Sometime

Sometime

                        when all life's lessons have been learned,
                                                        And the sun and stars forevermore have set
                                                                       The things which our weak judgements here have spurned,
                                         The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet,
                 Will flash before us out of life's dark night,
                                                                          As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
                                                  And we shall see how all God's plans are right,
                                                                 And how what seemed reproof was love most true.

Then be content poor heart;

God's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold;

                                                                              we must not tear the close-shut leaves apart--
                                                     Time will reveal the chalices of gold.
                            And if, through patient toil, we reach the land
                                                                   Where tired feet, with sandals loosed, may rest,
           When we shall clearly see and understand,
                               I think that we will say,

 "God knew the best!"

The Best Is Yet To Come...

Our Delight Is His Delight

You know what I love?

Beauty.

And the best part is that it's all around. Beauty is truly all around.

If you know how to find it.

We live in a world and culture that defines beauty through the size of our waist and the color of our hair and the name on our clothes. We walk through a world and culture where the eyes of man are constantly looking for a way to improve the way we look to satisfy the desire of someone else. Yes, it's easy to find beauty in those ways because we've been told what beauty is. Got the hair? Check. Got the waist size? Check. Got the make-up? Check. Got the muscles? Check. Ok, then you're beautiful! All I had to do was type in "beauty" on google images, and all that popped up was women who filled that mold.

There is so much more beauty to the world. Do you realize how much of this world was made beautiful simply because God knew we'd like it? He could have made the world in blacks and grays. But He didn't. He painted skies of deep blue and He swirled pinks and reds and purples into a sunset.

He could have made flowers without their beautiful scent. But He didn't. He poured fragrance into them because He knew that we'd love to smell them. And He wanted to take delight in our delight. Do you know how often God waits for you to take notice of His creation so that He can find joy in your pleasure? What beauty is found in His creation! He made us each individually and uniquely because beauty is unique to each person. He gave us all different talents and gifts because He knew we'd find joy in each others' gifts as well! The song you love to listen to on repeat? He gave that singer his voice because He wanted you to enjoy it. That painting that makes you catch your breath? He gave that artist her hand to paint so that you could stop and look at it. That child that has the laugh to make your heart stop? He filled that child with it so that you would be touched by it. That hill you love to sled down? He created it knowing how much you'd laugh as you slid down it. He loves when His children have fun! 

 

Everything God did, He had us in mind. I love just imagining Him in the creation process, thinking about me. Thinking about you. "She'll like this," and "I can't wait until he's born so that I can watch him smile from this." I was driving down a scenic road the other day, and my heart was just bursting because of the beauty around me. I said, "God, You're so beautiful!" And He responded, "I love watching you take delight in My beauty!" He says that for all of us.

Our delight is His delight.

The Best Is Yet To Come...

This Moment...Every Moment

All your pain will be made Mine

All your troubles, the tears you cry

Give it up, all that binds

I will place it on My shoulders

And up this hill I'll climb

Father, give Me strength

I know there is no other way

I lay down My life for you

This is the moment when all will be made new

I know that you don't understand

But this is part of a greater plan

So I lay down My life for you

This is Love that had to bleed

To bring you mercy, to set you free

You are Mine, I am yours

And I will wear your burdens

Just like this crown of thorns

Give Me all your pride

Give Me all your fears

Give Me all your secrets

Give Me all your tears

Give Me all your doubts

Give Me all your shame

Watch them wash away

Watch them wash away

I will take your place

I know there is no other way

I lay down My life for you

This is the moment when all will be made new

I know that you don't understand

But this is part of a greater plan

So I lay down My life for you

Though I know that you don't understand

These scars are part of a greater plan

And I lay down My life for you

Arms stretched out upon this tree

To show true Love

To set you free

I heard this song today and was moved to tears (Me? Cry? Unbelievable...) As Christians, we know that God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for us so that we might believe in Him and be saved. Whether we grew up knowing the Bible, or have just started reading it, we know the truths inside it. Sometimes though, I think that, because we hear them so often, and because we've believed them and known them for so long, that these truths become just...background noise. We nod and say our "amen", but tune out at the same time because we've "heard it all before."

This is why God is constantly wanting us to dig in deeper with Him, because He always has new secrets and mysteries and truths that He wants to reveal to us and share with us. But I also believe that He wants to remind us of the "old truths" again and again throughout our walk with Him. He wants to reignite the "basics" in us. That's what He did to me tonight through this song.

Jesus was the Son of God, yes. But He was also a man. He felt emotion. He experienced pain in all forms. He grew up in the world. I wonder if sometimes, we belittle His experience at the cross and all that led up to it. I wonder if we think, because He was fully God and fully man, He didn't feel pain as much as a normal person would. I wonder if we think, because He was sent to Earth to die, that He wasn't afraid. He must have been perfectly happy and willing to go through excruciating pain and brutality because it was His purpose.

That's trash.

Jesus felt every ounce of pain that He went through in all of its severity and deepness. And we know that He wanted another way to save us. He prayed to His Father in Heaven, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Jesus knew that His Father could do anything. Even create a different way to save the world. And He wanted it! But He also knew that His Father's way was best, and He surrendered His life to obey His Father. 

And so, Jesus layed down His life. For you. For me. Who else can that be said about? He died so that I could live. He hung on the cross because He knew that through it, all things would be made new. Not just in that moment, but in every moment from then on! The cross wasn't just for then. It's for now. All we will ever need is at the foot of the cross. That means that every moment I need healing, I can find it at the cross. Every moment I need comfort, I can find it at the cross. Every moment that I need things made new, I can find it at the cross. In His presence, all things are made new. So every time I enter His presence, I'm made new in some way. That's crazy! That's beautiful! 

That moment that Jesus gave up His life...was done for every moment after.

This moment.

And this moment.

And this one.

And this one.

How can I not use every moment for Him when He gave His life so that I could have life? Without Him, I wouldn't even have a life to even consider giving to Him! Ah, He's so good! There are no words to describe! I need a language as large as this longing inside!

How are you living your moments? Are you just a fan or admirer of Christ? That won't cost you anything. But if you're a follower of Christ, it's going to cost you everything. Look at your life: what are you paying?



The Best Is Yet To Come...

Love Is Not A Fight

Love is not a place to come and go as we please
It's a house we enter in, and then commit to never leave
So lock the door behind you, throw away the key
We'll work it out together, and let it bring us to our knees

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
If we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for

To some, love is a word that they can fall into
But when they're falling out, keeping that word is hard to do
Love will come to save us if we'll only call
He will ask nothing from us
But demand we give our all

Love is a shelter in a raging storm

Love is peace in the middle of a war

If we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door

No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for

I will fight for you

Would you fight for me?

It's worth fighting for

The Best Is Yet To Come...

By All Appearances

Did you know that all church pastors must be ordained into their positions through an official appointment process? And educational requirements for church pastors vary with the needs of the congregation. Some denominations require their church pastors to hold graduate-level degrees from schools of Theology aligned with the denomination. Churches in well-populated urban areas are more likely to have formal educational requirements than churches in rural areas. But most churches require that a pastor has to have completed a bachelor's degree or higher in religious studies, seminary, or theology. And once hired, they work as an assistant pastor as they master the practical skills of leading worship and providing spiritual guidance. Did you also know that most churches require that he be married, and at least thirty-five years old?

SO...

Did you know that Jesus would not have been hired at most churches today? Whoa...

The Bible commands us to do our best to be like Jesus. It's what we as followers of Christ live for and stand on as our way of life. It's not a suggestion. But before we can really live our lives as Jesus lived out His, we have to look at not only the big things He commanded us to obey, but also the little things that He did on a day to day basis.

What did Jesus do everyday? How did He spend His time? If we break it down simply, He spent His time doing five things: praying, walking, eating, teaching and hanging out.  And who did He walk with? Who did He eat with? Who did He teach? Who did He hang out with? According to the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders, Jesus was doing everything wrong. He was walking with fishermen. He was eating with tax collectors. He was teaching for free. He was hanging out with drunkards and prostitutes and "sinners." According to they eyes of men, this was horrendous, as He was a prophet and spiritual leader and shouldn't have been doing the things He was doing.

So I have to ask...

If I hang out with prostitutes, does that make me a prostitute according to your eyes? If I eat with drunkards, does that make me a drunkard according to what you see? If I walk with druggies or gangsters, does that make me a druggie or gangster by all appearances? Because if it does, I guess that means that Jesus was a sinner and a tax collector and a leper and a drunkard and...the list goes on. Because by all appearances, to man, Jesus was no prophet or spiritual leader. And He definitely couldn't have been a pastor these days by our regulations...

I think sometimes, as Christians, we judge and gossip more than unbelievers! How many of us are just modern-day pharisees? If you were to see a pastor that you know sitting in a bar talking, I bet that most people would think, "What's Pastor So-and-So doing in a bar? He drinks? That is not ok for a spiritual authority!" Why do we so often think the worst of people before we think the best? Why are we so quick to judge someone's actions instead of asking them about it, instead of learning about their heart? It's biblical to go to the person first anyway! If you went to that person in love to ask what was going on in his or her life, I can bet that a whole lot of drama and gossip and pain would be spared.

It's sad to think that, in God's flock, the greatest wounds usually come from other sheep, not the wolves. I'm sick of God's children being torn apart by each other. All the wolves have to do is wait for the blood to be spilt, and then they can feast.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 

James 3:9-12

Instead:

   "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

This verse has really been hitting me hard lately. Jesus says that one of the only things that sets us apart from nonbelievers is our love for one another. Which means to me, if I'm not loving my brother or sister in Christ, I'm not proving myself to be a disciple of Christ. Ouch. I don't want to have to try to convince people that I'm a disciple. I want them to know it just from knowing me. I want them to know I'm in Christ's family. In His army. But God calls us first to be a family, and then an army. Because if we can't get it right with each other first, the rest of the world won't want anything to do with our army.

I'm going to end with this:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

   Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 

Luke 6:37-38

The Best Is Yet To Come...





Featherfew

I love flowers more than almost anything on God's green earth.

Sunflowers have been my favorite flowers for as long as I can remember. They've always meant something more to me than just being a flower. I always saw them as an intimate and unique symbol and connection between me and God. Sunflowers are bright and big and bold. And they always face the sun. I love that. They're eye catching and different. I want to be like a sunflower. Bright and bold and beautiful. And I always want to be facing the Son. I love them so much.

There's no way I'm replacing them, but a new flower has definitely come up on my radar that means something to me.

Featherfew.

Featherfew is one of the many wildflowers that grow in wastelands and barren soil. Despite inhospitable conditions, they thrive along roadsides, in vacant lots, even through sidewalk cracks. Humbly, perenially, without comfort, fine breeding or cultivation, they bring rich color, sweet fragrance, and simple beauty into the world. And, they bring healing. Featherfew, in particular, is known for calming distress and lifting low spirits. Like tenacious wildflowers, the gifts of Featherfew are humbly designed to bring into the world a small measure of healing and joy. Featherfew shares in the vision of a world growing in peace with an appreciation of the dignity of all people and the goodness of all creation. They're also bright and beautiful and different. I love when God makes things work in places that they shouldn't. It doesn't make any sense that these flowers would grow where and how they do. And yet they grow. And they're beautiful. I want to be like Featherfew. I want to grow in places that the world sees, or even sometimes I see, as impossible or hard or desolate. I want to bring simple beauty to wastelands. I want to bring healing to the world. Not necessarily through big acts. In the small things too. I want to bring rich color to a world that can be so black and white and grey sometimes. I want to be a sweet fragrance, as Jesus calls me to be.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

The Best Is Yet To Come...

Happy Birthday, Tyler

Dear Tyler,
Happy Birthday, dear brother! You'd be 27 years old today...that's just crazy to me! Enough time has gone by that, every anniversary or birthday of yours, doesn't change much in my heart. It's just another year you're not here. There's no pain in my heart anymore. There hasn't been for a long time. I've been trying to think all day about what is in my heart concerning you now. How do I feel about you? What comes to mind when I do think of you? It's been an interesting thinking process through the day, especially when I look at pictures of you. I see you in pictures, and it's like there's this disconnect. Like, my heart and my mind aren't meeting when it comes to you. My mind knows that you're my big brother. My mind holds memories upon memories of growing up with you. My mind recognizes you in some way. But my heart...it's almost like it doesn't recognize you. I look at you and my heart questions...who is that? I don't even know that person. Did I know him? I think he used to be apart of my life...I think he used to know me too...
But I realized, painfully at first, that that's exactly what it was. I wasn't the same person anymore. I had done all this growing and changing without you. I had to grieve it for a moment. But then, I realized...this is God healing me. I didn't even realize He had been doing it. I was just living life, because it was still happening. I couldn't stop it. And over time, and through the very act of living, I was being healed. After the initial pain of the realization, I knew it was beautiful and miraculous even...the very wonder of Christ. It's the most surreal feeling in the world. And I've felt those feelings for years now. But it still comes as a sort of shock to me everytime I feel them. Nowadays, when I think of you, I don't think of the pain. I don't feel the hurt and sorrow from your death. What I do feel is...almost like a void. The one place that my heart and mind connect is in the fact that I should have had an older brother for the rest of my life. Sometimes, I don't think of memories that happened. I think of things that could have been if you were still here. I wonder to myself...what would you be like? Would you have been married? Would I have been an aunt by now? I've heard from many people how much I remind them of you, and I know in my heart that we would have had many incredible conversations about God and life and men and love and hurt and the future. From all that I've heard about the Tyler I didn't have much time to see because you died, I know that we would have had many of the same beliefs and outlooks and passions. I know you would have been "the man" in my life that protected me and looked out for me. I wonder what painful experiences in my life could have been avoided had you been there to point truths out to me that I was blind or biased to. I wonder what mistakes I wouldn't have made had you been there to stop me as an older brother would. I wonder who would or wouldn't be in my life had you been there to tell them who I really am and how I deserved to be treated because I was your sister, and a daughter of God. I know that you would have defended me and my heart, even when I couldn't. I know we would have gotten into many more fights. I know we would have laughed a whole lot more. I know we would have shared a million more memories as young adults, and then as real adults. I know that you would have become more important to me than almost anyone in my life. I know that you'd be proud of me. So much has happened in my life since you beat me Home. And I wish so much that I could have shared everything with you. I wish I could tell you now. I wish we could meet up somewhere and talk and catch up and swap stories of all the things we've experienced.

It's true that I don't feel the pain anymore. But this year, today...it does hurt. I not only miss you as I knew you. But almost more than that, I miss what you could have been in my life. What you should have been in my life. I don't know you anymore. And you don't know who I've become. But I know that one day, when I go Home too, you're going to be right there waiting to embrace me. And we will have that conversation to catch up on all the time that's gone by between us since we last saw each other. It seems so far away at the moment...

No matter how much time passes, I'll never forget you. That's not even possible. But it's the way of God, that I shouldn't feel the pain anymore. He doesn't want me to, and I know you wouldn't want me to either. People say that time heals all things. I don't completely agree with that statement. Time and God heal all things...if we let them. Healing from your death was the only one of its kind in my life. It kind of snuck up on me. I didn't even realize it was happening. For a long time after you died, it felt as if time had stopped. But it didn't. Life kept happening. Time kept moving. And it was all without you. But God, being the amazing and perfect Father He is, used all the time that passed, to heal me. For so long I believed Satan's lie that I would never heal from brokenness in my life, but your death is living proof in me that I can be. And I am. God has done so many amazing things through your death. Just like He promises. :) But I get to add one more thing to that beautiful list: hope for healing. Always. I love you Tyler. More than ever, if that's possible, you being gone and all. But I can't wait to see you again. I can't wait to have you in my life again for eternity.

Happy Birthday. :)

Love always, your sister,

Eryn

Tyler Glicken

February 8, 1984-December 22, 2003

P.S. The Best Is Yet To Come...