The Price of Unleaded Happiness

Wander into Lange’s Cafe in Pipestone, MN, and you’ll see the same sight I grew up with. A diner filled with old farmers talking about all things related to dirt. These are rugged Americans with calloused hands and warm hearts. It’s not blood flowing through the veins of the Midwesterner. It’s coffee. And that coffee wasn’t fancy, it didn’t have a name that was hard to pronounce, and it didn’t cost five bucks a cup. Midwest coffee only came in two varieties, regular and unleaded.

Then there was the cup. It was a standard glazed, off white, thick rimmed mug that weighed twice as much as it looked like it did. It would also make a lethal weapon. It’s a testimony to the peaceful kindness of the Midwesterner that someone hasn’t been killed with a mug in a conflict over a cow, hog, or woman.

But it’s the balance of the weight as you tip it toward your mouth, the feel of the glazed pottery as the piping hot coffee pours over your taste buds, and the sound of the sip that fills the Midwestern cafe with a symphony of slurping. These folks are virtuosos at their instrument. And today I found one of my own.

If you saw my collection of coffee mugs, you might be tempted to stage an intervention. Yet this morning, right here in Orlando, I found the classic Midwest mug. I filled it with plain black coffee and sat down to a literal mug of liquid joy. Happiness isn’t expensive, but it is priceless. When you’ve had something as common as a thick rimmed coffee mug in your world every day, you might just miss it if it’s ever gone. And when you find it again, you might just pay any price to bring it home.

Sorry

I wish that word had more power. Like the power to heal a heart like the person saying it wished it did. The power to stop the hurting forever. The power to reverse and reset everything the way it should have been. The power to not have become the person the choices made you. The truth is, that word has as much power as the person receiving it determines that it does. To one wronged and harmed by another, the word may be the lifelong quest that they feel they need to hear to move on. Yet even when you hear it, it doesn't matter. How many times have you heard or said, "Sorry just isn't good enough." or "Sorry just won't cut it." or "It's too late for that." The demand for justice now merely begins with sorry. But the onslaught of punishment won't be held back until we come to realize that you can't inflict enough pain on another to cause it to cease within you.

Jesus didn't wait for our "sorry" to forgive. When hanging on a cross, dying beneath the sneers and stares of the brokers of religion and even a mocking thief sharing His fate, Jesus says, "Father forgive them. They don't understand what they're doing." Jesus wasn't appealing to a reluctant God, for He only said what He heard His Father say. Jesus was revealing the heart of God toward us at our worst. His grace isn't a reward for us generating enough goodness to become sorry. His grace is the kindness that draws us to realize that we were wrong. Yet while that realization may result in our brokenness, His grace continues and creates a kaleidoscope out of our shattered pieces. The light of the world shines even through the broken, and the prism of hope that illuminates a darkened world is a rainbow of grace. Grace is both the response to and the initiator of a heart that is truly from the depths of it's very being......sorry. Let this light shine upon you. To all those who have anything to be sorry for today, grace to you.

What's wrong with what's wrong?

What's wrong with "What's wrong?" Ever hear people ask the question, "What's wrong?" whenever something's going on that they don't understand? Everyone goes silent and the air gets sucked out of the room. Fear fueled curiosity widens everyone's eyes as all attention goes to the "victim." This is a great way to teach children to become the center of attention by being problem focused rather than problem solvers. Eventually someone like a boss or drill sergeant will respond to a whining complaint from that kid by getting in their face and asking, "What are you going to do about it?" So how can you teach your kids to be solution focused problem solvers? And how do you learn to be a faith filled listener rather than an anxiety ridden fear seeker?

Let's go back to the question at hand. The question, "What's wrong" opens you up to an avalanche of complaint. Mental self torment your kind of thing? Poking that wound until it bleeds all over you is a great way to make your day the opposite of better. Instead try asking these questions instead. "What happened, what's happening?" This question invites a perspective, a story, and puts freedom into the conversational equation. It doesn't assume or assign the identity of a victim and it doesn't put a negative knee jerk reaction of fear or panic into the atmosphere. Most of all it offers dignity to the one that something "happened" to. Because it doesn't invite them to become a victim in the story, they have a chance to get their power back.

Jesus encountered people who had issues all the time. They surrounded Him and bombarded him with medical and personal issues. He never once focused on the problem. He listened to people's stories and offered solutions. There was never an ounce of panic in His tone. Though He faced anxiety head on He was never without access to the solution. The disciples had a confidence in this. How do I know? Because in the garden He sweat blood beneath the crushing weight of what was to come, surrounded by disciples who never once asked, "What's wrong?" He was so conscious of the endless resources of heaven at His disposal that it never crossed the minds of His followers to consider that their Master was dealing with something deeper than they could fathom. Here's the question I wish beyond anything that they would have asked Him. "What's happening?" This may have provided some insight, clarity, and revelation. And isn't this what questions are supposed to produce? When we lose sight of why we're asking the questions we're asking, we don't mind asking the wrong ones. Dig into the stories before you by caring to hear of the happenings around you and you'll find yourself in a world of clarity rather than confusion.

The Communion of Breath

The origin of man as Spirit is in the heart of God, and the birth of man as a physical being is in the breath of God. Man was born in a face to face encounter with God.

You said your first prayer when you took your first breath.

Our ability to condemn ourselves only reveals how blind we are to our union with Christ because if we knew how close we were to Him we would never condemn ourselves. Our sin nature is merely an excuse for our bad choices.

Meister Eckhart - “If the only prayer you ever pray is thank you, that will be enough.”

Prayer is the privilege of our union with God. It’s the embrace of a union that has no goodbye. Every breath is a prayer.

His Name is in our breath.

Relationship introduces creative interaction. It’s allowing the wind of the Holy Spirit to fill the sails of your vessel and letting the wind propel you toward your destiny.

He is both the goal and the guide. He is both the journey and the destination.

Yahweh is not just for you. He’s in you. You do not carry a God free zone. It’s like swimming. I move to engage with my environment. Lifting hands isn’t separation. Physical expression is not to get the attention of a God outside of us. God is within us.

Every human being speaks the name of God in every breath. This is how we pray without ceasing. If we stop praying we will cease to live.

A Different Take on Balancing Life and Ministry

From my perspective, the whole concept of balance IS stress. Go stand on a fencepost. Feel relaxed? Here’s another way to look at it. Take a rope in each hand tied to two horses running in different directions. One horse is called life and the other is called ministry. If you dare to let go of one, the other will drag you to your death anyway. Again, more stress. I got used to saying no and found that the respect level went through the roof when I did, because it gave my “yes” much more value. I’m just wherever I am 100% and enjoy every moment of it to the fullest. 

Drink deeply the life out of every moment. When you’re in the office studying, love every conversation, every turn of the page and plink of the keyboard. When you’re home or out with the family love every second of the experience. Love it intentionally. Love information, love learning, love rest, love people, love being in love with someone that’s worth loving. Love making them smile. Live abundant love and you'll find abundant life. There’s no other way to do this ministry life without becoming a workaholic, a lethargic loner, or broke and bitter theologian. Fun is a Spiritual gift. Exercise that gift often and people will always want to be around you. 

So take those two horses of life and ministry and hitch them together and make them take you to where you want to go. That’s balance. You, in the saddle, holding the reins, enjoying your bride and kids, picking up people along the way, dropping off supplies here and there, and letting life and ministry work together to bring you where you’re going. And don't forget to enjoy the ride.

Stir it Up

I'm not starting this with anything in particular to write.  It's just that I haven't written in awhile so I'm going to stir the pot and see if anything of substance rises to the surface.  Saying something has never been a problem.  It's saying something worth saying that's the issue.  I've been in a season of listening and hearing, seeing and perceiving, this morning in particular spent digesting Psalm 27.  The writer makes a stunning declaration when he says, "one thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after..."  That's the part that's stunning to me.  More than what He seeks, it's that he reduced his entire life down to one thing.  It's that refined focus that vocalizes that I'm alive for a single purpose.  Have you reduced your life to one desire?  Is there one cry in you that encompasses it all?  The one thing is to live in the manifest presence of His glory and from that place make Him known.  It amounts not just for us but for the impact of His glory to shape the world around us.  "...that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple..."  What just rocks me about this is that the fulfillment of that one thing leads to another quest.  To be in that place of beholding is what qualifies you to inquire.  It's what grants you access to the place of greater breakthrough in wisdom and revelation.  The Psalm finishes up with a common admonishment in Scripture.  Wait on the Lord.  There's a few meanings that can be applied here and they're all profound and though different, all work.  One is to exercise a measure of patience, to surrender your agenda to His plan. (Prov 3:5,6)  Another is to attend to serving Him.  To bring to him what He desires as the master at a table and you, His servant.  (Ezekiel 44, Luke 17)  Still another is to set an ambush.  To set an ambush for God? That's about living in such a way that your direction can be diverted, spontaneous, and stripped of a predetermining agenda. Dip your toes in Psalm 27, stir that prayer around, and see what comes to the surface for you.

Agape

If you dare to squint the eyes of your heart to see the good in people, you may get blinded by the twisted, the broken, the parched, the frayed, razor edges of their darkest garbage thrown at you by the wind of their God empowered will. The blood of the Healer is a theory unrealized beyond our mind when it’s chosen a path from which culture won’t allow you to recover. We stumble and fall, we fall hard and far, and we are lost.

Lying broken and bent on the canyon floor of our fallenness, the walls of the chasm bearing down on us, taunting us to climb with limbs shattered and jutting from gaping wounds of guilt and shame. Jesus’ words echo down the walls and grace comes like the rain and the sun together conspire to cure the cold and the thirst that sin has left us with. When we did it right we hated the Healer who resurrected our scapegoats. We tore into Him with more than words. When we did it wrong we found no other friend than the one hanging next to us on the cross. 

I have been the common thief hanging in a state of guilt next to sinless perfection. I catch His eyes and I know, Jesus loves me. Jesus doesn’t have to squint His eyes to see goodness in me. It’s all He sees. He put it there. And now I know that I’m not meant to remain in this state. Redemption and resurrection conspire to restore and regenerate until we are lifted beyond even where you were to heights above the clouds where shadows of darkness, secrets, and lies have nothing more to hide behind. Born in flight upon eagles wings, the Son of righteousness carries you in healing into a resurrected abundance with Him. And there you are at rest in the agape of the Father forevermore.

Hard Lessons

Hard lessons from 26 years of marriage that I want my kids to know. (1 minute 26 seconds of read time) 

You're going to do some things well, and you're going to do some things badly. When you do well and get praised, give it to God. Don't let accolades make you complacent. Success is a combination of dreaming and work. One without the other will not serve you well. 

When you hurt someone, own it and make it right. It's God that defines your eternity, and only He knows how forgiven you are. But it is your relationships with people that define the experience you have in this life. 

You won't gravitate to those who love you the most, but to those who accept you the most. When you allow those who accept you to rise above those who truly love you, somebody is going to get hurt. It will only be the grace of the people you hurt and the people who love you that keeps your life from being defined by your lowest moments. People who love you will protect you if you hurt them. People who merely accept you will destroy you if you hurt them. 

Surround yourself with people you can be completely transparent and vulnerable with. Choose those people wisely when you don't need them, because you're rarely thinking wisely when you do need them. But don't limit your council to your friends. Get a professional counselor in your life who has dismissed themselves from ever being a friend. That person may the most honest person you ever talk to. 

Rejection can be a brutal teacher. When people don't want to stand close to you, it's usually because you stepped in something. Selfishness is when you step in something on purpose and blame others for not accepting it. Selfishness is a rocket ride to a lonely life because when you step in something people don't want you walking into their house. 

Live a life filled with abundant experiences that you wouldn't mind telling your grandkids about. Judgement and grace are inevitable, but you only get to keep what you give away. Finally, everything, every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, will hinge on this question from Jesus Christ, "Who do you say that I am?" There is nothing more important than your answer to that question.

Life in Austin, Texas Was Like...Nicky the Stranger

(I never want to forget what it was like to live in the weirdest city in America. Austin will always be a home to me. This was in 2014.)

After an evening at Kerby Lane for a late night pancake gathering with friends, Traci and I pondered what else to do. Just up South Lamar was an English style pub that had late hours and the word 'grill' in the title, so we assumed they might serve food. Screens scattered around the faux old English decor were showing shark week, so we were hooked. Did you catch that? And that... I digress.

Being that is was open mic night we ordered fish and chips and settled in for some random amateur entertainment.  After a few jangly guitar tunes were plinked out by a variety of nervous bearded hipsters, a guy got up who was never gonna be famous but looked like he might die trying. He was a glorious train wreck of Pat Boone, Cirque du Soleil, a slam poet, and a game show host. He started out like Leonard Cohen or Barry White singing to a track and suddenly shed the white suit coat for a blue sequin coat underneath.  A couple of spins and a backflip later this guy (who goes by the name Nicky the Stranger) is leading the pub in a singalong of a song that was entirely made up of words impossible to decipher. It was so oddly mesmerizing that I didn't even think to snap a pic.

When he finished to a chorus of cheers the MC said with a hint of semi sarcasm, "Thanks, Nicky. Always a nice change of pace from the usual." Shark week, a fake British Pub, and Nicky the Stranger in his sparkly blue glory. What a wonderful, weird Sunday night in Austin, Texas.

A New Covenant Clarity

Everything from the Old Covenant needs to be interpreted through the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we have 1 Corinthians 13 (Love keeps no record of wrongs, never fails, etc), 1 John 4:7-8 “…Love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” And the words of Jesus leading up to the cross, “Love your enemies” Luke 6:31.

The New Covenant didn’t change the nature of God, but it did shift how He deals with mankind. "Now, in Christ, we who were afar off have been brought near by His blood” Eph 2:13. The blood of the New Covenant abolished the old covenant (detailed in Ephesians 2) and brought us into adoption as heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ.

We now revisit the old covenant simply to celebrate what the cross and resurrection accomplished. We don’t throw away that glorious New to re-embrace the blind fearful foreboding of the old. I don't view Old Testament verses on hate as elevated above the New Covenant verses on love. Ephesians 2. The Old Covenant was nailed to the cross. Romans 8. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. I don't know what was happening back then to cause them to interpret what they were getting as the hatred of God towards man, but in Christ we get a different picture. If He commands us to love our enemies, what do you think He does with His?

Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is the exact representation of the Father's nature. So anything I find in the old covenant that I can't substantiate in the life of Jesus Christ, we have reason to question. The Old Covenant was one big question to which Jesus is the answer. John 5:35. So I'll never exalt an old covenant perspective of God over the clear representation of Christ. When you have a contrast between the old and the new you don't have to try to reinterpret the old, rather simply align with the new covenant and thank Him for it.

Busyness

"Busyness is artificial significance." Bill Johnson.

Busyness isn't the cure for laziness. To me, laziness isn't a lack of activity. It's a lack of productivity. To be unproductive is to be unfruitful. And if a person is killing themselves with activity that bears no fruit, that's poor stewardship of time and energy. Make every action an investment in which you attempt as much as possible to be conscious of a return. It's not saying, "What will I get out of this?" because it's not always about you. But saying, "What fruit could this effort produce?" It is the second question that fuels the dreams within you. In the Kingdom of God, His priorities are paramount. If you take care of what's important to God, He will take care of what's important to you.

Why I Believe

I believe in God because of Jesus. I believe in Jesus because of the resurrection. And I believe in the resurrection because of the disciples. We can argue the existence of God, the validity of Jesus, or the legitimacy of the resurrection. But the life and death of each of the disciples is the greatest historical case for the resurrection. These men, one moment huddling in fear, have an encounter with the resurrected Christ, and that changes them forever. Ordinary men don’t die for a lie. And each of them separately, with no way to easily contact the other, was killed or tortured and none of them ever said, “Stop! We made the whole thing up.” That’s simply astonishing.

How did they die?

James was the first Apostle to be martyred. Herod Agrippa seized him when he was in Jerusalem in the year 42 and had him beheaded. Andrew preached the Gospel in Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. He was crucified in Achaia at Patras in the year 61. Tied to an X-shaped cross after being scourged, he hung there he preached to people for two days before he died. Peter was martyred by Nero in the year 67. Peter was crucified, by request, upside down, out of reverence for Jesus. His request was granted. Paul was beheaded on the same day as Peter outside the walls of Rome. Simon was crucified at Edessa in the year 67. Matthew preached in Africa and was martyred by the sword in the year 65 in Ethiopia. Thomas was stabbed to death at Mylapore, India, in the year 74. Matthias (who replaced Judas) was crucified in the year 65. Jude was clubbed to death the same year in Persia. James the less had it rough in Jerusalem. The religious leaders took him to the pinnacle of the temple and told him to renounce Christ before all the people who were gathered below. Instead he proclaimed Christ resurrected and they cast him off. Still living after he hit the ground, a man stepped forward and smashed his head in with a club. Philip preached the Gospel in Greece and he was martyred at Hierapolis in Persia in the year 62. Like Peter, he was crucified upside down. Bartholomew was skinned alive in Armenia in the year 72. John was the only one not martyred. However, in the year 95, he was taken prisoner at Ephesus and sent to trial in Rome. Sentenced to death, he was boiled in oil before the Latin gate. Miraculously he survived and was exiled to the island of Patmos. He was later freed and died at Ephesus in the year 100 when he was eighty-eight years old.

So this Easter, I’m compelled to look around me at the arguments of people against the existence of God and the validity of Jesus, and each one has their theories. But the resurrection has moved from theory to fact in my heart because of my own encounter with the resurrected Christ. I understand now, how these men found a cause worth living and dying for. And it’s their lives, message, and deaths that solidify for me the truth of the resurrection, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the everlasting love of the Father. May Easter weekend bring each of you a life changing encounter with the resurrected Christ.

(For anyone who wants to do research on this, I highly recommend Historian Michael Licona’s incredible work called, “The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach”. At 700 pages and more than 2000 footnotes, Licona has done his homework. Also for the especially studious scholar, see the writings of historian, Josephus, Eusebius, and the early church fathers such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Dionysius of Corinth, Irenaeus, Tertullian and the list goes on.)

Interwoven in Christ

Col 2:2-3 Paul’s outlining the priorities for what he wants to see in every believer and every church here in this verse and it’s staggering and incredible.

…that their hearts may be encouraged…

When you face loss or disappointment it’s called “hope deferred”. The result is that it makes the heart sick. But Paul is stating the clarity of focus here is that you would have an encouraged heart. A heart filled with courage stands in the present with confidence and looks toward the future with bold expectancy. Whatever circumstances lie between you and your destiny, we are continually strengthened by the knowledge that the end of this journey is a joy that nothing can take away.

…having been knit together in love… 

Jesus declared that we would know that we are one with Him in John 14. Then He prayed that we would be one with each other in John 17. In Christ we have been interwoven into a tapestry of Love Himself. The Holy Spirit has a high value for union and unity. The declaration itself doesn’t make it reality without our willful alignment to the desire of His heart.

…and attaining to all the wealth that comes from full assurance of understanding that results in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The boundless riches of the Gospel are accessed when you have settled on this singularity as the foundation of every moment and movement of your being. Christ. So then when Paul makes statements about Christ in the rest of the letter, He is unveiling that wealth with statements like “Christ is all and in all” and “in Him you have been made complete”. Our union with Him is the source of all wisdom.

Deep Lessons

We learn some of the deepest lessons in some of the darkest valleys. But we don't often realize what we've learned in the valley of the shadow until we have walked far enough to see the sun again. Don't stay in the valley. Keep walking. When you feel the sun, then turn and teach another what you have learned. Words forged by experience are far richer than untested notions. ~ Bill Vanderbush

What Pain Sounds Like

The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit! But for many their experience with Christianity as a religion is not life giving. We recently invited thousands of members of a closed study group to bare their heart and share the honest and uncensored condition of their heart from their current perspective. Sometimes people need to be heard before they want to be healed. Here are some unedited statements.

Can you relate to any of these?
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I feel like if I let go that people won't like who I really am.

I believe there is something inherently wrong with me, that I never fit in.

I have thought of myself as a failure and that God couldn't possibly love me because I fail continuously.

I often believe that I'm unlikeable, or that there's something wrong with me that I'll never fully understand.

I believe that I am the one person who is not deserving of what God has done for me.

I've often felt unforgivable for the terrible things I've done.

That I am the unwanted child, saved because God promised I would be but not wanted, adored, or loved.

I have often felt like a failure because of continually falling back into the same sin. Why would God extend grace to me if I keep breaking His heart?

I tie how I think my husband feels about me to how God feels about me.

Quite honestly I am mad and feel abandoned. I bow my head to pray and then I stop because I think what is the use - he may be listening but he doesn't care. Or is he really listening - really? Is he even there?

Is there really a God that loves and hears me?

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I feel like if I let go that people won't like who I really am.

I believe there is something inherently wrong with me, that I never fit in.

I have thought of myself as a failure and that God couldn't possibly love me because I fail continuously.

I often believe I am stuck in life, going nowhere.

I often believe that I'm unlikeable, or that there's something wrong with me that I'll never fully understand.

I believe that I am the one person who is not deserving of what God has done for me.

I've often felt unforgivable for the terrible things I've done.

I often feel like I'm a burden.

That I am the unwanted child, saved because God promised I would be but not wanted, adored, or loved.

I have often felt like a failure because of continually falling back into the same sin. Why would God extend grace to me if I keep breaking His heart?

I tie how I think my husband feels about me to how God feels about me.

Quite honestly I am mad and feel abandoned. I bow my head to pray and then I stop because I think what is the use - he may be listening but he doesn't care. Or is he really listening - really? Is he even there?

Is there really a God that loves and hears me?

What's the Point of Prayer and Fasting?

Disciplines like prayer and fasting don't make God. They make me. There's no arm twisting or begging of God in these things. They are reminders of Spirit, a focused intention tending to the roots of faith in the soil of the heart. The disciplines of of prayer and fasting kill unbelief and give rise to an awareness that we are more than mere flesh and form. We don't do these things because we are becoming something. We do these things to become aware of who we are. When you lose yourself, return to prayer. When your heart is darkened by foolishness, return to fasting. When you forget who you are, pray and listen. When you're offended at God, fast and detox. These aren't dead religious works unless they become lifeless habit. They are an infusion of Presence in purposeful acts of life-giving worship. In prayer and fasting, I awaken and align to who the Father has always known me to be from before the foundation of the world. These disciplines keep me from becoming consumed with me. The desire for things diminishes as the awareness of the Spirit is illuminated in clarity. If you have lost and let go of these disciplines in an effort to rest in a revelation of grace, I encourage you to revisit some of these disciplines that were so important to Jesus Christ. Let the Spirit draw you to them and them to you and in that drawing you will find the Spirit life and depth of soul tie with God that you longed to discover when you said your first prayer. 

God and Sin

Anything that dulls my sensitivity to or awareness of the presence of God or perpetuates the illusion of separation. But what if someone doesn't believe in God? I think it's commonly stated that without God there is no sin for it is believed that sin is purely a religious construct. But I would say that the ONLY way there is no sin is with God. Without God each person does what's right in his own eyes thereby creating their own system of conduct and rules by which we govern our interactions. It's that condition of defining right and wrong apart from God that perpetuates the distance and separation between people. Everyone has their own rules and definition, and who's to say that one is more valid than another? But Jesus lifts us beyond our own definitions, destroys sin, reconciles union, restores relationship, and speaks a word of grace that makes genuine love manifest. It is that love and grace that makes us one. It's that oneness that manifests peace.

Is God Disappointed In You?

• God is not disappointed in you. That's a statement I've made often in talking about The Forgotten Way. So a question I get often is how is it that God isn't disappointed in us? The bigger question would be is God infinite and complete? If so, then temporal expressions of loss and lack cannot take away from that which is infinite and complete. We all wrestle with the temporal vs the eternal. Both time and eternity have progression. Time moves from the beginning to the end. That which is eternal has the beginning and the end together as one. To subject God to time would be to adopt the perspective that God is enslaved by His own creation, which would make Him very weak indeed. And weak is certainly one thing that God is not. After all, in 1 Corinthians 3:21 Paul says that all things are yours, and in the list he includes time.

  
  

  So back to the issue of disappointment. The verse we're going to look at is Ephesians 4:30-32 which encourages us to avoid grieving the Holy Spirit. The Greek word here is Lupeo which means to affect with sadness or heaviness. Matter of fact in 1 Peter 1:6 the same word is translated as heaviness and the context there is that you've been made heavy with temptations. Sadness and heaviness is a temporal blindness to the manifest joy of an eternal victory. When we can't see the eternal victory, but only feel the weight of the temporal circumstance, we react and act out of a temporal perspective. We feel sad when we lose hope and we feel heavy when we lose heart. But from an eternal perspective we are forgiven and victorious. Eph 4:32 says we've already been forgiven. (Christ forgave i.e., past tense) The bitterness, wrath, anger, etc that we express is a symptom of a temporal blindness to how forgiven and free we are in Christ. So we give off expressions of a false identity. But that doesn't disappoint God. Sadness or heaviness isn't disappointment. There is a word for disappoint in GK which is kataischynō from Romans 5:5 which means to put to shame. When someone is disappointed in us it opens us up to be ashamed. We know what Christ has done with shame. He takes it from us. 

  
  

  He has injected Himself into our story and walks it with us even though He knows the end from the beginning. He feels what we feel and even in our own blindness the river of redemption never stops flowing. Consider the prodigal son story, where the Father expresses sorrow, but not disappointment. Disappointment has given up all hope and attached a label of shame and guilt to a person or situation. The Father in the story had sadness and sorrow at the sons "death" but an absolute hope that his son's identity was never beyond redemption. He says to the older brother that the younger son "was dead but is alive again". While we were dead, Christ made us alive. So He can experience sadness and sorrow at our blindness while maintaining hope in our redemption which he has already freely given. He never loses heart and never gives up hope.

Stillness

Nothing in this life is both easier or more difficult than stillness. 

Identity Defined

There is no distance or separation between you and God right now. All distance exists in our mind and perspective and those thoughts and sight are shaped and influenced by our experiences in this physical world. But the victory that overcomes the world is our faith in that which is unseen. (1John 5:4)  Now your journey is to surrender who you thought you were to simply be who your Father has always known you to be. In Christ is your authentic identity and you are the creative expression of the home that God desires to dwell in. It is in this place of peace that we are most alive. 

This is not a position that is left unchallenged. We have an enemy who seeks to steak, kill, and destroy. But we can refuse to allow that enemy to have a place of influence and define who we are. Recently my wife, Traci, was in a car accident and while she was spared serious injury it could have been a very different situation. My identity as a husband and father is able to be threatened. So while those are good roles and I do them as unto the Lord, they by themselves do not define who I am. Any identity that you have that can be threatened is temporal. You only have one identity that is eternal and that is “in Christ”. Nothing can threaten that. And it is from the foundation of that identity that the rest of life flows abundantly.