A Cup of Coffey to Wake Me Up

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 

Coffey sings “All Ye” – for the song’s chords visit http://godtube.com/coffey

For me, this verse is beginning to take on new context.  I’m beginning to understand that the answered prayer does not always result in my own desired change in outer circumstances; yet, instead, often leads to the change needed within to perservere.

Funny, this verse was first put on my heart via Coffey Anderson’s “Come Ye” song (see above vid; more songs found on http://www.myspace.com/coffeysouthernman).  I didn’t feel it a verse that I really needed at the time, as a few of us gathered and sang the song together with one guitar and several voices, most of us failing miserably at the rap part.

Yet, I find myself finding my own rest in it even now, as past hurts and insecurities would threaten to restrict the voice that God has given me (just as He’s given you!)

Rest and peace comes when we don’t restrict God to our own expectations, because He’s bigger than that. 

We have to give God the space to move in His own way; ’cause His ways don’t just tend the symptoms, but address our issue’s source.

How Great Are the Little Things!

Do you want to live an unsatisfied life?  Then believe that you need everything that our enlightened modern society tells us is needed.  In that lie, you will find all the unfulfillment you could ever not want.   So, often I find myself falling into the trap of thinking if I cannot have my cake and eat it, too, then I have room for unrest. I’m like the kid in the store who reaches for all the colorful tooth aches displayed on the shelves.  While, in moments of maturity I nod my head in agreement to the sage and common sense wisdom shared in (Prov. 15:17):  I mean, who wouldn’t prefer a dish of vegetables where love is versus a rich meal served with hatred?  Right? Unfortunately, common sense pales to common desires.   

The word “depress” means to lower, weaken, to demoralize and discourage.  By focusing on what we don’t need, we depress the things that will strengthen and uplift us.  Does it matter, then, how attractive the “don’ts” are, if the pursuit of them makes us feel bad.  On the other hand, what if we were to pursue those things which truly bring us joy? And, if you get extra on top, then that’s not a bad deal either!  But, neither will its presence or abandonment determine your joy. I’ve learned that the pursuit of the hype offered nothing truly satisfying for me.  But, it is only when I have allowed God to show me what my unique needs are–the specific needs I require in order to thrive–it’s then that I have found lasting satisfaction.  Not one of us is built to be redundant.  We’re not built to be the same, and neither will our needs be met by the picture-perfect solutions spit out of the contemporary (assembly) line of thought.When I have been honest enough to admit that I can do without many things, but require a certain few, I have been able to set that standard with confidence; and never has God not delivered on producing something good, secure, fulfilling and meaningful to lil ol’ me.  And, as a matter of fact, He’s always blessed me beyond what I asked for.  Even so, it would be so easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater when the negatives make themselves known.But, if I learn to identify the right things and the right things don’t change, then why should my gratitude for them diminish? Am I so fickle?  Could I change so much that even my most basic needs are forgotten and exchanged for a new set?  Yeah.In the Bible there were two men, Moses and Jacob who grew up with one perspective only to have life experiences bring them to a place where God could open their hearts to who He’d created them to be.  Through knowing Him, and accepting His will for their lives they came to really know who they were and realized what great things they could do with a very little, if it was a little that was blessed by God. We can “center” ourselves and become Ohm with the universe as much as we want, but until we get to know the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, we will never get to the center of our desires.  Only through Jesus Christ can we navigate that pathway through our emotional detachments, our unforgiveness for others and ourselves, our pessimism, our unrealized weaknesses and all the other weeds and rocks and tumbles that hinder our view of where we’re headed.  He’s our guide.  And, He guides us to being okay with the wonderfully irreplaceable person that you are.  And, to the distinct needs that fulfill remarkable you.

restored

(The following is a live post written during G.i.g.a.t.t.’s Spoken Word/Open Mic nite at the Terrace Cafe. 02/08) 

… 

Enticed by subtle seductions of the world, I slowly walked away

forsaking the Lord I chose to go my way.

Into darkness I did fall, beaten down by sin and left to crawl

I cried out, Lord hear my plea, just once restore me….

AL Lizarde.

Freedom Redefined

 The Saturday Night Redefined service at Angelus Temple lingers in my head. Master’s Commission Los Angeles — a group of God-hungry young people who have committed two years of their life to knowing the Lord — made a presentation about freedom. There was a dance, a shadow play, a testimony-slash-monologue, and more. It was a call to freedom, a perfect foreshadowing of Martin Luther King Day that would occur that following Monday.  The first question that occurred to me was, wait a minute – freedom from what? The answer came a few minutes later. It was freedom from the cult of cool. A rebellion against rebellion. We have been fooled by invented and imagined norms (most of which are perpetuated in the media) about what freedom is – it is doing what you want, being what you want, when you want. It is running through a crowd-filled concrete road half naked, adorned with multi-colored shiny necklaces at Mardi Gras, it is the freedom to drink as much as you want on a Friday night, and the freedom to roll out cuss words the way a coin machine rolls out quarters. Yet in Saturday Night Redefined, freedom is redefined. We can only really be free of we walk in obedience – unfettered by bondages and addictions that pull us down, desperate only for The Father’s approval, and wanting to be “cool” only in the eyes of Our Savior.

Definitions. We don’t really give much thought to them — unless, probably we’re about to take a test. Academics make us care about them but unfortunately, life doesn’t.  After SNR, I began to think of my own definitions. How do I  define love? How do I define happiness? Sometimes when asked questions like, when was the last time you had a boyfriend,  some women jokingly say, “well, what’s your definition of boyfriend?” We stop to think first.  But when something of a more serious nature comes along, like a profession of love  from someone whose trustworthiness is questionable,  we don’t even stop to ask ourselves,  “what is this person’s definition of love?”  Once, in the process of writing  a short story that  told the story of a  certain kind of love,  I ask one of my good guy friends — what is your definition of love?  He unhesitatingly tells me that  physical attraction, and attention, to him is love. I really  am not surprised — this is the world’s standards — it just reminded me of how much we have been deceived. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 13 that Love is patient and kind, does not keep a record of wrongs and rejoices in truth — in a nutshell.

That is just a micro case study. Love. What about happiness? How do we define that? What thoughts do you have about peace, fairness, justice, and hope?

Definitions are the framework from which we act — the template that houses our decisions. Do you need to redefine your definitions?