brennan manning

No Fears

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“…new day & *no fears* because fears are just the bad stories we tell ourselves. *And your Father is far bigger than your fears.*
This is why ‘I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken’ Psalm 16:8. He pulls you right close & whispers it, ‘Do Not Be Afraid.’ He knows how hard things are. And He knows how *faithful He will be.*
That’s why He repeats it again & again, 365 times, so we don’t have need to fear any day of the year: Do Not Be Afraid. He holds every minute of this week & His grace & timing are *perfect.*
So we’re just going to go all out & Trust & be brave this week: It takes courage to listen with our whole heart to the tick of God’s timing, rather than march to the loud beat of our fears” (Ann Voskamp) #PreachingGospeltoMyself

Again, I remind you that fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear always looks to the future but fails to figure God into the equation. Fear always forgets what God has done in the past, but faith as the antidote to fear reminds us that God remains faithful in every circumstance.

Sometimes, fear comes over a specific circumstance, like a loved one being far away from home or the uncertainty of an undiagnosed illness.

Sometimes, fear is generalized and hard to pinpoint. You have anxiety but aren’t exactly sure why.

In either case, the cure to fear is still the perfect love of God. It’s believing that God’s perfect love can overcome whatever it is that you’re fearing.

Fear says that God is not enough. Faith says God is more than enough.

Once again, I say the words, “I believe,” even when my feelings tell me otherwise. I proclaim it until every part of me receives it and until I fully believe it.

God is enough.

Blog Post #2,540

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“Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough” (Garrison Keillor).

It doesn’t seem real that I’ve written over 2,500 blog posts in nearly 7 years. That averages out to just about one per day.

It’s been a good discipline to attempt to write something every day. Granted, some days are easier than others, and some days I don’t got nothing.

I can look back over seven years and realize just how much has transpired since that very first blog post back in 2010. I lost my job and went through a lengthy job transition before finding my current position. I had to say a final goodbye (I like to think of it more as a goodbye for now) to my beloved cat Lucy and welcomed little Peanut into my world.

I’m still driving a Jeep Cherokee, though not the same one that I had back in 2010. This one is two years newer and has power windows and locks (which you probably take for granted until you don’t have them then they become very much appreciated).

I feel like I’ve grown in grace quite a bit in these seven years. I know that I am certainly more thankful than I was then. It’s not that I necessarily have more than I did, but I’m much more grateful for what I have and a lot less apt to take things and people for granted than I was.

I can’t wait to see what the next seven years bring. I know God will be just as faithful and true to His promises as He’s been up until now. God willing, I will be able to keep you updated on all my latest shenanigans and wisdom.

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known” (Garrison Keillor).

I Want to Go There, Too

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I believe there’s an actual place that exists that meets all of these descriptions. I believe that it’s a place where God will wipe away every tear and where there will be no more night or darkness.

I believe there are hints of that place here and now. We catch glimpses of it here and there and it gives us longings that nothing earthly can satisfy.

Still I long for that kind of place.

An Inconvenient Life

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“It’s never too late to live a remarkable, inconvenient life given to the interruptions of now.
Love is the willingness to be interrupted.
Love is the willingness to be broken into.
There are never interruptions in a day—only manifestations of Christ.
And the truth is? Your theology is best expressed in your availability and your interruptability—and ability to be broken into.
This is the broken way.
This is all love.
Loving people without expecting anything in return always turns out to have the greatest returns.
Let’s do this today? Continuously make the ever-present Christ present. The hands of every clock never stop signing this: the best use of your hands is always *love*. The best way to say you love is always *time*. The best time to love is always *now*” (Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way).

My prayer that we will see interruptions not as diversions from our work, but as our actual work and labor of love that God has placed in front of us in the moment.

We’re always choosing whom we will serve, whether it be the never-ending to-do list that keeps getting interrupted or those interruptions that are God breaking into our sphere of influence and wrecking our world.

I confess that I’m not a fan of people barging in when I’m in the middle of trying to accomplish something, even if it’s reading a book or binge-watching Netflix. It gets on my nerves sometimes.

Yet that may be the chance I get to serve Christ in disguise. That may be the chance I get to pay forward a blessing that will come back to me a thousand times multiplied.

I want to be broken into in such a way that both I and the people who I come in contact with are never the same again.

 

Velveteen Love

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“’Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’” (Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit).

I’ll just let this speak for itself. May each of us know Love like this that takes us where we are and makes us real and whole.

 

Another Day, Another Post

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Of all the blog posts I’ve ever written in all my life, this will be one of them. In other words, it will probably not be my finest.

I sat at my Mac Book and opened up my WordPress website. 30 minutes later, I’m checking all these Facebook posts and haven’t written a single word.

Some days are great. Some days are terrible. Some days just are.

God keeps reminding me that any day that I’m alive and aware is a good day. Even the days when the worst case scenario happens, like losing my beloved Lucy. That was one of the hardest days of my life, but I still saw an abundance of grace and joy on that day and I felt every one of your prayers carrying me along and getting me through.

All in all, this was another good day. I worshipped with The Church at Avenue South, had a fantastic Greek omelette at Athens, found a couple of good buys at Grimey’s Preloved Music, then later went to another stellar Kairos Greeter outing in Spring Hill.

I suppose i’m just pooped from all that activity and my brain is too tired to be all creative and artsy and blog-post-y.

I did have some vintage Allman Brothers Band music to be the soundtrack to all my journeys today. That’s something noteworthy.

“[A]lmost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement” (from Joe Vs. the Volcano).

 

A Little More Heartache

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I was doing just fine tonight. I’d celebrated my sister’s birthday earlier and we’d all had a grand time (except for a food allergy scare with my nephew, but even that turned out fine in the end).

Then I saw a short video of my recently deceased cat Lucy kneading the pillow next to mine, getting ready for one of her patented naps. I wanted so badly to reach through my computer screen and pull her out if only for one more night beside me. My heart still aches for moments like these that I know will never come again.

I know that you can’t short-cut the grieving process, whether it’s for a pet or for a brother or sister, husband or wife, son or daughter. It’s not a process that you ever get through, but a process where you learn to live with a new normal, like an amputee learns to live without an arm or a leg.

I’m also learning how very deep the grace of God is. I’m learning that His arms are indeed strong enough to carry and long enough to save those who feel they are drowning in sorrow and grief.

I know that faith in God doesn’t always make the road easy, but it makes it possible. I’ve learned when you’ve exhausted all your own strength and peace and joy, God becomes your strength and your peace and your joy.

Strength doesn’t mean the absence of weakness but persistence in the presence of it. Peace doesn’t mean that there’s no conflict or storms, but the knowledge that God can still calm the waves and winds of your soul. Joy doesn’t mean the absence of sorrow and pain but the ultimate belief that God can transform those griefs into gold and work even the worst possible circumstances into something far more beautiful than you could ever have dreamed.

I’m resting in the strength of God tonight. Soon, I’ll go to the shelter and bring home a cat who won’t replace my Lucy but will honor her memory with all the love that’s still left to give.

God is still good, so I am still good.

 

At the End of the Day

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At the end of the day, I’m well spent.

I’m still a little heart-sore over my little departed fur baby Lucy. It’s an ache that I know will never fully go away, but it comes with lots of memories that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

I’m worn out from hoofing it all over downtown Franklin after a full day of work. I’m especially looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow with no 5 am wake-up call to interrupt my dreams.

Overall, I’m still blessed. I’m even thankful for the rain for making me appreciate sunshine all the more.

“At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together” (Psalm 4:8, The Message).

Grace Wins

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“You see, the reason why grace isn’t popular or easy is because it’s not cheap. To give grace costs us our right to be resentful and it robs us of our privilege to be bitter. After all, shouldn’t people get what they deserve, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?’ Jesus responds to that saying, ‘But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also’ (Matthew 5:38). Why should we allow others to slip away freely from their wrongs against us?  C. R. Strahan said, ‘Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim — letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.’
Christ forgave the very men who drove nails through His wrists. And if the same power that raised Him from the grave lies in us, then surely, He can give us the power to lose, so that our aggressors weapons are rendered useless. We need to rob our enemies of the ability to offend us, by gladly taking the full brunt of their attack. It is then, and only then, that hostility is defeated and love conquers death. ‘Make allowances for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others’ (Colossians 3:13)” (Total Surrender, Matthew Terrill).

I think this nails it. In the current climate, whether it be political or spiritual or personal, it’s much easier to get self-righteous and morally superior over against those who oppose us and who seem to have diametrically opposite beliefs and convictions.

It’s much harder to forgive and to show grace, but so much more than worth it.

Always choose grace. Always choose forgiveness.

Thanks for All the Love

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“I’ll love you forever. I’ll love you for always.
As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

The memory will be forever etched in my heart. I sang these words over you and stroked your little head as you slipped away across the rainbow bridge. You took a piece of my heart when you left.

I miss you so much already that my heart hurts.

I will always miss the way you always made a beeline toward me when I sat on the couch. You’d jump up in my lap, curl up, and go to sleep. You were such a great comfort to me for all those 17 years.

I will always miss the way you slept on the pillow next to mine, snoring softly and keeping me company during the night.

I will always miss how you’d purr when I picked you up and held you like a baby. I’d give every single thing I owned for a chance to do that just one more time.

I will always miss your quiet presence, how you were always nearby. Even when I took my shower in the morning, you were always waiting for me just outside the bathroom door.

I will always miss the feel of your little paw in my hand when we held hands and you squeezed your eyes to show deep contentment.

I thank God that He gave me 8 more years with you after you survived an earlier bout with cancer. I guess this time we ran out of miracles, huh? I know that I don’t regret a single day with you and I’d go through every single bit of it again tomorrow, even the hardest parts like today.

I know you don’t want me to be sad forever. I know you’d want me to find another furry baby for all the love inside, never to take your place but to honor your memory that lives forever within my heart.

You will always be my baby and I will always love you. I will look for you when I too cross that rainbow bridge one day. Until then, I will see you in my dreams and thank God for you every single day for the rest of my life.