Rain in a Clear Blue Sky

Isaiah 45:8  ~
     "Rain down, you heaven, from above,
        And let the skies pour down righteousness;
      Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
        And let the righteousness spring up together.
      I, the Lord, have created it."

This morning I raced beneath clear blue sky; the heavens, the firmament had not a drop in the sky and yet I ran drenched in the rain from on high.  I ran soaked to the bone, wet clear through with His goodness and the heavens smiled down on a sinful woman and I ran under beautiful blue straight into righteous rain.

And the earth broke forth and I swam in the waters of salvation and while heavy feet hit solid ground something eternal broke through I waded on solid ground in the midst of His living waters.

Simply impossible some would say, you can not swim on solid ground and yet I do attest that I certainly did and I certainly will for His ways our not our ways and there is a Heavenly mystery of earthly reality that intertwines with supernatural spirituality in the hearts of those that do confess that Jesus is Lord.

The heavens beg to pour forth this righteous rain and the earth shakes and quakes with anticipation to break forth with His salvation and they cry out to us ~ receive and embrace, open your eyes to the rain that falls and the earth that breaks forth for He has poured out and cracked wide open because of His great love for you, for me.

And sadly so many do not heed the call.  When the rain cascades over the floors many will scurry for umbrellas and break the flow of righteous rain the cries to flow over them and to pour over all that they are and all that they are not, righteous rain that will heal and restore but alas, umbrellas crack open lest we get a little wet.

And the earth splinters and gushes forth in salvation and we stand at the edge of the tide and we barely touch tip of toe to water, lest we make a ripple.

Sadly, we are people who often will not get wet, nor be the one to make a ripple and we live dry and barren lives as we watch the waves of salvation crash everywhere but within.

But, today while I raced I determined I will not live with umbrella overhead and I certainly will dive in and I ran right through this clear blue day into the sloshing, falling righteous rain and I raced into the waves of salvation that broke clean through.

Come be it what may; whether sorrow and sadness or gladness, whether plenty or lack, pain or rejoicing; regardless of the tears we will spill as we sojourn home let us be a people determined and fixed to race with arms open wide and head towards the sky, to run continually in the waters of righteousness and waves of salvation.  Why would we have it any other way.

Dare you set aside the umbrella today and laugh and splash in the puddles with me today?

Extravagant Worship

That Sunday, I was in desperate need of something, always in need of this Something.  The night past I had laid on the bed and probed and prodded, pushed and pulled at him for answers that were not his to give.  “I do not know, you have to seek God for those answers, only He can tell you,” he so smartly answers.  Then we arose and gathered with the flock and I sat with no answers, only questions and this need. 

The pastor spoke the words in my ear but He broke the jar and spilled the words over my soul and the need met the Answer and I swam in the words and I swam in reverential delight ~ extravagant worship.

And that day, 2,000 years of yesterdays ago, she broke the jar and extravagant worship poured out over her Master and the fragrance of all that she had to give filled the house.  And to her Master it was a sweet aroma but not to the religious elite; no they scorned this “sinful woman.”  And she bore down her hair and she bore her soul and they stared on and they did not know and the surely did not perceive this deep love that this sinful woman wept over His feet.  She was entirely misunderstood by all that day, except for One, the only One and she looked past the contemptuous stares and she stared into Him and she stared into Him for all eternity.

Luke 7:50 ~  Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you: go into peace.”     And certainly she did.

Extravagant Worship ~ costly oil and entirely more costly tears poured over Him before the eyes of all of those who could not, or would not understand.  She poured out only for Him and He eternally poured back in.

Another jar cracks, splinters and words pour out and I say, “But, so few see and even less understand, “ and He says ~ that is extravagant worship. 

And yet another sinful woman, for we all, daughters of Eve, are certainly sinful women, she too cracks right open in front of glaring eyes and she spills out and over and they say, “What a waste!” and He says, “She will be remembered wherever I am spoken of.”  A waste?  Only to a Judas, not to that sinful woman that day and not to her Jesus.

And again some will say, “What a waste, wasted time and wasted words.  No one cares.”  And He gently whispers in my ear, “Extravagant worship and I do care and no amount of time nor words poured out unto me will ever be wasted.” 

Extravagant worship breaks vessels clean open and gives way to an Extravagant Love that fills us clean full and why do we ever bother with anything other than extravagant worship?

And what is this Extravagant Love?  It is the mysterious God of ours Who kindly lays low and stoops to pick up the shards and slivers of broken clay vessels and with blood smeared hands He lays broken pieces into something entirely  new and a once broken vessel stands again intertwined with righteous blood from His blood stained hands.

Today, race?  Yes, this morning I raced again and I wondered aloud that He would receive this extravagant worship that rambles out of my fingers and out of my heart and I race and I worship and I weep.  And I race through early morning light that breaks through trees on this earthen mass laid before me and as I race I hear shards of clay clatter to the ground and I fall in step on this ancient path, this narrow path that leads to life and I race in this extravagant worship that runs in the stride of this Extravagant Love.

(Read and remember your sinful sisters who poured out before hostile eyes in an unalloyed acts of worship; read, remember and be transformed by the renewing of your mind ~ That one who went in peace ~ Luke 7:36-50  and then the one who would be remembered wherever He was preached ~ Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, John 12:1-11)

Memento Mori

I remember, I labor hard to remember, I walk this long and dusty road to Calvaria, Latin for the skull; He dragged body and cross to this Golgotha.  My Jesus was born in a manager and crucified at the place of the skull; ominous and slightly chilling.  But, today in this moment I follow behind my Savior as He walks to death and I follow with intentionality, I follow with a purpose ~ to see a glimpse, to grasp a shred of the suffering He wore, to steal a glance of the weight of the depravity, my depravity, that He chose to shoulder to the Cross.

And for just a moment, a 40-day moment, I memento! I remember!  Ashes are spread today and the dark mess spread will tell the tale of a dark mess that was spread on a dark night as a dark world tried to extinguish the only Light we will ever rightly know.  But, the tale would not end in a dark mess on that dark night for the Light had willingly laid down life and limb and the sacrificial Lamb was sacrificed.  And in the single greatest act of love, an act that certainly can not be properly penned, the sacrificed Lamb defeated death in all who would believe.

Memento Mori ~ I remember that I must die ~ And I who do believe, I must die and I must die in Christ to rightly live again.

And so, memento mori ~ remember you must die ~ and rejoice in that dark night were the dark mess scourged searing pain across the back of the Sacrificial Lamb.  Remember that dark night, remember that Lamb Who victoriously laid down His life and remember and rejoice, for if you believe that on that darkest of nights He defeated your darkest of dark, you will live again and again and on an on.  For the enemy has been defeated in your darkest of dark.

In a world that says ~ "Live!  Live life to its fullest!  Drink and merry!"  I too say, "Live! and live life to its fullest!"  But our lives are lived in our death that is eternally intertwined with Jesus' death.  And we are so full but not full of what this world is offering.  We fill up not with this counterfeit life that leads to death eternally void of God; but we fill with His death and His suffering and we find eternal life here; here in this slow and painful trudge to Golgotha.

I breathe deep this day of the breath of my past, I breathe the air of 2,000 years ago.  The ancient air breathes life into my today.

And He cries out in agony and the echos of pain transcend through the corridors of time and I hear His call of suffering and I surely know that I am deeply loved.

And that piercing pain that rings in your ear; it tells a painful tale that you too, are deeply loved.

Today, I inhale the breath of His death and I find life.


Today, I can not run this race, only He could have finished this race so He ran it in my place.  So, I quietly unlace shoes, I slip them off, for certainly I have wandered onto holy ground.  And I stand and watch, I stand and memento, I remember my Champion Who raced in my stead.  He ran that dark day with a steady and sure step that raced right into our death and three days later, our death, yours and mine, had been defeated.

Will you too, unlace shoes and memento, remember, memento mori; remember your death and more assuredly remember His.

In this Lent season, this dark mess smeared season, we stand as spectators and marvel at our fierce Champion, Memento!  Remember death!  and find your life.

Fully Confident

Today I live full and yet the nagging hallow, the ugly empty bellows in my ear and surely I did fill today but only full of that which does not satisfy.  And the infantile lessons that He so recently whispered were so soon forgotten.  How can the full of our lives weigh so empty on our hearts, our souls?  For surely it is a counterfeit full, the deceiver distorts all that is good and plenty and sells a counterfeit story.  Today I am kindred to my ancient sister Eve and I took a bite from the counterfeit and immediately I too was ashamed in my nakedness and my emptiness.

This early evening I hear His gentle call in my ears that are too full of  the distorted truth and He beckons me in the cool of the garden and I return ashamed.  Ashamed.  And He gently blows over me and simply says, "Ask me to forgive you and certainly I will."  And I babble and stammer and whine about how weak I am and He says again, "Just ask me to forgive, and I will."  I am reminded again, and again that my weakness or strength are of no concern, it is not contingent on my sacrifices or gluttony of self; it is simply grace.  Grace that is given freely and solely based on the truth of the Giver.

I ask and He gives for He delights to give, this Giver of mine.

He picks up my shame shadowed face and tells of truth that chases the shame shadows back to the darkness where He cast them over 2,000 years ago.

Truth ~
Philippians 1:6 ~ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

And He empties me of well, me and He fills again with goodness; goodness of this good work He will complete in me.

Am I confident that I will run this race empty and lite, filled only with the Light?  No, I am not. 

This is the confidence that I run this race in ~ that He has begun a good work in me and He is a God of completion and when exhaustion and spiritual amnesia set in and I crash hard onto hot asphalt and rip shreds of flesh I am assured that they were earthly flesh and that my Surgeon will certainly bind my wounds in a heavenly sort of way.  Being fully confident of this very thing ~ I race on.