Cross. For teachers, this would be the mind, for many healers, the heart; for prophetic people, the imagination. These must be placed entirely and repeatedly as a practice on His Altar and be consumed, so that His Pure Life can form itself into these areas of who we are. For a prophetic person, to be able to discern his own sight and feeling and thoughts from God’s is the most basic foundation of representing God to others on earth.

God wants to incarnate into more of us! Our soil, sight and skin! By doing so, He will reveal to us how to relate to the earth, how to see from His Imagination, and how to live in our physical bodies. He wants to enter more deeply into each area of us in our times!

Here, I want to look at our true identities and how we express them-this relationship between who we are, and how we express outwardly, or symbolize ourselves in whatever medium–business, arts, ministry etc. What is meant to be the relationship between identity and our creative expression; both individually, and collectively? How does who we are, pour forth and match our cultural expressions.

He knows us, therefore we are called to various outer expressions. He formed us, therefore He expresses through us. The key versus here are Psalm 139; Jeremiah’s calling passage; Ephesians 2:10–where we are told we are His Poems, meant to be sung!

Our voices sound like us. I sound “like” my representation of myself-my voice is like me- because “I” am connected to my symbolic expression of myself. We symbolize ourselves. Our self expressions-how we dress ourselves, how we sound, how we walk and sit down- all flow out from who we are. Our voices represent us! The sound of myself issues from who I am. Even our literal voices are like sonic fingerprints entirely unique and flowing from who we are!

Similarly, my art, and all my creative expressions, come out of who I am, and my relationship with God. My representation of myself flows out from my own core identity and so is one with it. This is something God did in me, and that I want to help others, and the cities to do-to re-integrate their creative and cultural parts into and with their core identities. So that who we are is represented and in continuum with, what we create. I want to see the symbolic, or cultural aspect flowing from each person and city’s core identity.

You can sense when a symbol is truly connected. It is grounded in an unseen core that is unique and special. It makes symbols which flow from true identity. The expression itself is alive and frenetically in life. Those clothes suit that person; that symbol represents and flows from that city!

It is as when you see an artist whose work flows from his or her own true identity-you sense something true in their expression, connected to who they are, authentic. So should it be with us and our culture. The whole process is modeling how God’s creation expresses His Core Identity (The “I am, therefore, I love and do this and that-such as incarnate into My own creation,” factor). And we, who are made in His Image, should be doing the same. Our symbolic expressions should represent and flow out from who we truly are. Core identity is the root of expression. We are, therefore we symbolize.

We are meant to have authentic spiritualities! Our expression should flow from who we actually are in Christ. Our inner dialogue with Him should determine the nature and shape of our outer expressions. When the two are attached, we say that person is being themselves in Christ. They are authentic. Or, as a friend told me once: “You are able to love and follow Jesus, but still be yourself.” This is the key. We are actually freed to be our true selves in Him. The more I know Him, the more He releases my true self. I’m more me, as I’m more Thee, so to speak!

People symbolize themselves through how they dress, where they live, what jobs they choose, types of vehicles they drive (if they drive), virtual representations etc–but no one can escape their own symbolic dimension. For this is an aspect of how God made us–we are in His Image. All our creative expressions are meant to flow from who we truly are. It is all meant to be allowed to express their core identity. So that the whole person is connected as a poem of God.

The symbolic is an aspect of communication. It is a layer and medium for communication. What we are communicating, comes from our core, or from who we really are. Symbolic expressions are a way of holding or containing content which is issuing from our true self. Similarly God’s symbolic expressions are means of carrying messages from His I AM self–His Core identity. If we look at the symbolic as a dimension of communication, it becomes less intimidating. It’s not just about art and being creative; it is an aspect of communication. And one God clearly speaks in, and is part of who we are, in His Image. We as humans are symbolizing creatures. We represent things in symbolic language. And we dialogue with Our Creator using symbolic language. Language itself is a symbol or representation of meaning; as is the whole Bible if you think about it.

People are, by nature of what they are, symbolic. We symbolize ourselves, and our city’s, like a person, symbolize themselves. God wants to heal the connection between core identity and creativity, so that He can symbolize through each person and city what they truly are, and then, by extension, who He is–as we are His Art or expressions on earth meant to reflect back into and reveal His Core Identity! Jesus was “the exact representation of God” (Collosians).

He was the uninterrupted art flowing out from who The Father is onto the earth. We are to be like Jesus, as we join His Nature in symbolizing who God is. This is part of our role on earth, especially those who are “in His Name”! This is a dynamic creative process, just as God created the universe as an expression of Himself, so we are to be symbolizing our selves on earth. In doing so, we are cultivating His Image on the earth! That is part of our mandate in this life–to bear the fruit of His Image and cultivate it!

This task is especially important in our time, as God wants to press into us in a deeper incarnation of His Life. He wants to baptize us more deeply into His Name, and therefore the nuances of our own!!! What began at the re-formation, He desires to take into much deeper formation in our times.

He is interested in deep formation right now, and needs His People to yield every area of their lives to His fuller entrance–including our creativity and symbolic life. He desires to express Himself more fully through us–and this is our motivation for allowing Him to integrate and fully inhabit our creativity! We must be freed to allow Him to connect us internally, so that our symbolic aspect can flow freely out from who we truly are. Many of us need to try on and play with this interplay between core identity and expression so that we can “oil the hinges” so to speak.

We need to get used to God playing within us, and allowing our expressions to flow outwards in Him. There is so much of His Life in this process. For His Creativity has the aspect of Jesus which is Life–energy, blood passion etc. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Creativity has to do with His Life.

There are many blocks to this process of creative flow out from true identity. Some are self judgements or criticisms by others, on our creativity; invalidated or undervalued creativity; the sense that to create is fleshy or self indulgent; the belief that creativity is a luxury; or the idea that my core identity is not worth expressing. None of these are true. We are as humans meant to symbolize and create expression both of who we are, and what it is to be human.

For, it is ultimately not just about us–God Himself wants to come in and express Himself from who we are! It is for His Purposes and Glory flow that we want to get free and integrated in this area! We are to be representatives of God on earth–or symbols of what He is like (“For don’t you know that we are his poems!” Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10)–ie we are children of God, so like God we should have our creativity flowing from our identity. God Is, so He creates. We also, are, and therefore should be creating.

This is not just about art, you see. It is about God coming into us more deeply and inhabiting His living temple–which we together are! (I Cor 3:16) We are the well lit house in which every room, including our artistic studios are meant to be illuminated. He is The Light, and wants to shine it into every room of the house that we are. Yes, this requires healing and snooping around our interior houses to find which rooms are locked. But we must now! There is no time to have unseen cellars locked up and bared from Christ’s entrance. We need to allow Him into every single room of who we are, and make the whole house shine!

Recently, His Spirit has been pressing on me His Desire to incarnate more fully in anyone who is willing. He wants to occupy and then cultivate the whole self–the whole house. He actually wants to live in the house and look out its windows with us! Jesus is not over there, He is in here, and wants to peer out your inner windows and manifest Himself to others through our gazing together in Him! There is a deeper level of incarnation being made available this season! This is actually the meaning of Christmas–that God came into the house of His Own Creation and dwelt with us. He entered our very physical frame as a human and hung out on earth. He desires to make this more tangible to us-individually and collectively- in this hour. He wants to live in our house. He is looking for an inn to lay His Head in! We are that inn. The unlikely place of the birthing of Our Lord.

This is one of the reasons the prophetic has been restored in the church. It is not just for prophecy itself–which is valuable and needed–but it is, that we may better represent who God is. He is restoring His Own Symbolic nature in His People, so they can better be His representatives, or art, on earth. He wants the world to know who He is, and this is part of our motivation for allowing Him to bring home our creativity and allow it to be connected to who He says that we are, and is causing us to become. God wants to manifest His Son’s Life through us in every area. God is One, and He desperately desires us to become more one or integrated as well. Not just for our pleasure, though, we experience pleasure from being more whole, but so that He can better say to the world who He is!

When His Kingdom comes in us, it includes the symbolic aspect of who He is, and who we are. Our whole selves are being offered a deeper baptism into His Name or Identity. He desires that we go all the way under now. The creative water of His Life is flowing, and it is time for us to drown in it, and be reborn as glorious poems of God.

True identity itself is only revealed by Jesus coming into us. As we see Him, we begin to be shown who we are. That is the transformation of the gaze to The Gazer–face to face; deep to deep exchange that happens when we see Jesus’ Identity! The way to know yourself, is to seek to know Him! As He progressively enters every area of our lives, our true identity begins to shine brighter and brighter. He is a liberator of identity. Even the disciples often forgot or did not see who they were. Jesus would tell them–oh you are a great man, Nathaniel, and Jesus goes on to imply that Nathaniel was also a seer. With Peter, just after he is shown Jesus’ identity, Jesus tells Peter directly who he was, telling him the true nature of his eternal identity. Peter was a solid stoney foundational person. I imagine he would be the one on the bottom of the mosh pit, holding everyone up!

The process of coming into a clear image of ourselves is through the basic steps of: conviction and confession of sin, forgiveness of others and self for the sin, and for not allowing Jesus into that part of yourself before; inviting Jesus in, then learning what the new life is like in that part of your inner house–ie allowing His Spirit to cultivate new life there. Simply put. Realizing you need Jesus to enter another area of yourself. Confessing that you are a sinner in that area and have kept Him out, forgiving yourself for doing this in His Power of forgiveness, then others for whatever wounds they inflicted which made you not want to enter this inner room. Then allowing Him in to clean the room and repaint it in the new creation. He begins to cleanse the windows of our perception of ourselves, and put our true eternal self in true focus. He will then start to celebrate this newly renovated or converted part of yourself as His Own, and showoff the room to others.That’s the basic process of claiming more of yourself in Christ.

Then there are heavenly glimpses of our eternal selves-white stone whispers. He will show us aspects of who we really are in dreams, visions and open prayer spaces. Most people when praying, don’t think to look at themselves. When we are truly lifted up and in prayer vision space, we want to see so much of what is there, and somehow it seems selfish to turn and look at what we are “by and in His Spirit”. But this is not a selfish act, if He draws us to gaze through His Eyes at ourselves, it is to remember God’s Perception of who we are, and to celebrate His creative creation! David does this in Psalm 139, and it is very important to see yourself as as amazing as those you are trying to help and pray for. For we are His Poems, and we should radiate and live out our lives as poems. We are meant to attract people to Him! If we have not seen the shape of glory in ourselves, we will not celebrate His shining out through us, and attract others to Himself through our lives.

Paul appears to have had one of these heavenly glimpses of his own identity moments, which he describes in…

I have had several of these glimpses of my eternal identity. In one, I was taken in the Spirit, to a rolling meadow much like the western part of Ireland, but the water, stones and earth were alive radiant, and teeming with energy. I was running very fast, and jumping and carrying messages from God who was at the origin of the longest river I had ever seen. I was literally ecstatically delivering these messages to others from Him. I could feel His joy tangibly with each step and leap! There were animals also in my part of heaven, and the streams all lead to Jesus Himself. The freedom there, just to be myself, was indescribable. In another, I was with The Father, on his lap, and he would give me these messages on stones and paper, and then i would run, fly, race and deliver them to people in the valley on earth. His pleasure was in watching me run with these messages and in how I delivered them. He took specific joy to see how I would get His words to people and places.

Like an earthly father watching in sheer delight to see how their child would run with what he had given them. I knew after that vision, that I carry messages, for the Father’s delight, not because I just want to be special or timely, but for My Father’s pleasure. That is why prophetic actions have always been fun for me. People have said to me before, you have so much fun carrying the prophetic, when usually it is so serious for others.

I think this is why it is fun for me. I know that I am bringing My Father joy in carrying my little messages to others, and bringing whatever is in them; and in delivering them in His Orientation–i like giving the words in His Tone and feeling sense, not just the words of the message, but the heart of the One I am delivering them for! That’s my pleasure in life. I really enjoy making Him happy, and that makes me happy! That’s why I love prophetic activity. I also learn so much about the One I am delivering things for, as I do it! That is a huge part of my own spirituality.

I have several other visions of my own identity as well. I think I am much taller in the Spirit than I am on earth, based on a vision. And intensely colorful and energetic. One friend saw me in the Spirit, and said, “You wear color for others, but are also made of color.” There is an outer appearance, and an inner material which are analogous. This seems true to me, as we see that Jesus in His resurrected form was still recognizable, though much more radiant. And we are told that when He returns, people will still see His scars and others marks of his human identity! My point here, is we can in vision and prayer get true glimpses of our eternal identity, and live on earth accordingly.

Much of my own art making is to stay in creative “shape” so I can better present and carry the messages that God wants to speak through me. I want to be able to turn on a dime and offer the words in His exact orientation towards that person, place or thing. I call this prophetic orientation. Like Jeremiah, who at times would teach in the temple, other times, do symbolic actions, and still other times write down the words of God. I want to have the right medium for the right words. I like to be malleable in and for His Spirit to speak in the exact intonations of The Father. That is one of my passions.

Art is like the wrapping of the gift for me. Sometimes i just make art for fun without one of His gifts inside, and that is good also, as I am creative; but my highest pleasure is when i am wrapping one of God’s gifts in art to offer to others. So, when “ministering a word” ask the Father the tone He wants the message delivered in-how He wants to wrap it–what color, what type of texture or ribbon etc. Seek out a little of where the other person is at spiritually also. Then ministering becomes another way of getting to know The Father and His Ways, as you start to see why He would give to this person in this particular way considering exactly where they are at on their journey with Him. Why would He deliver this word to this person in this style or manner? What does that say about who He is?

These are vital questions, if want to minister as a way of knowing who God is! That is how ministry becomes our spirituality! All ministry is a means to knowing and loving God more! We are not victims of the task of ministering–it is our medium through which we come to know God’s Ways! Ministering a “word”, for instance, should be another part of getting to know and love Our God. Not something we do “for” Him, but as a means to get to know Him, and be more “in Him”!

Returning to identity, in many ways, we can see others and our cities to the degree we can see ourselves. If we do not know who we are, it is much harder to accurately know who another is. It is also hard to represent Christ, if we do not know who He says we are. Since, formation within us seems to be God’s priority even above what we do, i think this question of knowing our true identities precedes even our ministries and outreaches to our neighborhoods, cities and nations. The great commission requires us to know first who we are. If we do not know the most general facts- that we are children of God and brothers of Jesus- how can we guide others to at least that tier of true identity? If we truly are baptized into His Name, our own names should become much more clear over time.

I had a dream I was a star on a stage. From the audience’s perspective I was a celebrity and performer. In the dream I was looking up at God, and He had put this raiment or garment of fame and color on me, to attract people to himself. I was aware in this dream, that the coat was only an outer representation of an inner reality. How God saw me was much brighter than how the audience did. I was praying interceding for the audience in this dream. I was being the artist as priest, and was crying and screaming actually to The Father on their behalf. I did not need to applause or praise of the audience and could barely hear them, as I was pleading with The Father for His Mercy to tangibly enter my own life and usher into that space.

I had a similar dream once about Bono. The people saw him as rock star, but i could see his bruises and hear his crying for them in the dream. It was the image of a priest-who looked outwardly well dressed and in priestly garb, but inwardly was feeling the Heart of God and interceding. I do believe it is possible to be given much fame and still remain dead and living before The Father. I see this in most of the lives of the prophets who were given a large audience, but lived unto God. I also see this in the life of David, who lived as a very famous man, and stayed transparent and available to God. Many artist and ministers, i think, get caught up in the perceptions or need for approval of others. But I believe, we can, in Christ, be given large platforms of attention and stay in Him. I have seen this in my own earthly father’s life as well.

This dream reveals the priestly aspect of my own way of knowing God. The message delivering aspect of myself, reveals the prophetic. Both require self knowledge and for the need of man’s approval to be clearly and repeatedly entirely placed on the altar. These are necessary ongoing deaths to fulfill my own calling in life. If we are to become kings and queens-coheirs with Christ, we must truly die to the need to be seen as impressive by the world–even if God makes you look impressive for a season.

Well that’s me, but what about you. I pray that He start to offer you even more glimpses of the contours and nuances of your eternal self so that you can live out your short time on earth a little more analogously to your eternal life. For His Kingdom is already coming and here with us. Our spiritual biographies matter to God. He desires to tell the story of Himself through us-tp allow us to become His portents and symbols-His living poetry! Why not live in His Pronunciation of ourselves now?! This is Your Poetry reading God, come read us out loud in the pleasure of Your own Voice!

So, in short, this meditation is about, or at least towards a theology of identity.

The new creatures we are becoming are eternal, so valuable and nuanced to God. Therefore, it’s worth perfecting and growing into the contours of the poems we are in Him, inhabiting them; He values us, so we should; He wants to pronounce us, and by doing so Himself–ie the value of this one life has meaning; the growth process matters; Jesus is Unique–He models who God is, and he was distinguishable, specific, and unique in His identity. David’s blood line, his genealogical line was specific-not duplicable. God wanted us to know there was a particular family line Jesus came from. That was part of His message, and it still is.

Each of us has a particular path, we are, and are meant to walk on forever. We die to self to find true self in Him. We recognize His Name, to know our own. This is the way the true identity journey works. It begins with Peter’s moment of recognizing who Christ was, then immediately, Jesus starts to tell Him His eternal name!

“The path prepared beforehand, to be our way.” (Ephesians 2:10). And some of us, are meant to highlight that! Jeremiah was knit together in the womb–ie God knew Him; therefore he called him to be a prophet to the nations. Our identity precedes and informs our tasks in life. Identity precedes calling. Who we are in God, propels what we are meant to do with Him in collaboration and partnership. This is basic to a theology of true identity. Psalms 139 teaches us the same.

King David was able to sing the song of himself because He recognized Himself as God’s poetry! I, too, like nature and fearfully and wonderfully made. This is basis for true self esteem. We are God’s masterpieces, His poetry, which He is perfecting. And, the Author of our poem, will finish us up! We must faith into trust that He is able! That He who called us is also able to make us stand! (Romans 14:4)!

In short, God celebrates identity-even when highlighting His Own. His Son had specific contours to His Human identity–bloodlines etc. Identity matters to God. I’m looking at foundational truths about identity to ground us on in scriptures.

The I AM is one. God is integrated, and wants to integrate us! God is, therefore he creates. God as model of both identity and creativity’s place. God is One, and wants to make us also an integrated and unique poem, reflecting specific aspects of who He is. The song we are intended to be.

The three foundations for both art and identity are these: Jesus is Lord over all of Reality; He made us specifically to reflect certain aspects of His Father, so knows our names; The Father is able to make us a whole expression because of His Love for our whole selves. In short, God is One, Jesus is Lord over all of Reality, and God loves all the parts of us into His expression.

The theology of Identity:

There are three basic foundations for God’s celebration and ours of true identity: Identity is eternal-ie even in the new creation there are distinct and celebrated identities; Jesus has a unique identity; and God’s overt diversity and sense of continuum with in His Creation. The apostle Peter preparing those who were being persecuted basically told them, Jesus came as a deposit from your own future. Since you have already received Him into your hearts, you know that you have this fuller future inheritance because of who God is. He is faithful and has already begun your salvation, so endure hardships as part of a refining of your faith, so that it becomes like gold. An interesting thing to tell people who were probably about to be persecuted much more intensely. He rest his argument on the continuum of God’s promises.

The new creature is eternal and has distinct boundaries, and thus, particular beauties; Jesus Himself is unique in His Identity, and we are becoming like Him in this; Jesus had a specific genealogy and bloodline while on earth which emphasized His true identity. There are additional reasons for God’s celebration of identity: God is One whole Identity with unique expressions emanating from His Core “I Am” identity; Jesus was unique in the contours of His Identity; and we are each in the maturation process of becoming whole eternal creatures–what we are, has not yet fully been revealed, but we are clearly, from scriptures becoming a something, with unique contours and shapes of being. We are eternally distinct and unique.

I challenge you again to treat another person as if they were eternal. For they are, and so are you. When we start to see people as eternal, we both perceive and value them differently. This person is a family member that i will see forever. But we also see them in their uninterrupted state. People are uninterrupted by sin in heaven! They are an unbroken true expression. They in Him are truly themselves. If we start to glimpse people this way, we cannot help but love them!

Jesus asks Peter–who do you say that I am? He is asking Peter to see his own identity. As Peter did so, through the Father’s Eyes, Jesus was then able to turn and tell Peter his own identity, and name him. There’s a model of coming to know ourselves in this story! We see who Jesus is, and He tells us who we are! We know ourselves as we seek to know Jesus–that’s the Christian journey! But also, Jesus had an identity to see, this implies. That each of us have a solid something that has edges of contours. It is not illusion of just eternal spiritual matter; it has shape, distinction and substance. We have true selves or core identities. We are not just energy and skin and bones.

God celebrates the uniqueness of each identity! Even in the new creation this does not change. God still celebrates identity! We are each made unique and to express that uniqueness. The new creation is also unique–you see Jesus after the resurrection, was recognizable but different; my point here, He was not just a bright light; he had unique form and shape which happened to have a continuum with his pre-resurrected form–people could see the scars etc. Christ has contours of Being; as will we in our eternal forms!

God Himself is obviously unique. He has identity. God is a complex identity, and we are in His Image, so our identities are also complex, or made of many parts, but their is a core, which makes us self consistent. We are not randomly put together, but are knit together in our mother’s womb, and fearfully and wonderfully made! At our very origin we are unique and complex.

Many Christians think that to celebrate identity is prideful. But in truth, when we celebrate the identity that Christ came and died for, and is actively liberating and maturing, we are actually celebrating God! We are saying as David did, look at this amazing poem God made. Of course, we have to be speaking from our spirit and from the new creature we are becoming, but when we do, we are not bragging on ourselves, but on God, and His amazing ability to perfect, through His Son’s Life, our identity–to make it one whole expression of something He wanted to say about Himself. We are His workmanship, created in Christ, to do the specific good works He has prepared in advance for us to do, as Paul puts in in Ephesians 2:10. God celebrates and loves and is making whole His Own creatures. Of which we are one.

We are created and we create after our own kind. So there is a continuum a likeness between what we create and ourselves. My art, looks like something that came from me; my voice itself sounds like me etc. Still, what we create has its own identity or unique combination of elements. This is one of the aspects of being fruitful and multiplying. To keep making new combinations which are still like us in some way. For we, as created in His Image, create things which are in our image-we reproduce after our kind. This is a law God placed into Reality. We see this in our children. They are like us, and yet they are also unique!

My mother used to sing me a little song at night: “There’s no one exactly like you, there’s no one exactly like you–look all the world over steadfast and true-there’s no one exactly like you!” Simple and true. We are each unique expression God has made to enjoy for Himself and give to others as an expression of some parts of Himself. God also made children which were like Him, and yet each unique. This was one of His Ways.

Since we are all members of the same family as humans; sharing the same parents-we are in many ways “like” each other. Our basic makeup has similarities so we can empathize with one another; and yet, we are also–as marriage makes obvious–very different from one another, and have to learn to celebrate other’s uniqueness. The aspects which are different than me, are the ones I learn the most from in my wife, for instance. He did not make us identical. And He is a God of distinction. Land is different than sea. Man is different than woman. And each child like a snowflake is one of a kind. God likes differentiation, as we see in the creation story in Genesis. We are not just one big blob of stuffness.

Now. onto our mystical identity. As we gaze from our spirit into another person’s spirit, we get “gaze- glimpses” of the depth of true identity. We start to perceive them from our spirit through His Holy Spirit, more as God sees them. This is a healing mystery and ministry, and when we are seen in this way, something happens to us. When we open up our spirit’s eyes–the eyes of our heart–we start to behold one another more in our eternal forms. Scriptures say one day we will see everything face to face–or presence to presence. I think we get portents of this while on earth. We are allowed to see things more as they truly are, by His Spirit. It is a powerful act to truly gaze at another’s deeper identity. It somehow heals them to be seen in this way. In this way, seeing by the Spirit is a gift to others. It reminds them of the contours of their true self. God searches and knows us, as Ps139 starts. And the spirit of a man knows that man; just as the Spirit of God knows God (Paul). When we gaze spirit to spirit, something deep and powerful can happen in our perceptual dialogue or conversation. A healing or making-more-whole experience occurs.

I am usually aware of when i start to gaze more deeply at something or someone. My spirit comes awake and I feel something in the back of my head open and hold a space for others to be seen in a safe way. I have had this awareness for a long time, and really enjoy pulling it out and making a safe gazing container for others. I believe that seeing more of others identity is a gift to them. In our busy lives, it is easy to feel “unseen”. This spirit gazing corrects that, and lets people know they are indeed seen–by others to a degree, and most definitely, and fully , by God!

God beholds us fully. We are seen, and we are loved. This is a powerful combination–to feel seen and loved at the same time. This is what I try to let Him bring through me into my workshops–the Father’s Heart and His Gaze or Perception. The combination is healing for us all. Many people don’t feel seen at all. And many others feel little real love towards themselves. The combination of both seeing and loving a person’s deeper or true identity somehow allows it room to bloom! That’s the point of much of my own life’s work.

The Father’s heart and eyes work in tandem in Him, for He is One, so together, His Eyes and Heart heal us. We need to be seen and known and loved, just as we are to be seeing, loving and coming to know The Father. There is a reciprocal type of relationship in terms of how we engage it! And this style of relating extends into our relating to one another. So we engage the whole self in beholding the whole “other” self. And in doing so, get caught up in God’s Gazing!

The new creation does-not negate or homogenize identity. We are becoming like Christ in nature, but still retain our unique expressions of this nature! We are His brothers and sisters, but not His clones! The saints are still unique above. They do not turn into one large energy mass of prayer. They serve in their unique capacities even now. There is this continuum of identity into the heavens.

This is different than other religion’s images of dissolving into over-Soul; or seeing the world as an illusion (samsara) etc. or more modern concepts of death being a type of swimming into collective unconsciousness. We retain distinct boundaries of being even after death-we remain uniquely shaped vessels for His Glory.

If I imitate my teachers, it is to eventually carry their truths in my own style not their’s. Just as in training to write, i may borrow the “voice” of another writer that I admire for a season, but then I find my own voice as I mature. For instance, I like Rick Joyner, the American prophet, a lot-met his kids and amazing wife, but I think I can probably dance more funky than him, and that my wardrobe is a bit more outlandish! I am meant to carry seeds into specifically unique parts of the “field”, where God has placed me. These are the “good works, i was meant to do as part of the path of God which I am.” I still carry some of Rick’s teachings but in a unique package of my own identity. This relates to our unique callings. Each of us is used to carry specific spiritual seeds into even more particular places. These are the places that we were born to carry His Seed (Jesus), and His seeds–the spiritual seeds we are given to plant on earth!

As we celebrate our own identity in Him, we are allowing Him to plant His Own Life into unique places that only we can reach in others and the world around us. It is His pleasure to pick certain vessels for certain spiritual tasks, as we see with the disciples. They were not all called to the Gentiles, or to Africa–but the one’s He chose, went to the places they were meant to plant in. Celebration and receiving more of our true identity, allows us to more easily move into our callings.

God said, “it was good” over all of His Creation. That includes us. We are to join Him in echoing this phrase–it is good-over our own unique identities! It is for His Pleasure that He made us, and we must enter into His Pleasure and sing in joy the songs of ourselves!

I like spiritual stunts. Stunts are a little cooler than miracles, they say or symbolize more. Miracles are like similes, stunts like metaphors. When i was a kid i liked stuntmen–Buster Keaton was a favorite who did all his own stunts. Here are a few of my favorites in the bible:

Favorite biblical stunts: Daniel telling the King what he dreamed and interpreting it to him. Not just dream interpretation, but telling someone what they dreamed! That’s a cool stunt and gift. Daniel and his friends were also given the gift to understand all world literature, and Daniel himself to understand riddles (a handy tool!). Cool stuntmen! Enoch walking off the earth with God, without dying. And of course Elijah’s exit was very dramatic as well! And symbolic of the prophetic. Jesus on the mount surrounded by The Law and The Prophet, Moses and Elijah! That must have been a cool sign to see! Philip the evangelist suddenly “appearing” in Africa—another of my favorite biblical stunts.

But I suppose the Resurrection is the greatest stunt on record, metaphysically changing everything, and ushering in the beginning of a new type of creation. What He was up to beforehand, during and after death reveal everything, and may win the greatest stuntman’s award in scripture! Making breakfast for his friends in resurrected form afterwards was cool also of course! This unparalleled death defying stunt wins Him the greatest spiritual stuntman ever award!

I love stunts, would love to do a stunt person’s guide to the bible.

Recognize people as you pass them daily, recognize their beings in love, it could change their lives. Look at them in kindness, smile and greet them from your eyes; bless them from within, and mean it. Kindness is the tone of the next world, which is already pressing in, it changes us and them in small silent ways. For kindness ushers Love in. And God is Love.

Reading more about and from, as I try to stay within, Sabbath as a daily, even hourly practice these days. Feels needed now more than ever, in our cacophonous times. Here’s a quote I liked this week, from the many great meditations on the subject. For even useful speech comes from rest.

“When we stop, and rest in God, the world and ourselves are made more whole. This is the reason for the commandment of resting in Sabbath often, always even, or especially in times when we are usually meant to be plowing or harvesting, we are commanded to stop and recognize our dependence; it’s for our good to learn to trust, that the universe is not held together by our efforts.

For, Sabbath forms humility. Sabbath like Peace is a place inside of God. It’s a location we need to often visit, in order to know our home, and our own names, and be useful outside of ourselves. Action flows from rest, when best. Apart from Him, we can do no lasting good.” Nice reminder today in study.

Our identities also are found inside the Sabbath space in God. There, we are whispered our names, so that we can whisper to others theirs. So Sabbath is where identity is found and forms.

Sabbath, resting in Our Source, is a very practical need for our times.
Sabbath from our efforts regularly, nurtures, grows and even proves trust.

Trust that if we don’t implement it all ourselves, it will still happen. Sabbath proves trust. It recognizes by our cessation from self effort, that there is something higher which is healing things and keeping them in place. Sabbath is a practice which leads us deeper into trust.

To admit need, is the start of healing. To rest in the Source of healing, is the process of becoming whole. Sabbath is the practice of being sanctified.

This is why we are taught to rest. Sabbath says yes, weekly and daily, I cannot perfect the world by my sheer efforts, I cannot heal myself even. I am meant to tend, but not control; to partner with, but not produce results from self effort (apart from Him, we can do nothing; conversely, to the degree I am in Him, I can do all things! That’s the principle. It presumes we are resting in God, before we act). Being in Sabbath is then a precondition for all healing. And Sabbath reveals our level of trust.

Sabbath is a breath in each week, a crack which lets the light in, into our day, or even each hour, which says we are dependent Partners, we are contingent on something better and higher than us, and that we trust one another. We need, this practice of pause, for The Light to break into us and shine out through us.

From that breath of meeting and communion comes all action. Reality, at least in true christian spirituality, is relationship, in which we rest in the Other, and do only what we see our Friend doing. If we are not at rest, we cannot see. This is the breath all our accomplishments come from. To rest is to return home. “I in You, and you in Me, and them now in us.” As Jesus put it in one of his last prayers for us. We are caught up into that prayer space, into His intimacy with The Father. That’s where Sabbath is located.

Many people are starting to consider Sabbath as the essential practice for our cacophonous times. Finding Sabbath in Him, He who is concerned but never stressed, is a very basic human need now. So, let’s rest into action. In our very restless times, finding daily rest is an essential spiritual practice.

It’s not just to rest from external activities, though that may help facilitate true rest, but it is rather to enter a part of God which is resting in Himself. It is a spiritual act. Perhaps, the most essential sign that we are truly becoming human.

Kindness goes a long way…between cultures. At my local pub today, an egyptian couple, who spoke little english, and had never been to a beer burger joint, comes in and asked: what’s good…

“You want something outside the bubble? One hoppy IPA coming up, and some sweet potato fries, i’ll even throw in some jambalaya and crawfish!”… JV (he tells me the name stands for Junior Varsity, cause he never made the varsity team in life) the owner and general father figure of the place since 1971, made these people feel comfortable even if they didn’t speak English, and hadn’t had a burger before. Kindness translates.

Today our local pub boss, was talking to an Egyptian couple who had never ordered cheeseburgers. He made them feel welcome, and described the difference between a regular burger and a cheeseburger without being condescending. (It’s mainly about the cheese!). A retired Waco sheriff, He’s been working burgers since the 60’s but broke it down in understandable terms to this lovely couple, in a way which was not only condescending or cynical, but made them excited to try Wagu burgers at a local pub. “Well, do you like cheese, if so I’d go with the cheese burger friends.”

When they asked for a beer, he looked back at the wall which has around 30 types (mostly local) Instead of being a beer snob about it, old JV said…”well, do you like em light or dark, up or down, thin or tall. You like hoppy or bodied. I got just the one for you. Try this….he brings out a good local IPA. The girl’s smile, as she took her first sip, was worth my whole day. It made her so happy that someone would make them feel welcome and help them navigate Texas culture.

JV, self confessedly speaks, southernese—a rare west Texas dialect version. And calls his place more a tavern than beer joint. “I like to think we have an invisible fireplace someplace in here; people feel hearth when they need to.” But both apply, and it has that kind of neon-beer-sign lit ambiance which holds memory and people’s names over time on small brass plaques. Some even on the wall, as well as several presidents who dropped in for a beer and burger. It’s a type of community really, with a built in sense of belonging. A sort of pub church. And as there are two seminaries nearby, often it feels just like church, but without the formality.

We’ve gotten to know one another over the years. He’s quick with a joke and has enough one liners and tales to fill several books. But the main thing he’s got is kindness to strangers, which, at the end of the day, we all are. “I’ve never understood racism, as we are all mutts here, and everyone needs to eat and talk from time to time.”

Several of the regular patrons of this pub have died over the years I’ve been coming here. There are plaques on the wall for each, with little stories about what they loved much, and what food they tended to order, or their favorite beer. “Walt loved softball, shiner beer and blues, and never missed a Sunday here.” People need places where their names and stories matter, and are still remembered somewhere, even beer joints can form and hold community over time. Maybe especially, places like this.

Last week’s JV story was about a pig which got hit on the highway up near Waco. The pig ended up landing in a poor man’s front yard. The poor fellow comes out, and sees dinner sitting there on his front yard; but the fellow who hit it wanted to take it home. So they called the local sheriff to decipher the matter. She was a short mexican lady, and suggested that they cut it down the middle, so both could have some; or they could take it down to the local homeless shelter and share it with others. Immediately the poor fellow opted for the shelter. So she knew he was the one who really needed the pig, and had a heart to share it. She also knew that he ate at the homeless shelter. Sort of a Solomon moment.

One day, JV said to me, “You been married along while, so she don’t mind you peeing in the yard, but gotta keep that toilet working in the house. Gotta keep the lady happy. Marriage is constant investment, but the dividends are eternal. And in the meantime, you got a yard to pee in.”

JV also calls everyone brother or sister as they leave, and was the first to start calling me “Big D” after Dallas, when i first moved back here to Austin, Texas. Made me feel respected and a type of Texas belonging. He still calls me Big D even on days I feel very lower case in myself. Kindness is longer than a Texas mile, at the end of each day.

Today as I left, JV promised to “keep the light on, and the fly swatter readied.” My kinda pub. All spaces are metaphors or stages through which to exchange the restoration of humanity through kindness, at the end of the day, we are just people trying to be people. It helps when someone in charge is kind though. It ushers in grace. And that place is made of Grace.