Friday 30 March 2007

Living the dream....say what again?

So devo's today was Heb 5:8, that though Jesus is the Son of God He learned obedience thru suffering...even though He is perfect...He learned obedience thru suffering.
I think I'm slow, why haven't I caught on? I'm this perpetual little kid who thinks that someday we all get our wings...one day I won't be a worm anymore; I'll wake up a butterfly. Ever since I was a kid I've thought that if Cinderella could go from a chimney sweep to a princess someday all of us will shed our worminess and become dancing fairies of the best fairytale variety. I always wondered when things would reach their perfect balance, when prophecy and fulfillment would meet. I kinda thought it would happen in this life, you know, when i grow up.
There is enough scum in this world, my current neighborhood is a picture in contrasts. A tin shed built up against a walled compound with a mansion inside. Down the street children play with no shoes on. The local playground is the garbage dump. And when it rains the sewage infested streets become the local pool. Our landlords have been to Hawaii and California, New York and Calgary even; but they never walk outside their gate...otherwise they would be recognized and then become targets.
So as a kid I knew that when I grew up if I did the right thing I would always know that certain satisfaction of ...well, of doing the right thing...right? Well I'm grown up, and I'm just a grown up worm, I am constantly confused and easily swayed, I still can't see where heaven and earth meet up. I haven't seen the suffering of the poor be eased with $ or awareness programs. Life is still this confusing mesh of people, relationships, dialog, miscommunication. And the dreams of the 'once upon a time' turning into 'happily ever after' seem pretty silly. They seem childish and out of date. Yet here I am...
I am living and breathing the smog with pregnant ladies, I am trying to communicate over skyflakes and coke. And I still look for signs of wings. As we painstakingly sign thru a homevisit and try and 'talk' about husbands and families and prayer requests with our hands, I wonder where eternity comes into all this...or if we reach out to it?!

so maybe I am asking you to bear with a childish dream, a silly old fairytale and my being here really won't change the course of humanity as we know it. Maybe I'm even making things more murky and complicated by being here and how I conduct myself. but I still think that I don't have to imagine our wings...I just have to learn to wait for them. And if all this came to nothing, and really I just wasted my whole existence searching in all the wrong places for a piece of fairytale. Well, by that time, I'd have wings and you'd have wings and we could talk about and admire them for at least a couple thousand years before you remembered to ask if i really ever did make a difference.
not that I don't want to make a difference...but i think that phrase is a little over-rated right now...I'm not an answer to anyone's life economically or spiritually, but i can be with them, i can hope for them, I can witness their worminess and we'll laugh about it. Hopefully alittle here and definately when we have our wings.

3 comments:

Alexandra Michel said...

not gonna lie, im really feelin this post....
alex

Grandma Bailey said...

Hi my dear Maria, Thi is your grandma Bailey - with a few words that I am praying God will use in your life as you seek to honor and service Him.
We have had recent revival meetings - and the point that the minister sought to bring home to each of us was OBEDIENCE. He used the Military as a means of showing us what true obedience is. Many acts of senseless obedience to his commanders and other authorities was NEVER QUESTIONED. He learned that no matter what - YOU OBEY!! Our commander in Chief is the Lord of Lords and Kings of Kings of the Universe - what a privilege to be in His army - a soldier of the CROSS! Which ultimately means we die to all that is of the world, flesh and the devil's temptations - who always seeks to have US QUESTION GOD AND HIS WAYS. I am sure of one thing CINDERELLA IS NOT IN THE PICTURE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. IT IS JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED WHO ARE TO SEEK TO KNOW, BELIEVE AND LOVE ENOUGH TO WILLINGLY OBEY AND FOLLOW HIS WAYS. He was God in the flesh - yet was rejected and hated by His own - somehow I have found in my life it is so easy to TALK ABOUT THE CROSS, WEAR A CROSS AND SPEAK OF SUFFERING - BUT in my life so often it has been merely "talk". Praise God HIS IS PATIENT AND LONGSUFFERING - for more and more He is showing me the need to DENY MYSELF AND FOLLOW HIM. His path is one of glory before God when we please Him in all our ways - but it is many times, rejection, hatred by those who do not want to turn from their sin and believe HIS WAY IS BEST. So, we all need God's grace to keep on keeping on despite the difficulties and hardships and the deteriation of "goodness" and "righteousness" in this world. May God continue to grant you FAITH TO KNOW WITH HIM ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE - HE IS ABLE TO KEEP US AND CAUSE US TO WALK IN THE POWER OF HIS SPIRIT AS WE CRY OUT TO HIM FOR HIS GRACE AND MERCY AND HELP EACH DAY. PRAISE GOD - HE NEVER GIVES UP - BUT KEEPS WORKING US BOTH TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE. AMEN
Love you,
Grandma Bailey

Lindsey said...

mia, great post, i'm feelin it too!