Hallelujah, but in the melody of the new JZ/Alisha Keys song

This is what dreams are made of

God taking care of the sick

Lots of helpless crumbling, crumbling, crumbling, like cornbread

There’s no putting it back together. So fragile.

Hallelujah, our God reigns.

Watch out [wei]. He’s comin for ya.

Vision casters, from another planet. Vision makers, for the future.

Steel movie car trap tubes. Brass jumble janger knobs with gumdrop shoes. Nonsense.

Dear Jesus, help us. Dear Jesus, we love you. Finally. Poems without borders.

Hand me that writing square. I want to write my heart. I want to pour my heart. I want to prick my heart with a quill, and write it all down. I’d like you to stay here tonight, please, just for a night, just for this one night, won’t you? It’s no trouble to me, and it’d be good for you. Please, stay, please, just stay, please. Don’t wear me out, don’t let me down. But don’t feel any pressure, just stay, just please just stay. Come on, let me grab that bag, here, right in here, is that okay? Will you be alright in here? The bathroom’s down the hall, the second door on the right, make yourself at home. You’re welcome to any food in the fridge. Please, who are you? How can I help you? How can I be of service? What are your needs? What are your desires? What are your hopes? What do you enjoy? What gives you joy? What makes your soul turn around, stop in its tracks, what is it that would take you and transform you into who you need to be? What is it, who is it that could reach inside, who could just hear the music you play and mimic and harmonize, who is it that would come and be your brother, please, what is that, how can we be that for each other? How would you like to come with me, stay with me for a while? You can pick any of these teas, I was just going to pour the water over the sink, how’s that? Can I sit on your couch for a while, can I hear your story? I like your windows, and the wood trim, and the shutters, and the lighting, and the arrangement of the furniture, I think it’s a little cozier than I’ve seen it. Would you like some pie and coffee? Yes, I was just thinking that, without the coffee, but yes the coffee is a great idea, I have to go to the restroom first, I’ll be right back.

Father, we are yours. Father, tie us together. Father, break us into our parts and put us back in a way that works better. Father, we are yours. Father, we are yours.

Peace to you. Peace of Christ to you. Won’t you come in? There’s leftover pie. And coffee, are you a coffee person?

You're the biggest
Nothing is too much for You
You have no masters
No laws govern You
I can't understand You
You are too large for my head
I fail and turn away
I am formed by my surroundings
but You are not affected
You never change.
I think I am strong, but I am weak
I cannot make my way right.
I search for You, but I do not find You
because I search with my own might
I cannot escape my biases
My thinking is never uncloudy
But You have no limits
Your power has no stopping place
I fail, and turn to myself,
I am unstable, and my strength is not enough
but You are holy and good
and You lend beauty to what is around me
that I might turn to You, and be saved
that You might save me.

Invited In

Love is central.

We need older wiser people to pour into us, and we need outlets, places to pour into. It's not wickedness to know that you have something to offer others, and that others have something to offer you. We are a body!

Love is central.

God says: Come into my house, weary ones! Come in, come in! Good to see you!

It's much harder than I've thought.

It's not a lot of little things, it's one big thing.

Today, when you hear His voice, don't turn away...

But you did turn away,

and then turned back, and then turned away again, and then turned back,

The cello comes in. You try to make much of yourself, you give yourself a lot of credit and make other people think you're good

Other voices come in, singing the same thing

which is helpful.

...good at anything. Which isn't a lie, but it isn't from the heart, either. Not a lie, but not honest.

The harmony gets confusing

but resolves in a pretty great way.

It's emotional, which is OKAY

I move involuntarily

Listen, You're the best. I keep saying that, involuntarily

But so hard to pin down, so hard to define, so hard to hold onto

impossible, actually, unless I get on. It's like trying to trace a flying horse's path across the sky. I can't, I can't stay with it unless I climb on when He lands. Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you have before.

A new groove now, but it started earlier

(I can't pinpoint the time, I just know it's been going for a while...)

I can't pinpoint the time, okay?

It goes too fast for me if I'm trying to understand it all

But what if I put trust in it? Let myself move with the music and open my ears to hear as much as I can? Put on my headphones all the way, not worry about the basketball game

or the time. For now, there is no tomorrow. For now, there's no need for a past or a future

Don't be anxious, He says.

My burden is easy and light, He says.

Well it doesn't feel like it sometimes, I say.

Sometimes, I say, it feels like You're running away, like You're leaving me here all alone. But I know it's me, I know it's me running away and being inadequate. But I am inadequate! Don't You know that? Don't you know I can't handle things on my own?! Wouldn't You intervene, wouldn't you do something?

What do You look like? Do You really love me? I am really forgiven? It's difficult for me to know.

Is there really no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? What about that footnote in my Bible that says "who walk according to the Spirit not the flesh"? What about those of us who walk according to the flesh? What about those of us who are dying in our sins, still, after we are rescued? Has it been a whole week of this? Am I really alive?

The music is off, that's how I'm so stuck.

I submitted, but I knew my heart was having a tough time with it. I knew it wasn't true submission. Earlier, when You told me to find people, I found isolation. I ran away.

So I'll say "I submit" again. It's so difficult. But it's not

not really

Your burden is easy and your yoke is light

Not a book, a person

Have you ever tried to define a person? Think of the person you know the best. Now explain him/her to me.

Is it going to work? Am I gonna get it?


God's main goal isn't to give us something we can hold on to - not a truth to live our lives by, not an equation we can put in our back pockets.

I think sometimes he intentionally frustrates us when we start to think we have it figured out. Out of his mercy, because he knows we've settled for second best. We've settled for some statement we can understand, when he wants to give us

himself.


"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Being sort of terrified at the realization of God's enormousness is the foundation for learning anything.


If God wanted to communicate something we could just get, he would've written a book. Jesus didn't even write a book, and that would've been pretty normal, since he was a man... and the book people associate with Jesus and with the religion of his ancestors isn't a theology book. It's a record of some of God's actions, and words, to real people, in real history... and much of it is pretty hard to hold onto. What's the point?!

Himself!!!!

A relationship.. with God!

We're all invited in. And there's grace enough to say yes, right now. What's he doing in you now? It may be your first date with him, so don't expect to be able to get everything right away. Don't expect all the answers to come right away.

It may be your 78097345978th date. You may have run away. 345978345 times. And there's grace enough to say yes. Right now. His mercies are new, every morning!