He is Risen

He is risen!

No one stirs to hear my Easter greeting. The City sleeps. Outside my window the sky is dark yet, and a fine mist hangs in the air, glowing with the artificial light of streetlamps. Where is the sun? 

I been overwhelmed with questions. Doubts. Decisions. I feel a call upon my life that scares me--well, the part of me that likes to remain settled, comfortable and safe. There is another part of me that is excited at the call and rises up with courage to face the challenge. 

But just as I see only darkness now, I have journeyed to that world and been met only with a mirroring dark. The dark of hopelessness, lostness and blindness. Where is the Son?

"Sometimes I feel very small. And I don't know why I'm here or how I can make a difference"

I wrote that once, when my eyes had been opened to the world I am training to enter. How can I say anything, do anything that might change anything? I am aware, like Moses, that my abilities are limited. I want to protest as he did when he received the call of the Lord, "I am slow of speech and tongue." (Ex. 4:10) and "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." (Ex. 4:13) My creativity is limited. I am not smart or skilled enough to say what needs to be said. 

But I am being called. If I do not answer, I am fighting against the will of my GOD. His words to Moses are a comfort to me. "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf,or seeing or blind? Is it not I, Jehovah? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and  teach you what you are to say." (Ex. 4:11-12) This is the promise of the God I serve to another that he called. I can only trust that he is indeed an unchanging God, and that he will work in the same way in me. Will I, like Moses, call him Adonai(Lord-Master), but push back in fear against his will, or will I surrender to my Adonai because he is Jehovah-God?

The call is to go and to do in that world I have seen, in that world that is dark. But I will not be  walking in darkness, without hope, for, on the morning of the third day the tomb was found to be empty. When surrounded by darkness we ask, where is the Son? I can tell you where he is. He died for the darkness and the lost and the hopeless and now he is sitting, alive and victorious at the right hand of the Father. He has shattered the curse of death and his light is only waiting for a sign from the Father to fully shine forth and destroy all darkness. My call is to be a forerunner of this marvelous light, preparing a way, carrying it in small parts to begin the work of darkness-breaking.

What is my hope? What can I say? HE IS RISEN!

He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Some Mornings

There are some mornings when God picks you up and dances you awake because the sun is shining its gilded warmth into you room for the first time in nearly a week, and outside your window sill a small, fat bluebird doesn't know how to stop making the same music that your very soul is making. This is a morning for face turned to the sun. This is a morning for song. This is a morning for hands in the air, be still my soul, praise the Lord, my Rock, my Savior, my Father-God.

Breathe deeply, for he has given you breath. That is how much he loves you. Feel the cold air about your feet, for he has created you to feel, and praise him, for you are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Let us worship the Lord!
Worship him with gladness O people of his blessing.
Praise his mighty Name for he is Creator God.
Praise his holy Name for he is Perfect.
Praise his saving Name for he has redeemed the world!
The Lord is our God and he has redeemed us,
pulled us from the depths of heart-darkness
and brought us to the light of his presence.
Let us lift our hands and worship Him, King of Light.
Let us worship the Lord!