The social dimension of healing: why people still need The Church.

There is a part of our healing and spiritual growth we do alone with God; and another part requires the right other people. We are both private and social creatures. Because God is social in Himself, we too are social creatures, and need one another to heal and mature in life.

Often suffering, forces us to find social life. But in truth, we need it all the time. We are interrelated creatures. And meant to grow in relationship.  This is one of the reasons for marriage, family and the church itself! The monks used to say, even in solitude if i meet God fully, i am immediately led to love others more. God designed things this way. We need each other. We need the parts of God flowing through one another. That’s a basic premise of the church. When you find God, you discover your intimate connection to His People and others walking around with and in Christ!

 There is a balance to have between inner and outer lives to be sure, but we certainly need both to know God more fully. He provided these ways on earth to know and meet Him. The church is one. We have to link ourselves to those He brings into our lives in order to grow properly.

The relationship between inner and outer lives. Practically how to rule over your body, and to not be controlled by the external world’s pressures. Dealing with governing over desires and bodily impulses. And social life. When and how deeply to encounter others and their needs. More intentional living. Less porous. Living less porously. Balancing this with Willard’s chapter on relatedness—that we discover and sustain who we are in loving relationships. Gods social matrix, even in Himself! Even in Himself God is social. The Trinity is a social community within God.

Also the role of the invisible church in true social growth and life. We join a society grounded in an invisible but real Reality. Our social dimension is transformed by being in relationship to those in Christ, even if we are all very imperfect at this point; because God has designed us to know and transform in this community.

 The personal connection with God; then the social connection with God—we need both to transform. “This must happen within the imperfect communities available to us now.” Dallas speaking of being connected with other believers.

When we can’t honor our parents (those generations before us, as well as our own spiritual parents, we lose the blessing attached to the sixth commandment! Many can’t honor their parents because of natural parental wounds or conflicts with their own parents in life. These must be healed so we can honor our parents, and God can flow in that area to bless. Healing the private and social dimensions of our lives. The church is provided partly to help heal our social or relational needs for healing.

The social dimensions of healing are one of the biggest problems in my own generation.

 We make societies on line out of anything, but in terms of the spiritual mutual nourishment which is meant to happen in Christ centered community, we usually withdraw or assault it, or simply don’t move in it from hurt. True community is meant to mutual bless and spiritually mature one another. That’s its’ purpose. We resist because we are hurt in this or that way. But God has provided the church as a healer for your social self. Because it mirrors who He is—a Social God. He is social in the Trinity itself. And He made the church as a place to make whole the social dimensions of who we are. We are interconnected through His Spirit, and need one another in a very basic way—even to be transformed into His Image and Nature. We cannot go it alone. Even if we’ve had terrible experiences with the church, and those we know are very broken; we still have to work with it as is, partly simply because God designed it to deal with our social self.

There’s a social dimension to healing! There are some parts of ourselves which cannot be touched any other way.

The challenge to find your social dimension with His social organism. We are social, and meant to heal in circles of people. We are spiritual, so are meant to be formed in spiritual relationships with others moving in His Spirit. People, like ourselves, are all lame and broken. Yet, that does not change God’s provision of spiritual community as His method of meeting us and healing us. You may have never seen a healthy marriage, still marriage is ordained by God as a way to know Him. These are the methods God made up, who are we to reject them.

The level of isolation and loneliness in our cities globally, is enough to motivate searching for a solution. But God has already provided His solutions—the church is one. We can’t reject that. Plus, we are to love what He loves, and He clearly loves his true Church. It’s for our good to join Him.

Why we still need the church! It’s God’s provision to heal and mature our social dimension. We cannot heal our lives alone. We are meant to mutually bless one another—this was Paul’s whole metaphor of the Body. One spirit, diverse gifts.

We also can’t just go take Jesus over here, and leave His church over there. He is One, and is in His True Church, and loves her intensely. The further we go into the life of Christ, the more we should be falling in love and laboring for His Church. For it is His House.

But often, we see the opposite. People want to love Jesus privately, but not love His People. It doesn’t work that way. I mean in Reality. You can’t mature in that private personal Jesus space. You need others in Him. The early church clearly modeled this. Hanging out in little packs and teams, and having larger gatherings as well. We need each other to be in Christ!

One reason for this is:

Humans grow in community. The family is the most basic version of this. Throughout our lives we make more and join more types of families. The church is the ultimate family given for our safety nurturance and healing.

God is social in His Own Trinity, and has made us to be social. We become more whole of one in relationship to others. This is one of the purposes of the true church, to allow His Blessings and Presence to flow socially.

Now we have many social wounds in life, and tend to either withdraw or assault other. But the reality is we cannot heal our social dimension outside of relationship with others. God has designed it this way, based on who He is.

Many will not join other believers because of their wounds and imperfections. It’s really not an option if you want to heal. We heal socially. Even the basic concept of family—that you were born into some circle proves this. We are social. The question is if we receive and give socially in a way which allows Him to form us.

Facebook is social as are all the sub-cultures we constantly create. Now when we come to the ultimate metaphor of society we have to look at the church—the place centered in Christ-as a social organism. And we have to work on being plugged into it, in the most mutually blessing way possible. Otherwise our social self will remain crippled, and others will miss out on the healing we carry for them as well.

Part of our sacrifice for loving the broken—especially the broken church—is for our own healing. The church in its current state may be the poor we are meant to love on! The lame, we are meant to heal. Regardless, we have no choice if we are in Christ at all, but to enter in and love His church.

Sex is an intimate social (in this case two people, but still requires us to not be alone) experience. It too was provided by God for mutual blessing, and to heal our social dimensions. We literally share our bodies in sex. Community and the most intimate version of sex are given by God as part of what we need to be whole in the relational aspects of ourselves.

We may reject our needs for social life, but not even animals are successful at this. We are social. And God has set things up so that we heal or are made whole socially.

I go to a local pub. Even those who sit alone most of the time, eventually get social, start sharing, need to feel heard seen cared for, included. No one is meant to live alone. Because again, God is a trinity, and is social even in Himself; and we are in His image.

The old people who take walks across the street from my home, often walk in twos or threes. Rarely is someone walking entirely alone. Perhaps at the end of life, people realize they need to give up total isolation and come home to the circle of Life. The family is our first circle which proves this to our hearts. But depending on how broken it was, we may need to do some real healing and re-attaching the right images to things, to move back into a healthy relationship with the social dimension of life. No one is entirely private alone isolated. We are meant to grow in relationship.

The church is the ultimate social organism on earth—even in its current state—where we are meant to be healed. This is because the invisible church is the fountain which Christ placed on earth to drink from. When we come together with other people in Christ, some parts are healed in us, which cannot be healed any other way.

While it is true that many suffer from not enough time alone (or an undisciplined inner life) in busy societies; it is also true that we cannot become our full selves apart from proper community. The God given social circle God has placed in your life, though imperfect, is a great and necessary gift!

People need the Lord—yes! But they also need The Lord in one another!

Prayer:

I receive the social circle of believers which You want to give me this season Lord. I see that you have made me social and want to nurture and mature that part of who I am, for Your Own pleasure. Thanks for providing the right people in my life to mature Your image in me Lord. I need it.

Clear any places of resistance to your social gifts in me Lord, as I grieve my own loneliness in certain areas, with my circle so spread out globally. Connect me at the proper level to the right people who are in You, each season of my life. Sorry for areas where I have blocked or made that hard for You Lord. The church is imperfect but Christ is not, and has provided it for you to know Him through.

Your church is imperfect, but You are not, and You have provided her for me to know and meet You through; and I trust your social way in this. I bless your church as Your provision to us in order to live well in You. Amen.

Again in each area, there is a part that we do, and there is a part which God does.

We are responsible for seeking out healthy relations with His people; then He provides all we were meant to receive from that social relationship.

In the case of the church, this is a social spiritual relationship, so our actual spirits can heal and bless. To be healed, is to be able to bless others.

When you are reading Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation) on the nature of Reality-how Reality itself evangelizes for God, how alignment with, and questing towards what is Real is one way into the Life of God, and therefore ourselves—we shed our false selves by coming towards Reality, and necessarily encounter Christ and His Cross, The Light illuminates what is not real in us (sort of an ontological argument for the existence of God-if you want to know what’s Real bad enough, you find God (similar to Francis Shaeffer’s argument from what is Real, but more mystical i think.) how, we are meant to come into alignment with a true image of how things actually are etcetera; and just then, your dog poops all over your bedroom floor twice…that fragrance was also real!

 Finding God through cleaning up dog poop is great spiritual practice-that switch from knowledge to incarnational, “embodied sanctification” as Dallas Willard would call it, knowing! How to know Jesus in rush hour traffic! True discipleship that! I feel wiser both for having read Merton this morning on the nature of Reality, and cleaning up dog poop today! Perhaps, i am getting somewhere. No poop photos to follow. Nor photos of Reality itself, though i’ll work on that one…

How to help people: sometimes you have to get really basic-someone asked me recently what’s your method of counseling other people…

Basically, if I am looking at a person in order to help them or disciple, counsel or guide them in even a small way, I ask in prayer beforehand: where are they at in their spiritual growth Lord? What are You trying to give or add into them now? How is the enemy of life (and their’s in particular) trying to block it? And how are you working redemptively in their lives to bring wholeness? What would they look like whole-i like to have a true image of what they are meant to look like. I might add, what needs to be confessed or forgiven in their life next. I ask this in prayer for people, cities and nations, and don’t counsel before i sense an answer. It’s a simple method which has worked for me. And seems to bless others.

 It allows me to partner more with God is actually giving each person or place, and not just give them my own ideas.

Jesus discerned their true needs, their real questions, before He responded or taught them. “Perceiving their hearts, He turned and said…” That priestly seeking of God for others, comes first if we really want to be helpful. This is also how ministry can become part of your true spirituality or increasing union with Christ. We get in awe after we can see what He is really up to in this person or place’s life. It perforce, forces us to appreciate and love Him more, which is “the big law” Jesus taught.

Christianity is a spirituality of increasing union with Jesus Christ and who He is, and therefore leads us into The Father and His Love for His Son. That’s its most basic spirituality—increasing union with Christ, so becoming more like Him in an embodied way, caught up in that space between Father and Son, in every area of who we are. We visit His cross, die to self, through confession and forgiveness, and move into His New Life in each area progressively as He leads us. So the ultimate goal is to be found “in Him”. That practice towards union is our daily practice.

And He is always working to form more of Himself in each of us, so we can be found more in Him on that day. Our spirituality is a progressive series of deaths to self to enter more of Himself.

As one pastor said, my basic job is to help guide people to their real questions! What’s next in Christ for them. These deeper question are found in union with Christ. And how to help someone else, requires us to ask Christ how He is forming Himself in this person, place or situation. And partner with that. This requires spiritual discernment of how He is working in their lives. It is revealed by Him in prayer. Another reason our basic practice in order to be helpful to anyone is to be praying.

As I came through New York City last week, thinking about America again…scribbled this on a napkin while waiting in lines with nearly every nationality and ethnicity of people…

What would it look like for America to steward her gifts, resources, and symbols well in this hour (i.e in humility and gratitude and Wisdom)  right now? I know some have given up on her, but I don’t think she’s finished her story yet.

 And yet, not to be too simplistic, isn’t it ironic that the land of the free and the brave made up of refugees, is afraid to take the lead in welcoming, and even modeling how to bless those in need now. Her statue of liberty and her eagle need to get together and move into parenthood and maturity now. This is not an hour of fear, but of bold blessing with all her resources.

 This idea I’m working on about completing your symbols as part of stewarding your life well, applies to nations as well. Each nation has its unique gifts to offer to the whole story of the planet, This nation is meant to cover and haven the oppressed (it’s bountiful resources were given just for that purpose), and was given resources in order to be generous in blessing those in need. In this chapter in history, these are the people in need. Find the people in need, and you’ll find Jesus. He’s always there.

I know we still struggle with materialism and racism, and that is obvious now, but one method of moving towards healing in both these two national wounds, is to reach out and serve those in need. It’s an opportunity for healing being offered. Don’t waste it!

This refugee crisis is a test of character or a challenge to find our true values again, and is a test of character to each nation. Many are showing their true colors now, the space where beliefs meet action. As Bono was saying in a recent interview, “America was a promised land for the Jews, for the Irish, for the Italians, when they needed it most; now, she has an opportunity to bless the Syrians and others fleeing persecution. And she is still needed to do so. She is meant to model generosity.”

 This nation needs to get back to its basic humanitarian heart, and finish the symbols it started on. Steward your symbols towards completion—the statue of free welcome and the eagle of searching for those in need to bless are her two core symbols to call into fruition in our hour.

 Jesus is always where the poor and oppressed and needy are. It’s a spiritual fact. Easiest place to meet Him really. So, let’s meet Him there. If you can’t find God, go serve the poor, the fleeing from oppression, and you will! God is always there. There’s a spiritual motivation to serve in this hour.

 Come on people now, shine on your brothers, for your own good if nothing else. Don’t drop the ball now.

    Walls versus harbors:

 This is not a wall metaphor season, but more a welcoming harbor! Time to get our harbors in order. Let’s polish ours up til her heart glows again! The eagle and the statue of liberty are the two core American symbols. So, the vision and range of sight and impact, with a heart to haven those in need. The masculine and feminine aspects of who she is. Freedom in order to haven and serve specifically the weak needy and oppressed peoples.

  I was in NYC again last week, and the first thing you notice is all the different nations being human together. You just feel like a huge and very diverse family. That sense is the past blessing into the present. We now can seed into our future by polishing the heart of our loving receptivity in this country. Give us your war-torn, hungry and fleeing ones again-that’s what we are made up of really anyway.

 Let’s clean and open our harbors intentionally again! A harbor is feminine and represents heart-even the state of the heart. Let’s be a welcoming harbor and use our eagle’s eye vision to see who to bless now with our resources! Of course, we need to discern our guest, but a filter is not a wall.

 If we had to flee, we would search globally for open doors, we would look for an open heart, which leads to open doors. Let’s be one.

 For, to welcome from the heart is also a great healing gift for oneself. The power to receive well is healing for both parties involved. And this nation clearly needs healing, and integration.

 Don’t stop now America, you are still needed in the human story! You can yet do some good. Don’t forfeit your later chapters in fear, but allow them to be written out as a hopeful sign for the human family.

After photo-ing the contents,

I left this worded napkin in New York City (in the Hudson somewhere-i like to symbolize my prayers), I hope it blows and flows in the right direction, and lands in the right part of the heart…as bono said recently, “its not a matter of left or right politically, but right and wrong morally at this hour.” It’s a moral dilemma and a question of identity. This isn’t a political thing, its a human thing. Will we finish our story with integrity. I hope and am praying, we do. The world needs it now more than ever.

 I did of course, have jet lag, but looking at my thoughts that day, i think they were at least in the right ballpark, as they say here.

Getting Moody today…

 I love studying spiritual leaders, poets and dreamers, who have high impact way past their lives. Makes you think about what’s possible with your own life, and what patterns you leave. I also, like looking at places in history when things wake up, illuminate so things can be interpreted, these spiritual keyholes always are helpful viewing zones.

 Going old school today, studying DL Moody, and the spiritual awakenings in the 1800’s-both his social work, and his preaching are high impact and interesting. Multi-racial and denominational. I’m studying spiritual revivals, but specifically ones which impacted society in positive ways (feeding the poor, overcoming racism, offering jobs etc), like MLK. DL Moody was a good man. Fun studying spiritual giants.

 I also like that he didn’t think he was a good speaker. Even though he spoke all over England, Scotland and Ireland as well as the USA for many years. Fun also when you’ve personally been impacted by a person’s legacy. My dad went to school in Chicago under Moody’s covering. Amazing that generations after someone is dead, there is still a lingering covering and good fruits being produced. Anyway, i liked his humility….

“I know there are many better orators and preachers than me, often even in the room. All I can say, is that the Lord uses me.” DL Moody.

He was also very cross denominational, working with lay leaders from any church which wanted to help. MLK had this same ecumenism, which allowed larger Kingdom impact than a single denominational way of thinking, and in King’s case, changed the whole nation. With globalism isn’t an  ecumenical approach essential in order to actually be helpful.

 MLK talked lots about how our spiritual technology and distribution needed to catch up to our material tech-spiritual structure catch up with content. Still true.  Giant’s are always taller than their times. And their hearts are more yielded. Fun study. I like sitting under giants, and peeping through historical keyholes! Searching for good fruit left long behind. Fruit that’s still feeding people. It’s good to study those who were able to get spiritually mature in life. Helps make a clearing in the forest for us all!

   Reading “Crisis in Masculinity” again by Leanne Payne today. A deep and needed book for our times, by a great christian thinker and teacher, the late Leanne Payne. She wrote this book before its time—it’s for now. In the midst of one of the most global crisis in masculinity in history with the resulting gender confusion and ambiguity, and distrust of all authority; bullying (which is the false masculine), and false feminine, which prostitutes the true image of the feminine in Him.

  One core take away: we need to know God both as masculine and feminine. And we need to have an internalized experience of His Headship, even to govern our own souls and bodies well.

People and whole cultures fall apart when there is a crisis in masculinity. We are in one now. We need a mended image of both motherhood and fatherhood in our day. God contains both, and we too are meant to have healthy masculinity and femininity.

If we are led by feeling, desires or our bodies, we will end up raping ourselves and others. Our Head, needs to be The Head, and internally we govern ourselves with Him—this is the foundation for ethics. We are co-rulers with Him even over our own lives. If we cannot govern ourselves well, how can we hope to bring justice or love outwardly.

 David, the worshiping king (unlike the worshiped kings of the pagan empires), told his own soul to be still and turn to God. He ruled over himself and modeled it. We are to rule with Christ over our own souls. We need both the receptivity and the carving initiating truth speaking aspects to do so.

  Some have an immature feminine so can’t hear and worship and receive from God’s Presence. Others an immature masculine so can’t rule and co-build with Him, and under Him. We need both elements matured in us, in order to know Our God who is both the true masculine and the true feminine.

  St Paul both mothered and fathered the thessolonians. He could move in both parts of God generously! For, part of renewing our minds is to renew or make more true and whole our image of The Father in both His powerful masculine and gentle receptive feminine. We have broken images of both, from experiences in life. But God is able to mend and heal our spiritual perception so we can know a truer image of who Father is. This is the healing of the imagination. To gain a truer image of who He is, reveals to us more of who we are. We need a clearer image of both his masculine and feminine in order to develop our own.

  To come under His Headship requires us to trust that The Father actually is good, kind, loving etc. If we do not trust His Authority, we cannot even rule ourselves.

Authority has gotten a bad wrap because of abuses. Yet, God is over us, and His Kingdom is a hierarchy—it has a Head, a King; and we need to get used to that.

What parts of our lives are still fearful of coming under His Headship. That area, will become lawless in us, and dangerous to others.

You see the false fathering happening all around us in the many terror and militant groups. But what does true fathering look like, and how can we internalize that Kind Headship over our hearts. So we can know the expansive safety of being under Father God. This crisis in masculinity occurs globally. It is a call to both men and women to mature both their masculinity and femininity—both in submission to Our Father. Then there will be Peace on earth. For we will become ministers or conduits of His Peace.

  God does not have gender ambiguity. He is the perfect version of both the masculine and feminine. He challenges us to grow both parts of ourselves as well. We cannot worship or sit in His Presence without the feminine, and we cannot rule, bring justice, speak truth initiate without the masculine in submission to Him. We need to be in relationship with both parts.

  Good meditation in our days of so much gender confusion, which to me, is really identity confusion based on a misrepresentation of who God is—the way to know ourselves, is to seek to know who God is. as we are in His Image we must grow both our own masculine and feminine parts.

We must be able to care for and govern. To pastor ourselves and discipline ourselves in order to be healthy people. We need to know God in His Father Heart and His mothering aspects.

We are responsible to rule over our lives, and to do so in Love and compassion.

 I think this book offers a needed meditation for our times. Enjoying re-visiting it.

Nice to read a non-Jungian or watered down vedic version of masculinity and femininity. And a needed book for our times.

A simple question this book leaves you with: do i have a true or healthy image of both the masculine and feminine aspects of myself, of the world and of God. Am I moving towards a clearer image?

What would it look like for America to steward her gifts, resources, and symbols well (i.e. in humility and gratitude) now? I know some have given up on her, but I don’t think she’s finished her story yet.

 And yet, not to be too simplistic, but isn’t it ironic that the land of the free and the brave made up of refugees, is afraid to take the lead in welcoming, and even modeling how to bless those in need now.

 This idea I’m working on about completing your symbols as part of stewarding your life, applies to nations as well. Each nation has its unique gifts to offer to the whole story of the planet, This nation is meant to cover and haven the oppressed (it’s bountiful resources were given just for that purpose), and was given resources in order to be generous in blessing those in need. In this chapter in history, these are the people in need.

  We did ok (relatively) in the past in this area, not sure we are doing well now. If we don’t use this gift of generosity, it will grow dull. Gifts have to be exercised to stay useful! This is not a time of fear, unlike the false words spoken over this country, but of opening up and being overtly pro-actively generous—press into Love-in the midst of global insecurity. We need to model the true energy of hope again and actual incarnation compassion, which is, of course, uncomfortable in the midst of an identity crisis, but perhaps most needed then! It reminds you of who you are, when you do something your gifted and meant to do.

 Our resources were given in order to serve with-and specifically in America’s case, to defend and haven the oppressed. Even to go find them, and guide them to safety. To shield the safety of becoming a dignified human being. That’s part of her mantel of authority to bless with. Let’s use it, and move in that direction.

 This refugee crisis is a test of character or a challenge to find our true values again, and is a test of character to each nation. Many are showing their true colors now, the space where beliefs meet action.

 This nation needs to get back to its basic humanitarian heart, and finish the symbols it started on.

 Jesus is always where the poor and oppressed and needy are. It’s a spiritual fact. Easiest place to meet Him really. So, let’s meet Him there. If you can’t find God, go serve the poor, the fleeing from oppression, and you will! God is always there.

 Come on people now, shine on your brothers, for your own good if nothing else.

    Walls versus harbors:

 This is not a wall metaphor season, but more a welcoming harbor! Time to get our harbors in order. Let’s polish ours up til her heart glows again! The eagle and the statue of liberty are the two core American symbols. So, the vision and range of sight and impact, with a heart to haven those in need. The masculine and feminine aspects of who she is. Freedom in order to haven and serve specifically the weak needy and oppressed peoples.

  I was in NYC again last week, and the first thing you notice is all the different nations being human together. You just feel like a huge and very diverse family. That sense is the past blessing into the present. We now can seed into our future by polishing the heart of our loving receptivity in this country. Give us your war-torn, hungry and fleeing ones again-that’s what we are made up of really anyway.

  When you get to a place of parenthood as a nation, you have to remember what you came from. We were literally all refugees. My people fled from Ireland. My many Jewish friends fled from all over. My closest from Poland. They were welcomed and made a life with dignity here.

 I know some get annoyed with Bono-the, at times, overly talkative or loquacious, who has, the gift and challenge of gab, or what my dad would call a babbling brook way (something i relate to) irishman rockstar-but he’s right on this one.

 America was meant to be a servant leader specifically for those under oppression. That’s her higher calling or mantel. And a heart for the oppressed, is very close to the heart of The Man Acquainted with Sorrows and those who suffer. So is one method of staying close to God. Why forsake that opportunity for blessing. It is an easy way for America to find her blessing again. It’s an opportunity for spiritual intimacy for her again. An act of Mercy, given her current state of confusion around identity!

 She’s been abusive (starting with the native americans) like every other nation, but her redeemed heart is meant to be like a statue of liberty (liberation) for those in need. Let’s get back to that. Racism and materialism are still rampant and unhealed, but part of our ability to heal is reaching out to those in need again-now. Reaching out to others, will help heal a very divided nation!

 I know some hate America. I find that immature, and simply too easy of a response to an entire nation. If I were to judge a person, solely based on their mistakes in life, i wouldn’t have many friends. We have to work towards the redemptive version of one another, as people and nations! Believing the possibility of the best in them being healed into place.

 On the ground, it really is made up of every other nation. And even in our neighborhood, we have many refugees living now, and many who settled here after hurricane katrina, as well as about every ethnicity there is. We have people from at least 8 other nations just in our neighborhood. My favorite church in our hood is nigerian!  That’s typical here.

 “Other” is normal, and really we are all minorities in our neighborhood. If there is a dominant culture, if would be creatives or artist. But ethnically it is very diverse. That’s part of normal life here, and it was for me growing up in America and living on her streets and by ways over the years. I’ve lived in almost every region of America in my life. Some areas are more mono-cultural than others, but none purely so. I grew up ethnically diverse, having a half brother who is african american. The idea of exclusion makes no sense to me. This just seems obvious for someone who follows a Jewish teacher from a tiny region in the middle east. Other is my spirituality.

 Let’s clean and open our harbors intentionally again! A harbor is feminine and represents heart-even the state of the heart. Let’s be a welcoming harbor and use our eagle’s eye vision to see who to bless with our resources! Of course, we need to discern our guest, but a filter is not a wall. If we had to flee, we would search globally for open doors. Let’s be one.

 For, to welcome from the heart is also a great healing gift for oneself. The power to receive well is healing for both parties involved. And this nation clearly needs healing.

 No one is unredeemable, or cannot be touched by Grace. Come on America, don’t close your heart now. You’re still needed in the human family and drama. Play your part while you still can. Let our cousins be sheltered until they can see straight what’s next for them.

 They will be a blessing to you, if you receive them in love.

  Thanks for listening, needed to get that off my chest and heart. Bono has other things to say to europe now (those closest to the current crisis, so in someways able to model neighborly love the most directly!), but this one towards America rang true to me.

 We’re just one person, one nation, and as all nations are meant to be, under God, whether we think so or not. Once we place ourselves under God, we can fulfill our tiny or larger parts of His Story on earth. Let’s play our part!

Working on an article about stewarding and completing the symbols of our lives-starting and finishing well, symbolically….came across this–

“Complete your symbols!

 If the first half of life, is finding your true symbols (who you really are), the second is more fully tending and harvesting them. The first part of the journey is finding your symbols, and what is your own land to cultivate or be formed within, in and through Him. In the latter half, you have discovered them, and need to tend them into wholeness-to cultivate and complete (make whole) your symbols into a true and fuller interpretation, so your story can be left for others to receive from.

 Now that you know the tree you are, name the bark, so others can sit beneath it’s shade.

 We, in the later half, are no longer insecure or in competition about who we are (having crossed our necessary Jordan’s or deaths to self, we have entered in, been occupied-thus, capable of occupying- and started to learn the wisdom of cultivation, the making fruitful, of our lands), we are beginning to be able to allow Him to start to whisper  the nuances of our names (the white stone whispers!)-to enjoy His articulation of the poems we are- and offer that covering for others to discover their own poems.

 To fill in His story of who we are in Him-His Testimony through us. We start to let Him tell His story through ours. The story of our lives from God’s perspective. Ask Him to tell you your story-you’ll be surprised!

 For, He is pronouncing the poems of Himself through the poems of who we are. And our task is to collaborate in blooming, and co-stewarding and collaborating into the completion our true inner symbols.So they can be seen interpreted and read by others.

Allow Him to finish the story of you. Tell you as a tale. Interpret His story of yourself, so others can clearly see it was always about Him. And, the glory of a true song, rightly sung, is about the Singer! God is our Singer. We are His bended reeds to play on and with!” Nice. I love finding thought-treasures like these.

Complete your symbols!

  If the first half of life is finding your true symbols, the second is more fully tending and harvesting them. The first part of the journey is finding your symbols, and what is your own land to cultivate or be formed within in Him. In the latter half, you have discovered them, and need to tend them into wholeness-to cultivate your symbols into a true and fuller interpretation, so your story can be left for others to receive from. We are no longer insecure or in competition about who we are, we are able to allow Him to start to whisper nuances. To fill in His story of who we are in Him. He is pronouncing the poems of Himself through the poems of who we are. And our task is to collaborate in blooming our true inner symbols.

For example, i live (invest, dwell intentionally nurture) in three cities currently, each represents a unique aspect of my own story, and His Story through me. Each symbolizes part of His story of my life.

The three cities I occupy in this season for instance, are aspects of a whole symbol. Currently for me these would be: Austin, San Fran and Antwerp—each symbolize different aspects of your calling and His Story through your life. They each need to be harvested uniquely. But in Him, they are integrated. As we get older, the parts of our lives start to integrate into one centered experience and expression. As we grow up in Him, He literally brings the rooms of ourselves under the same roof. He is that roof. And Jesus is the key to integration and identity. We had to believe that by faith at the start, but now we know it, and we watch Him slowly gather our houses into One expression.

Our outer symbols have attached with our inner reality, and our lives can be read as art telling a story. There is a complete narrative in Christ. He who formed us, is also able to pronounce us, as we remain yielded and faithful. How He is allowed to symbolize Himself through the story of your own life, is one of the funnest and best collaborations you will ever experience! You get to watch The Master Artist, doing His thing through your very life story!

Our outer lives and activities start to reflect directly our inner reality. The medium becomes the message! The outer frame starts to symbolize the inner reality of who you are. This occurs in Christ. And it is His pleasure to make us more whole as His Art. Who we actually are, starts to express itself in all we do outwardly. And this is a great mystery of a long life yielded!

One of the saddest things in life is to feel a life cut short, or a story not fully told, explained or expressed. When the symbols are not complete, we feel impartial. Like the body of an artist work which never got to be complete. We have a Curt Cobain moment, or many other artist who didn’t get to finish their symbols. As those in Christ, we are able to finish and cultivate our symbols, and allow Him to make the full body of art He desires to make through our lives. And that is beautiful!

In the first half of life, people are searching for self- what is home, what is Real, what is theirs to know and tend. What symbolizes them. We search through jobs, relationships, travel, to define ourselves. In the second, you know what’s yours and you begin to refine it and teach it to others. We switch from define to refine, once we know the basic story line of our lives. Mine art, spirituality, integration, and identity. Creativity and Identity and their proper relationship in Jesus.

Will you leave completed symbols on the earth? Now that you’ve found your symbolic lands, how to cultivate and complete them. That’s the second half of life’s mandate. The second half of life is about that symbolic efficiency and effulgence! You know what you have to tend, now you can make it fruitful with Him—finish the lines of your poem! Let Him enjoy the final chapters, and say with you, it is finished! It is whole, completed, expressed fully!

As you go into the 2nd half of life, you want to refine what you already have. You want to make each symbol more complete!!! Stewarding your symbols becomes a pleasure. When young, you found them, now to edit refine and share them. To tell the whole story. To collaborate in completing your testimony—His story of your life! This becomes your passion.

You see those who still want to do the first half of life’s task, while clearly standing the second. They still want to get their symbols out, or to discover them. But we are meant to be tending them in the later half of life. To already know who we are in Him, and be secure in that, and now to work on expressing it in a way which will bless those after us!

 To complete your symbols on earth, becomes the task of the second half of life. The symbols you searched to find and conquer in the first half of life (blessed are those who overcome in the first half, blessed are those who know in the later part of life (St John)—the true images of self or yourself, others and the world, can now be contoured, completed, filled in, outlined, interpreted for others and shared. The story can be told! The second half of life is to tell the whole story well. To complete the symbols in Peace and with Wisdom and articulation. No longer are you in competition, so you can complete your symbols in peace. Walk them out! Steward your story well. Cultivate the pleasant lines of your inheritance!

Having crossed your Jordans (your necessary deaths to self), having entered the land of your inheritance (the pleasant lines of yours), having occupied, possessed-now, you move on to cultivate, to bear fruit which will outlast you. The colorful fruit He desires to express through the story of your life! To complete the symbol of God’s story through your life. To interpret your life as a sign for others. To tell the whole story-His story of your life. To do so, you must steward the symbols of your life. Jesus completed His symbols! And like Him, we should be able to say at the end, “It is finished!” Let’s us allow Him to finish His story of our lives. Now that we know them, let’s steward our symbols well in Him!

   What symbols do you still have left to discover or complete in your life? How can you collaborate with Christ in discovering them, and helping them become whole? If you see yourself as His art, what areas does He want to refine, cultivate, heal and fill in, into His fullest expression of Himself through you?!  How can He complete the contours of what He wants to express through you on earth. He wants to tell the story of Himself through yours. Ask Him, what is His version or interpretation of your story? Write and live that out! His testimony concerning you, is His Testimony about Himself. And He who started a good work–the Author and Finisher of our faith-is able to cause us to be (to cause us to stand-Romans 14:4), and finish the stories we are in Him! Allow Him to finish His own story of you!

Complete your symbols.

If the first half of life is finding your true symbols, the second is more fully tending and harvesting them. For example, i live (invest, dwell intentionally nurture) in three cities currently, each represents a unique aspect of my own story, and His Story through me. Each symbolizes part of His story of my life.

The three cities you occupy are aspects of a whole symbol. Austin, San Fran and Antwerp—each symbolize different aspects of your calling and identity in His. They are part of His story through yours!

You could base in whichever you choose, but they are actually all part of One whole symbol. Austin, pastoral creative haven; san fran, visual intelligence and global launching, Antwerp, monastic gateway into europe and the nations…you can occupy all three and rotate seasonally. Or however you choose, but they are all part of His Story of you! Part of His Testimony, He is completing through the art of your life–part of the path prepared beforehand to be your “way” in Him (Ephesians 2:10). That way is eternal. The trajectory of your story is something “in Him”! It’s inviolable, eternal, and a poem He made up! So there is no threat to loss of identity, as we enter more deeply into His. Peter was given his own name, by seeing who Jesus was!

In the first half of life people are searching for self, what is home, what is Real, what is theirs to know and tend. What symbolizes them. In the second, you know what’s yours and you begin to refine it and teach it to others. Mine art, spirituality, integration, and identity. Creativity and Identity and their proper relationship in Jesus.

Will you leave completed symbols on the earth? Now that you’ve found your symbolic lands, how to cultivate and complete them. That’s the second half of life’s mandate. The second half of life is about that symbolic efficiency. You know what you have to tend, now you can make it fruitful—finish the lines of your poem!

As you go into the 2nd half of life, you want to refine what you already have. You want to make each symbol more complete!!! Stewarding your symbols becomes a pleasure. When young, you found them, now to edit refine and share them. To tell the whole story. To collaborate in completing your testimony—His story of your life! This becomes your passion.

To complete your symbols on earth, becomes the task of the second half of life. The symbols you searched to find and conquer in the first half of life—the true images of self or yourself, others and the world, can now be contoured, completed, filled in, outlined, shared. The story can be told! The second half of life is to tell the whole story well. To complete the symbols in Peace and with Wisdom and articulation. No longer are you in competition, so you can complete your symbols in peace. Walk them out! Steward your story well. Cultivate the pleasant lines of your inheritance!

Having crossed your Jordans (your necessary deaths to self), having entered the land of your inheritance (the pleasant lines of yours), having occupied, possessed-now, you move on to cultivate, to bear fruit which will outlast you. So others can rest beneath the shade of your trees, and eat from your gardens! To complete the symbol of God’s story through your life. To interpret your life as a sign for others. To tell the whole story-His story of your life. To do so, you must steward the symbols of your life. Jesus completed His symbols! Let’s us allow Him to tell the whole story, to complete His symbols of who He is through us! Let’s steward our symbols with Him in collaboration until He is done. And like Him, be able to say, “It is finished”.