Friday, March 26, 2010

Filled

I think sometimes we get this picture of life and say things such as: “there is a God-shaped vacuum in all of us and until we allow God that place in our lives, it will always be empty.” And then, when we’re talking to teenagers [especially], we add tag-lines like: “Now sometimes we try to fill that void with other things...family and friends or drugs, alcohol, and sex...but they are only partial fillers. Like misfit puzzles pieces...”

And so, in some ways, we start each day with a calculator. And we begin tallying up what fills us and what is left over for God in order to make our misfit pieces allow no empty spaces and no unforgotten holes....

“Family and friends are great...so we’re up 34%. And when you add in the fact it is pay day...now we can bump that to 42%. And classes are busy but satisfying so I guess that puts me around 59%...”

And we go on like this with our proverbial calculator, tallying our totals and cutting our losses and then after we have our figure, we let God know where He needs to step in and step up.

“Well God, looks I need you for the top 20 today...”

Or maybe it’s been a little rougher of a day and we call out “It’s up to you today Jesus! You’re need to take the whole bottom half!”

And still other times we are feeling so empty that our God-assignment is a desperate pleat. “Father, You’re going to have fill in just about 92% if I’m even going to make the cut today...”

And on each occasion we go confident God will fill us to the measure.

But are we looking at things backwards? Do we not need to come to a different understanding? An understanding where we come to God each morning empty and make the humble plea “If I be anything today it is because I know you fill me to the measure and the overflowing. You are more than enough for me...”

If we are going to claim God is more than enough for us then we need to stop allowing Him to “fill in the cracks”. God is single-handedly able and desirous of filling to overflowing and then He STILL allows the blessing which leave it so the “cup runneth over”. Would we come up dehydrated and thirsty so often if we were compelled to start a foundation on the well that does not run dry?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Label

The Label
AK March 2010

Sometimes I have to remind me
What does and does not define me
Of who I am
And who God is
And who He is creating me to be.

I get so lost in all of the noises
Attacked by all of the voices.
I question if the world sees
Anything but what I see.

So I wonder and I ponder
Of this name that I am under.
If I claim the cross,
Does it claim me?
And define who I’m supposed to be?

So for what I can’t help wishing
Is the label I’ve been missing.
Not just who I am
But who God is
And who He is creating me to be.

Wait

Wait
AK March 2010

The thoughts in my head
Are spinning dizzy circles.
The stirrings in my heart
Leave me muddled and unsure.
You ask my to wit
For the answers I am craving;
And I find myself wishing
For something, anything more.

And I hold on
To the promise I am claiming
The hope You will show up
The grace You won’t leave.
And I live in
The doubts and the questions
I move towards You despite uncertainty.

Strength is built
When I am standing in the pauses.
Trust grow
As Your waiting hand meets mine.
You know
The many things I shouldn’t.
And so somehow the waiting
Is part of your plan and time.

And I hold on
To the promise I am claiming
The hope You will show up
The grace You won’t leave.
And I live in
The doubts and the questions
I move towards You despite uncertainty.