It's One of Those God Moments...

What an amazing captured moment! 

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 My mother always told me:

"Lydia, even if you lost everything in your life, if you still have God, you have everything."

This homeless man attests to the fact that:

Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

 God is God, no matter our circumstances. His love for us never will never end; His love for us is beyond understanding. He gave His life (the life of His Son Jesus) that we may live a life of fullness in Him. He provides hope, joy and spiritual riches that no human circumstance can rob us of. He came to give us a hope from our spiritual longings and fill us with the perfect Love that He alone can provide.

Ask yourself, how can a man who has nothing find it in him to have the strength to bow and sing to a God he does not see? 

Listen. God is real. He is the world's greatest treasure. He is humanity's greatest gift. In Him is found our Hope of Glory. There are riches in this world that were never meant to be conquered, but simply received. God's gift of Love and Salvation (heart healing) is just that.

On top of that, look at celebrities. They have so much, yet, they seem so lost. We were not meant to find fulfillment in ourselves. Our meaning goes beyond our own personal dreams. Once you achieve them, then what? Off to the next dream? When will you stop? Is pursuing goals a chase after the wind or a pursuit to Joy? Ecclesiates 2 in the Bible, talks about a man who sought happiness in all the places the world told him to look and still concluded with this thought: 

²¹ Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it. This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy. ²² So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety? ²³ Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.
²⁴ So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. ²⁵ For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?^{[b] 26} God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy to those who please him. But if a sinner becomes wealthy, God takes the wealth away and gives it to those who please him. This, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

Countercurrent

An Aimless Pursuit
I am swiming upstream, fighting the pressure, fighting the waters with every bit of strength in my body.

I am alive, so I must fight; fight to go upstream. Many are further ahead than me, many are further away.

I can feel myself struggling. I can feel myself wrestling. All in all, I can feel myself surviving; I must be alive.

As I fight to go upstream, I see others going downstream. Their path seems so much easier than mine!

For a moment, I stop to look at those who do not seem to struggle. I stop to look at those who do not try to fight.

I stop
To envy them.

So, I decided to let go of the fight; thinking that going downstream was better than this seemingly pointless battle of living to simply go upstream.

I feel myself becoming one with this River: I go where she goes. Tickled by the silky strands of this transluscent substance, I slowly feel myself becoming numb, becoming lifeless.

No more do I have Something to fight for! Pretending to be lifeless, I have allowed for this body of water to become my guide. Without a fuss, I go where she goes, turn where she turns, sometimes intercepted by a rock or other lifeless bodies as I follow her lead.

I am now FREE! Free from the fight! Free to go wherever I please. "No more struggles from this moment on", I tell myself. This is how it was meant to be.

As I let the River guide me, I eventually become estranged to time "How long have I been in this bliss void of tension? Am I living? Really?"

Up and down the stream I fall. Without a protest, I go where She goes, the River. And it dawns on me, "is this what living is?"

As the River led me down the stream, lower and closer to where I had begun, I got stuck in a bed of moss covered rocks.

From the abrupt collision, I felt the glaze over my eyes crack as was suddenly awaken from a daze. For the first time since I gave myself over to her, I noticed the beauty of nature around me. I saw the sky, the trees, the plants, the wild animals on the solid earth, living as one. I notice those fishes that were falling downstream and those that were wrestling to go upstream.

As I rested on this bedrock, far in the distance, I heard what sounded like groans and growlings; some sounded deeper and others higher in tonality. I felt strength slowly taking hold of my being again
as I started taking use of my senses again.

Surprised at how distrofied my body had become, I was painfully starting to take notice of my limbs again. But although unexpectedly my strength had come back I dreaded swiming upstream again. I could still see other peaceful bodies passing by and envied them still. Although I was strong again, I used this reacquired energy to push myself away from the rock back into the familiar current of the River. I was comforted by this familiar feeling of feeling myself sinking back under the her sweet caressing waves. But this time around, something was different. I could not help paying attention to the scenery around me. The grownings becoming increasingly louder and more distinct.

My heartbeat was rising as the sounds of splashes of water getting closer and closer. To my confusion, this comotion did not seem to bother my fellow drifters who continued to calmly follow the lead of the stream. Choosing to trust the wisdom of the majority as better than the voice in my own mind, I concluded that this fear of mine was misplaced. So I kept on mimiquing the flow of those peaceful drifters, going where the River goes. Sometimes, however, my numbed mind was distracted by other fishes who were swimming upstream or who seemed to have suddenly waken up from their daze to fighting the River's current. Convinced that the drifters new better, I chose to pretend that I was with the majority. Clearly, I was with those who were making the best of life; those who knew better than to struggle.

But now, the groanings were becoming the distinct cries of a bear and her cubs. The splashing noises had become too close to be ignored. I could not continue ignoring what everyone else was not paying attention to.

All of a sudden, I felt a claw scratch my tail and, alarmed at the reality of death being near, I started taking use of those muscles that had mysteriously started to strengthen a while back and began to fight to go upstream again.

Going Upstream
This time, not looking back, I swam for dear life! Although I was not completely sure what was laying ahead, knowing where the River led was enough to convince me that swimming against her current was wiser than being a drifter.

I had chosen to live! While I was now gladly swimming upstream, I kept on picturing what could have happened if my muscles were still distrofied; if I had abandoned myself completely to the River's lead.

As I was now fiercely swimming upstream, I sometimes purposefully altered my path in order to bump into a drifter who may have not been unaware of the dangers that were laying ahead.

Often I was completely ignored. But I could not help but continue to try to warn others of the value of swimming upstream.

Regardless of the rejection from the majority, regardless of being part of the minority going upstream, at least I knew the reason why I was choosing to swim against the River.

There came a part in my journey that became seriously steep. I was surprised to see that we were many there trying fight to go up this particularly strong body of water. Although I had been struggling until now, I felt myself struggling for real this time. As I was battling to continue upwards, I witnessed many fellow swimmers fall back into the numbing arms of the River.

Stubbornly refusing to go back under the rule of the River's deceptive streams, I kept on trying to go over this strong stream. It seemed that this practice of fighting made me feel weaker and weaker although I somehow still found the energy to keep on trying to go to the top of this River.

My battle against the River was a difficult one! I would go higher in the stream and fall back lower and lower and then swim higher than before... to fall lower again. When I felt myself getting discouraged, I remembered where my life could have ended and I remembered the stories I heard about the top of this River earlier in my path. For a reason hard to explain, those were the memories that gave me the energy I need to continue upstream.

Until that faithful day where I suddenly mysteriously reached the top!

At the Top
What a beautiful sight I am now in! The water is as clear as cristal and food is easy to reach. The stream of this lake is so gentle, it is barely noticed. No more struggle in this beautiful scenery; only peace to be found. We are many here to enjoy true rest. In this wide lake that feels infinite, there seems to be always more to explore and enjoy.

But one day, as I was wandering this peaceful water with my new found friends, I asked one of them why so many drifters would ignore me as I tried to warn them of the dangers that lied at the bottom of the River. And of them to answer:

"Friend, only those that are alive can swim upstream."


Reference: Ephesians 2:1-10

End7

Sometimes, celebrities got it right... End 7 Official Website

Be entirely His.

"I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word."

John 17:6

The missionary is one in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this realization - "Ye are not your own." [...] 
Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession, He becomes responsible for him. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me." The spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The secret of the missionary is - I am His, and He is carrying out His enterprises through me.

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest_Sept 4

How Great Thou Art (Amazing Version)

Wide is the Way (Matthew 7:13)

What a challenging message. It left me speechless, perplexed and quite evaluative of my own heart and my own motives: What am I truly living for? What does it mean to follow Christ? Am I really wanting to follow Him or is this a spiritual quick fix that I have chosen to embrace? I mean, according to the early psychotherapist Carl Jung, we are all spiritual beings who, according to the collective unconscious need to believe in something. By accepting to "follow" Christ (whatever that means), is my only purpose to make myself feel better, find an answer for what I don't understand, be a good person, try to have a better life and/or guarantee my ticket to Heaven?  Did I just pick Christ because He is the One I grew up knowing or is Christ crucified (the Son of God), who rose from the dead (and is now ALIVE and dwelling in Heaven), the Lord that I choose to serve?

One cannot serve two masters. I will either love myself or love my God. But the reality is that I am at war with myself in order to be able to love my God. I want what I want when I want it how I want it. And God, the engineer and maker of the universe wants me to be His, period... He wants to be the One I want, at all times, in everything. How badly do I want to be His? How badly am I desiring to live for and serve Him?

In retrospect, a person in love wants to share with the world the love that they have for this special someone. Why is it that we are surprised that when a person encountered the love of Christ and truly experienced and embraced it, desires to at their turn, share it with the world? God loved us first did He not? He shared this message of Love to the world, and at our turn, the Lover of our souls desires to see us do the same for Him... so why? Why do I find it so hard? Why is receiving His love and intentionally sharing it with the world so challenging?

If you've been reading some of my blog and think I'm a little off sometimes about this God stuff, here's a little soul searching for you that may help you understand where I'm coming from:
1. True or False. At the end of the day, when I am alone with myself, away from distractions, there is this whole in my heart that feels infinite and seems to never be filled or truly satisfied... permanently.
2. True or False. Two main things I long for: love and hope and I will go at any depths to get them (or avoid them if I have been taught that I was not worthy of them).
3. True or False. I like to be the god of my own life and do things my way when I want and how I want or I like to pick who will be the person, people or group that I want to identify with.

If you've answered yes to all of them (or most of them), ask yourself why is it that a finite being can have a hunger that can never be fulfilled? Why is it that a finite being who evolves to survive as the fittest feels such a deep need for what he cannot touch or truly explain? It doesn't make sense. If we are beings whose focus is to survive on this earth as the strongest and eliminate the weak, why do we battle existential question that go beyond the life that we do have and that is truly is tangible? Shouldn't death only be seen as a fact and not an element of anguish? After all these years of being on earth, you'd think that humanity would have made peace with the fact that the only thing that matters is on this earth is the time that we breathe? So why does the soul experience angst at the idea of finding an explanation for what happens after we are no longer breathing?

Here's the thing, let's assume that the Bible had it right when it said that we were made in God's image. It would make sense that as reflections of God, we would have a touch of Him in us. We were made finite but we were created with a desire for the Infinite; a desire for Him. Only an infinite Being can cause a finite being to desire what is Infinite. Where does that desire come from?

God, who is a God of community (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, 3 in 1) created us to be in relationship with Him. This is why the craving for the infinite exists. But in Love, He gives us the option to Love Him back; because true love does not control. Just like a child has an innate desire for their parents, so do we have an innate desire for an Infinite Creator. Just like the child needs love from their parents in order to be functional and lead a positive and healthy life later on, so do we as we are weaned from our primary caregivers, realize our need to find love for our souls that will give us a hope and a confidence for the future. Do you see that in so many natural relationships are a reflection of the character of God?

Interestingly, we go to relationships, friendships, careers, substances, create titles for ourselves, and pursue all these things that still leave us empty. We resolve ourselves to the idea that life is not fair or that misery is a state of being that needs to be drowned or quieted through a variety of methods. All these methods work for a time, but they never last. You need more; always more; always more intense than the last time.

If trying to do things to serve and soothe yourself does not work, maybe something needs to change? There is a saying that goes as follows: "Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting different results." Could it be that all this energy you are putting towards yourself actually be meant for someone else? Maybe someone who is associated with your soul craving of peace, love, and a guaranteed place with your Loving Father up in Heaven?

Lord, You placed this desire in my heart. Please ignite it that I may truly be the devoted lover and worshiper that You had intended me to be. Let me truly be Yours.

In the precious name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

P.S. I love to listen and I love to talk. If you want to discuss or hear more just shoot me an email :) Hope you're having a nice day, wherever you are.

Start Again

Start again
To where you began.

If you lose strack,
Go back
To where you strayed,
And make sure
This time,
To avoid
The road
Most travelled.

     Stay Focused.
             Stay on track.

And if,
While you walk
Through this road 
Called Truth,
You still
Feel
Lost,

GO BACK
To what you know
Is worth living for.
My friend,
Continue to push 
Continue foreward,
Keeping in mind
What
Really
Matters.


*Reference: Philippians 3:12-14
                 Romans 7:14-25