Day 208 It's Time to Dance!

The wonder of the resurrection is upon us!  Let's embrace God’s ever-new life with every cell of our being, every yearning of our souls, and every muscle of our will. 

Christ is Risen, death is conquered, humanity is restored, and because He is Risen, we are assured of everlasting life.

Praise God who brings light out of darkness, life out of death, and real hope for the hopeless. We have reason to celebrate and enjoy life.

He is Risen, indeed He is Risen.

Alleluia! 

Day 207 Holy Saturday

"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6

There is an old story about a schoolboy who wanted to give his teacher a gift. He knew that she loved seashells, so one weekend he walked to the ocean—twenty-miles—found a beautiful shell and walked back home.

On Monday morning, the boy gave his teacher the shell. She thought it was beautiful. After a minute, it dawned on her what the boy had gone through in order to give her the gift. She asked him, “You mean you walked all that way to the ocean and back just to give me this shell?”

He replied, “The long walk is part of the gift.”

It's so easy to gloss over Jesus' suffering. Everyone loves a happy ending, and we know that the “good news” of Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate happy ending.... But it's good for us to remember clearly the pain and agony He took on our behalf to provide us with the gift of a restored relationship with God.

We don't want to take for granted Jesus’ suffering: “the long walk is part of the gift.”

Day 206 Good Friday

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18

It's counter-intuitive to use a symbol that represents pain and death as the hallmark for a faith with the goal of telling the whole world about salvation and life. But when we look past the surface of the cross to the meaning behind it, it is a wisely and carefully chosen symbol. On the surface, the cross represents how Jesus died. Below the surface, the message of the cross is true hope.

The cross represents life and peace: it screams out that there will no longer be condemnation for us because the cross brings freedom, deliverance, and forgiveness. When we look at the cross, we see a symbol of eternal life and acceptance for all who believe.

The message of the cross points to the resurrection where Jesus conquered the power of death. On the cross, He took the sin of the world and paid the price for it. The blameless Lamb sacrificed so that we can have eternal life.

When we look at the cross, we find an unequaled message from the Lord that says, “You are my beloved. I gave my one and only Son for you so that you have life with me everlastingly.”

Day 205 Confessions of a Non-morning Person (who is not me!)

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14

(Bah-ahahahahaha!  Here is a confession from a non-morning person. I thought you would find this comforting and instructive: Be who you are.)

I am NOT a morning person! There. I said it, confessed it, admitted it, and shouted it. I used to feel extremely guilty that I was not a morning person.

For many years I was convinced that good Christians “rise and shine and give God the glory, glory.” I tried to be that person, but I never got there. I don’t wake up with a smile and say, “Good morning, God!” as I whistle and skip down the hallway heading toward my quiet time. (We would slap them!) I’m the guy who drags himself out of bed mumbling, as I smack the snooze button and throw the alarm at the cat.

It has been the constant stories from early risers that have triggered my feelings of inferiority. For years, I was envious of those who could live on little sleep and wake up early with one hand on a Greek New Testament and the other grasping a pen to journal and pray. I thought good Christians could wake up early and survive on little sleep because they are so Spirit-filled. On the other end of the spectrum, are the backsliding, carnal Christians, who like me, need a full eight hours of sleep in order to function. ;)

These days, I’m not sleeping in until 9:00 a.m., but I’m not popping up at oh-dark-thirty either. I’ll force myself to get up at 6:45 a.m. tomorrow to meet a buddy for exercise at 7:00 a.m., but I won’t really come alive and be good with people until about 9:00 a.m.

I’ve learned my rhythm. I start slow. I exercise. I read. I have to warm up my body and my soul. I have learned to stop envying those who are “early-to-bed/early-to-rise” or “late-to-bed/early-to-rise” and have become comfortable with my own wiring.

I wish someone had told me earlier in life that it was okay to be myself, the person who God has made me. Sure, everyone has areas in life where shifts in behavior can be made, where course changes are within our power, and bring positive results. But when it comes to how God has wired you in basic ways: introvert/extravert, short/tall, small/large, bubbly/reserved, funny/serious, morning person/night person, little sleep/lots of sleep, it just doesn’t work to invest years of time and energy trying to become someone who God did not create you to be, nor intend for you to become.

I wish someone had given me the permission to be more like…well, me. Today, I’m happy to grant you this permission. Consider it done. Yet, in the end, my permission isn’t very significant. The most important permission must come from you.

God has made you wonderfully complex, accept it, embrace it, don't compare it to others, who have their own complexities. He made you marvelous, so be you. Love, Mom

Day 204 Implement Easter

The intermediate hope--the things that happen in the present time to implement Easter and anticipate the final day--are always surprising because, left to ourselves, we lapse into a kind of collusion with entropy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there's nothing much we can do about them. And we are wrong. Our task in the present ... is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.  (*cino)

Day 203 Clear Vision

  

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Being pure in heart isn't about moral purity.... The people who saw and recognized the true nature of Jesus weren't morally pure: Tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes, these were the people who truly saw Jesus. 

What kind of purity peals the scales from our eyes so that we can see God? This prayer gets at it.   

  

Father in Heaven, what are we without you?

What is all that we know, vast accumulation though it be,

But a chipped fragment if we do not know you?

What is all our striving?

Could it ever encompass a world,

But a half-finished work

If we do not know you?

You, the One who is one thing and who is all.

So may you give

To the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing

To the heart, sincerity to receive this and this only

To the will, purity that wills only one thing

In prosperity, may you grant perseverance to will one thing

Amid distraction, collectedness to will one thing

In suffering, patience to will one thing.

You that gives both the beginning and the completion

May you early, at the dawn of the day,

Give to the young the resolution to will one thing

As the day wanes, may you give to the old

A renewed remembrance of that first resolution

That the first may be like the last

And the last like the first

In possession of a life that has willed only one thing,

         To know God.

                                                                                 - Søren Kierkegaard          

Day 202 Waiting is a Path you Must Walk, Young Grasshopper

Passion is a kind of waiting--waiting for what other people are going to do. 

Jesus went to Jerusalem to announce the good news to the people of that city. And Jesus knew that he was going to put a choice before them: Will you be my disciple, or will you be my executioner? There is no middle ground here. Jesus went to Jerusalem to put people in a situation where they had to say yes or no. 

That is the great drama of Jesus' passion: he had to wait for their response. What would they do? Betray him or follow him?

In a way, his agony is not simply the agony of approaching death. It is also the agony of being out of control and of having to wait. 

It is the agony of a God who depends on us to decide how to live out the divine presence among us. It is the agony of the God who, in a very mysterious way, allows us to decide how God will be God. 

This is a glimpse of the mystery of God's incarnation. God became human not only to act among us but also to be the recipient of our responses.

 God is our refuge and our strength . . . Psalm 46:1

Day 201 Hosanna!

                                                                                       (Ethiopian pilgrim celebrates Palm Sunday. flikr)

At the start of the annual Jewish Spring Feast of Passover, Pesach, a huge procession of people would move from the villages of Bethpage and Bethany, behind the Mount of Olives, to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

During the march, the people waved palm fronds and willow branches, sang and chanted cycles of Psalms, maybe 113 through 118, and in between they shouted, "Hosanna!"

In the hearts of Jews then and today, there are painful echoes of their cries for freedom from slavery to the Egyptians. The shout of "Hosanna!" before Christ's death and resurrection was an immense cry of intercession: "Come, O Lord, and save us! Come Messiah! Come Anointed One! Heal, save, and deliver us! Redeem us, we pray!”

Pesach literally means "the lamb." During this feast, every Hebrew family in Egypt chose an unblemished lamb, prepared it, and ate it on the night of the Passover with enough neighbors invited in that there were no leftovers. They sprinkled some of the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses, and that night the angel of death "passed over" them. Their obedience spared them from judgment and death, and it was also a witness to the Egyptians who watched and went out with them.

In Jesus' time, an unblemished Pesach lamb was also selected to be sacrificed for the sins of the whole nation. This lamb was led to slaughter in the huge Passover procession. Today, Christians know that Jesus of Nazareth, Yeshua Ha Mashiach, was the Lamb of God. Christ completed the feast of Passover that pictured His coming and the blood atonement his life and death made.

In Hebrew, Yeshua means "Salvation" and Ha Mashiach means "the Anointed One." Jesus, Yeshua, Lamb of God, Messiah. Hosanna!

Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha Mashiach, completed  not only the Passover prophesy, but all seven Jewish feasts—the Spring Feasts and the Fall Feasts that God commanded Israel to observe. These feasts pictured God's complete plan for redeeming humanity and ultimately, the whole creation. Hosanna!

Hosanna! We praise you Lord Jesus, Yeshua, Lamb of God! Lord of lords, King of kings, only great Ruler, reigning now and forever! Hosanna! Yet we intercede—Come Messiah! Visit and revive your inheritance in our current times. Visit your kinsmen Jesus, the Jewish and the Arab peoples; visit and reveal yourself as Messiah to all unreached people, all "ethnos." Fulfill your word! Heal, save, deliver! Thy Kingdom come! Please establish, replenish, prosper, and restore Shalom to all peoples, to all of creation, to the ends of the earth! Today I offer and surrender myself. Use me, use us, O Lord Jesus. O King, glorify yourself! Amen.

 

Day 200 Moving Slowly

Remember that God does not need our big plans. Instead, he calls us to become little Christs. So perhaps we would do well to pump the brakes and slow down a bit while we discern whether we are moving in the right direction. After all, if we are headed the wrong way, it would be much better to be moving slowly.

Day 198 Now. Here. This.

The Gospel calls us into the here, now, and this of life.

Jesus shows us that it is possible to inhabit our own lives and engage reality on its own terms. Why is this so hard for us? The radical presence of Jesus opens us to live radically present lives and celebrate the sacrament of the present moment with all of its beauty and affliction. 

His presence affirms that this moment is sacred and good and stuffed to the gills with eternity. Unfortunately, it is also the moment that we are most prone to miss, because we fear this moment is empty of the goodness we so desperately desire. 

*Jesus invites to live now, not then. As if to make the point, Jesus' first word in the Gospel of Luke is "Today" (Luke 4:21), which is precisely what Jesus makes possible.  

*Jesus invites us to live here, not there. So much about here can be hard and so much about "there" is attractive, especially in a globalized, media driven world that can transport us anywhere and tempt us with the image of greener pastures. We are so easily tempted to forsake being here. 
  

*Jesus invites us to live this life, not some other one. We are given this life and no other which is why the poet Mary Oliver asks, "What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" It's a beautiful question that helps us show up for our own lives.

What simplicity. 

The season of Lent strips away distractions that hide the sacrament of the present moment and offers us a faith that infuses the ordinary, and even the ugly, with God's holy presence. Soon enough, the cross will lay all things bare, and reveal all things as they truly are. And so we ask for the grace to stay awake to the eternal here, now, and this of God's love even as things turn ugly.    

Etty Hillesum lived only a few miles from Anne Frank in Amsterdam and came to know the radical presence of God's goodness in the midst of unspeakable horror. It empowered her to live a radically present life to the bitter end. Her journals are unflinching, stunning, relentlessly honest--and filled with courageous generosity. On her way to Auschwitz, with full awareness that she would exterminated, she wrote,    

I know about the mounting human suffering. I know the persecution and oppression and despotism and the impotent fury and the terrible sadism.  I know it all. And yet--at unguarded moments, when left to myself, I suddenly lie against the naked breast of life and her arms around me are so gentle and so protective and my own heartbeat is difficult to describe: so slow and so regular and so soft, almost muffled, but so constant as if it would never stop.

Such is the courage and generosity of the enduring sense that even in the midst of utter horror that there is enough, that God is present, and that the universe is fundamentally good; because of this we can act accordingly.

Our lives want to be lived, inhabited, experienced, and engaged with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. We are desperate for this gift, and it is the gift that God is giving... Now... Here... This!

Here is a prayer idea for this week: As you pray, keep your feet on the ground; go for a walk or a run and stay rooted, stay in your body. Notice how easily distracted you are. Don't try to control these distractions as you pray, just notice them. Resist the temptation to judge what you see. Instead, bless each one of the thoughts as they pass by, half formed, unresolved and scattered. Can see a pattern to what flits across the screen of your mind? Now look underneath these scattered thoughts and feelings. What wants your deepest attention? Put your attention there and welcome it. Love, Mom

  

Day 197 A Prayer from St. Patty

This is the prayer that is said to have been inscribed on the breastplate of Saint Patrick, which of course begs the question, why did he wear a breastplate? Turns out there is no reason, unless they were worn by slaves, shepherds, or priests and not soldiers. Huh. It's still a good, thoughtful prayer though....

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of every one who sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

God, help us to live in such a way that Christ might be known in all and through all that we do. Amen.

Day 196 Freedom and Fear

For most of us the greatest obstacle to freedom is fear--the fear that we are not secure and safe in God's love or this world. People who count things like the number of times "Fear not" appears in the Bible tell us that it appears 365 times. One for every day of the week. God is serious about this!

God knows something about being human and the danger of fear. Fear breeds violence. A fearful people are a violent people - always.  Violence turned inward is depression. Violence turned outward is oppression. Violence that is denied and unrecognized unhinges us from reality. Our denials leave us dangerously detached from our own lives and the lives of those who live at the margins, who easily become the scapegoats of what we deny. As we come near the cross, our hearts become agitated with our own complicity in the violence we are about to witness. We become afraid.   

There are many ways to avoid seeing the cross for what it is. Oddly enough, our theology, which is often accepted as sacred and therefore unexamined, can be the most effective way of denying what we see. When we look at Jesus on the cross we are not seeing the work an angry Father visiting his wrath on the Son for our sins--though is a popular interpretation of the atonement story. 

But from the start there has always been a more fundamental way of seeing the cross, a simpler and more profound way, which grasps the truly diabolical nature of violence. At the cross, in fact, we witness the work of an angry humanity visiting its wrath on an innocent God. We are looking into a mirror and seeing the bitter fruit of our own denied fear.

No wonder God says, "Fear not." God knows that a fearful humanity not only does violence to itself, but ultimately to God.  In Christ, God absorbs this violence into Godself without retribution, and this supreme act of divine love holds the key to human redemption. In this act of love, we are released to relax into freedom from fear.

Day 195 Illusions

The practice of paying attention really does take time. Most of us move so quickly that our surroundings become no more than the blurred scenery we fly past on our way to somewhere else.

We pay attention to the speedometer, the wristwatch, the cell phone, the list of things to do, all of which feed our illusion that life is manageable. Meanwhile, none of them meets the first criteria for reverence, which is to remind us that we are not gods.

If anything, these devices sustain the illusion that we might yet be gods -- if only we could find some way to do more faster. (An Altar in the World)

Day 194 Where your Creativity is....

You are created creative, imago dei. You carry God's unique bar code for creative living and creative output, and you can cultivate aspects of your God-given creativity. How? You'll be surprised....

"Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Psalm 96:6

The most precious and unique plans and purposes of God ordained for you are "in the sanctuary," in the person and presence of God. They are like pre-drawn blueprints. Your job is to unroll, observe and execute the plans. You are to "walk out the works prepared beforehand." (Ephesians 2:10)

We enter "the sanctuary" through prayer, worship, and waiting in the presence of God. Jesus called it spending time in the "secret place" with our heavenly Father, our Source, the great Initiator, Architect of the universe. (Matthew 6:6) Inspiration and ideas often appear as we sit in silent adoration. Authentic co-creative worship springs from a pure heart that "washes in" and treasures the word of God, who maintains a posture of awe and reverence; an individual who "fears" God.

When we seek to please God by worshiping him in spirit and truth, he promises us grace for "length of days." (Proverbs 3:1) "Length of days" is distinct from "a long life." It is a combination of Hebrew words that implies a warming, a lengthening, a kind of "stretching" of days. God can easily "warm" and "expand" the hours in our earth day. Picture the way iron and other metals expand when heated. A worshiper's life can supernaturally produce more than our daily lives should be able to.

Selah!  Pause and ponder this. Relate it to your desire to be more creative and more productive in your God-appointed works.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness"'" Genesis 1:26. "Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Psalm 96:6 "But let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you." Proverbs 3:1-4

Father, help me discern the talents, creative traits, and aptitudes you have graced me with. I do not compare myself with any other person. Forgive me if I have desired to be like someone else. I accept who you have made me to uniquely be. I affirm and bless myself in Christ Jesus. Show me how to adjust and manage my time, cultivate my creativity, and be more productive. In Jesus' name I praise and thank you. Amen.

Day 193 imago dei

Each human conceived is "Imago Dei," Latin for "image of God." Each human being is an "image bearer" of God Most High. Humans carry and "mirror" aspects unique to their Creator. Among these are personality,emotions, moral judgment, speech and language, abstract thinking, invention, creativity, architecture, music, visual art, liturgy and worship.

Creativity, like faith, is a kind of "spiritual muscle" that if exercised, will grow. One theological bottom line of the creation story is this: All human beings are created creative.

Creativity is part of the spiritual/genetic DNA of the whole human race. Because of the fall in the garden of Eden, our mental and creative capacities are diminished and curbed, but they are still far beyond what the average person explores in a lifetime. Those individuals we deem and appreciate as "geniuses" give us glimpses of the lost greatness of these capacities. We are crimped creators.

Children are playful, creative, and freely draw and paint without caring how exact or "perfect" their work might be. With physical maturation and the "self-consciousness" that overwhelms most teenagers, many stop drawing, painting, inventing and creating, or struggle a lot and feel like they are failing at their expressions. As adults, most people have "shut down" their creativity.

Our consumer culture demotes true playfulness, originality, and personal creativity. The "artists" do that, those generally seen as eccentric and out of the mainstream, maybe even anarchistic and revolutionary---the "far out" visual artists, crazed Hollywood celebrities, Facebook icons, or druggie pop music stars. Art budgets get cut.

As a result, compassionate, mainstream creativity is constricted. Originality, discovery, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventive, resourceful, problem solving, visionary, talented, thinking outside the box---are all words commonly used to describe creativity, and creative individuals show that all men and women do carry and can demonstrate these traits.

We need to tap into, cultivate and "actualize" our God-given creativity. We are created and called to be co-creative. Our creativity is a kind of spiritual muscle, that if exercised, will grow.

Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher, captures this truth in this poem. 

Creation

happens to us,

burns into us, changes us,

we tremble and swoon, we submit.

Creation - we participate in it,

we encounter the Creator,

offer ourselves to Him,

helpers and companions.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness....' So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Gen. 1:26-27

Father, I agree with your word in Genesis: I am made in your image and according to your likeness. You made me to be creative. I pray that you grant me more understanding of this truth. Stir my unique creativity. Help me not to compare myself to others. Help me cultivate being more creative for your glory! Amen.

Day 191 Through the Looking Glass

It might be a good idea if, like the White Queen, we practiced believing six impossible things every morning before breakfast, for we are called on to believe what to many people is impossible.

Instead of rejoicing in this glorious "impossible" which gives meaning and dignity to our lives, we try to domesticate God, to make his mighty actions comprehensible to our finite minds.

- Madeleine L'Engle

Day 190 A Good Day...

...to Remember this:

IMAGINATION is stronger than knowledge.
BELIEF is more potent than history.
DREAMS are more powerful than facts.
HOPE always triumphs over experience.
LAUGHTER is a cure for falliblilty.
LOVE is stronger than death.

Day 189 Great Expectations

O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations. I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a time so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.

But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament.

I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me. Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. Amen.

Day 188 Unlock a Universe

"There is always an enormous temptation all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is all so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.

"I won't have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright.

"We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.... Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock -- more than a maple -- a universe.

This is how you spend the afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you."

 (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.)

Day 187 The Good No

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

Often, we need to say no to the many good things and wonderful people so we’ll have space to say yes to God, yes to the important people in your life, yes to what matters most.

This verse in Jeremiah says, “ask where the good way is, and walk in it…” Sometimes the “good way” is saying no—have the courage to walk in it and find rest for your soul.

Day 186 Interesting...

To label entire populations--or even sections of the globe--as "enemy" is bad theology, and no government that does so can claim to be operating in any mindful way "under" God. To allow an all-too-human governing body to describe the world for us is to hand over our God-given duty to the likes of a phone book or a demonic stronghold.

We have to take our thinking back.

The same summons is communicated by Iraqi Christians who publicly pray that American Christians might consider more deeply their understanding of the body of Christ. Does our understanding of this communion move beyond national boundaries when it really counts? Do our imaginations, the way we think about other people, acquiesce to the idolatrous and destructive divisions of nation-states?

The defensive distance we maintain between ourselves and the people we see in images of war and deprivation is a deadly construct. The social incompetence of our governments is our incompetence, our work, and our responsibility.

                                                                 David Dark, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything

Day 184 Returning to Trust

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful...abounding in steadfast love. Joel 2:13
 
In my own life I pretty well know how hard it is for me to trust that I am loved, and to trust that the intimacy I most crave is there for me. I most often live as if I have to earn love, do something noteworthy, and then perhaps I might get something in return.

This attitude touches the whole question of what is called in our spiritual lives, the "first love." 

Do I really believe that I am loved first, independent of what I do or what I accomplish? This is an important question because as long as I think that what I most need I have to earn, deserve, and collect by hard work, I will never get what I most need and desire, which is a love that cannot be earned, but that is freely given.

So, my returning to trust is my willingness to renounce thoughts of performing and to choose to live more and more from my true identity as a cherished child of God.

This is who you are, Sarah. You are loved first. 

Day 182 Empires and Emperors

The language of inevitability is the language of empire. Whenever we hear "We have no choice," our ears should perk up.

It is precisely the strategy of the empire to take our imagination captive so that we think we have no choice:

When a certain lifestyle seems inescapable, you need to realize that you are imprisoned.

Brian Walsh, Colossians Remixed

Day 181 You are God's Work of Art

We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

The word "workmanship" in this verse can be translated "poetry."

Have you ever thought of yourself as one of God's special works of poetry? You are His special creation. You, Sarah, are an unrepeatable miracle.

When I'm feeling low, I need to be reminded that I'm special in God's eyes. When I'm playing the comparison game and comparing my talent or physical appearance with those better than I am, I need to be reminded that God created me unique. When I'm playing the "I wish" game, wishing that things were different, I need to be reminded that I am the only special poem of God made just like me....

 Don't be so hard on yourself that you miss the joy of being God's only creation made from your unique mold. People who view themselves as God's special creation are the ones who live happy and successful lives. You are His poetry, so live your life as His child!

Repeat after me: I am God's poem. He has engraved me in the palm of his hand. He will never forget me. I am his beloved treasure.