“Living Unloved… Not Something I Want For You..”

I’m reading this book The Shack, by William P. Young. The following section of quotes has spoken to me deeply recently as I think about the handful of people in my life that choose to live without love: Either because they don’t know how to receive it, or they are still struggling to understand it more fully. It makes me sad and makes me want to love each one more unconditionally. I want everyone to be able to fly.

My friend, Alex, just took his own life yesterday. His memory will not quickly fade from my heart. His life will challenge me to love more unconditionally and sit with others unconditionally for the rest of my life. I am so sorry he’s gone. I am sorry that he felt that this was his only choice. I miss him.

Here are some quotes from the book… A conversation between the main character and God…

Mack: “I feel totally lost”…

God: “Then let’s see if we can find you in this mess.”… “Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around… You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around.”

God: “Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly. Not something I want for you.”

God: “Mack, pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly… And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.”

_____________________________

Me:   I pray that my life can be the kind of sacrifice needed for others to know, to see and to receive the fact that they were created to be loved… and to fly… God, let it be.

The Lord’s Prayer

So stinkin’ cute… oh my word!

A Beautiful Mess: Video Part One: Easter

A Beautiful Mess

011, originally uploaded by cynditabug.

At church this past Sunday, my friend Brenda and I painted on a canvas that had been painted on the week before by the whole congregation. Easter Sunday, we invited the people to come up and express themselves on a canvas with paint. You can see the whole stream of photos here. At the end of the service on Easter, we had a mess of a painting. Dean shared this Sunday about how God makes beauty out of our mess, and then we went into a time of worship where the band played and Brenda and I painted for about 25 minutes while the music played. I have no words for what happened during that time. I have not worshiped like that in a long time, or ever really in such a creative way. It was amazing to see God show up in such a way that literally felt like no one else was around. It was the first time either one of us had painted together or in front of anyone else. Normally neither one of us lets anyone see us painting. We looked at each other during this worship time and she whispered, “I’m not nervous at all” I agreed with her. We both were oblivious to the fact that anyone else was in the room. God just showed up. I can’t wait to do it again.

Tenebrae

 Good Friday. Darkness. Shadows. Enter into His death, so that we may fully experience Life. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’.

I went to a Tenebrae service tonight. I grew up going to this service on Good Friday and it has always been one of my favorite services. It is an evening service usually with readings of the passion of Christ and candles for each reading. The traditional service I would always go to growing up, had the altar cleared of any excess, and the cross shrouded in black. Also, at the end of the service, they always slammed the Bible shut when they read Jesus’ words, “It is Finished”. The service ended in silence and darkness, and everyone would leave in silence and reflection.

It’s so easy for our culture to focus on the Easter Bunny… and the pretty new clothes everyone dons for Easter morning. But entering into the death and passion of Christ makes all the light and new life have meaning, really. I remember the stark visual difference between the bare altar shrouded in black on Good Friday, and the brilliant light on Easter morning, with the altar filled with white, somehow cleansed of the darkness. I am a visual, experiencial learner and this still impacts me. 

His sacrifice, His gift of love, His gift of grace, mercy and wholeness: all these are a part of Easter. Without these, there would be no Easter. Because of these, we can say, “Happy Easter”.