I follow Him

My thoughts are heavy today.  I will explain what lead up to now in a bit--but my thought this second is what I thought about yesterday: there just isn't an excuse.  We have no excuse before God.  He has to be made known at any and every cost.  "To live is Christ" is more than a phase--it's a life.  It means when I am in pain, I still follow him.  It means that when everyone abandons me and I'm the only Christian left on earth, I follow him.  It means that when I lose loved ones or never see them again--I still follow him.  When I don't understand, I follow him.  In the scheme of eternity, what is this moment anyway?  What is this temporary hurdle but something to jump over in my pursuit of him--he alone knows what's best, how dare I try to medicate myself with band aids?  They're just covering the real battle scar.  We just don't have an excuse: to live is Christ.  What is hunger?  What is longing?  What is pain?  What are trials?  It's all crap.  It's all just a lie to keep me from chasing Him.  I refuse to satisfy the longings that won't sustain me.  I refuse mediocrity.  "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord." -Ps. 31:24

Pondering the rain from a wicker chair

Isn't rain a funny thing? And by funny, I mean miraculous. God provides life to everything simultaneously: this is illustrated beautifully by rain providing nourishment to plant life, which dies without it. But it's not buckets full at one time--not drowning. It's constrained. Just like Jesus is to us: He's gentle as He sustains. But He's not limited to one blade of grass at a time. He ordains every drop that falls--hundreds of millions at one time. He covers the earth with moisture, quenching it's thirst--it's need. After the rain, every piece of life is marked with a silver glisten, sparkles of dew that speak "God provided". The music of it as it falls, the nutrition and quenching of thirst by it's coming, and the beauty mark of having been here. Our God is alive, active, and faithful to give life.