Covered

Can you hear the beat of distant drums?

Do they resound inside the reserves of your heart

Rhythm unto rhythm, calling you apart?

The sound is faint to those of the Earth

But within Heaven’s gates it erupts like new birth

You can hear if you’re still

If you quiet your mind

Inside Heaven’s reach your heart is not blind

Can you see a distant light like a star in the night?

Does it speak to your life and call you to rise

Light unto eyes, identifying your drive?

Become who you are

Stare the lie in its face

Remove all your shame and disgrace

By one simple embrace

You are covered by blood and stand under grace

See and Speak

I want to see people the way they were originally intended to be, because that is the essence of who they are. I want to stop looking through judgmental or circumstantial eyes and see the beauty of a person. Not because of what they've done that's so great or of merit, but because the One who created me also created them, and they are no less and neither am I.
Maybe the phrase "to see through God's eyes" is overused, but even so, this is my prayer. I want to see people with spiritual eyes, and then go beyond that seeing and actually speak, actually release the words of encouragement to call their true identity out of them. This is how identities open up and blossom, just like a flower. I know, because I am a testament. So many people have spoken things into me and called things out, and so much of the time I didn't fully believe it. But I am believing more and more.
I just want to be faithful to encourage people. I think we all need to have this in mind. Everyone you encounter needs encouragement. Everyone. Let's stop seeing the outward, whether that's appearance, actions, or
words, but ask God for his eyes so we can see the truth in a person.
And don't forget to call it out.
Encouragement is powerful.

Stars

Last night I stepped outside and my eyes caught sight of the stars. It struck me then how long it had been since I looked at them, and I realized how desperately I need a bigger perspective in my life. I love looking at the stars, because they along with the expanse of the night sky remind me first of all how big God is and second of all that there is so much more to this life than I see most of the time. I say we need to indulge in the "bigness" of life, not in a sense of getting overwhelmed, but in knowing that God takes care of all of it, including our small and large struggles.
I've recognized how small my view of life is lately. Whether I'm viewing the world through my little computer screen or through the eyes of my current circumstances, I fail to look beyond the box. I forget how big and glorious and beautiful my God and Savior is, and how big and glorious and beautiful my own life can and is meant to be as a result. I forget how to be loved; hence, I foret how to love. I so often see life in a cave, when there is a whole universe out there declaring the glory of the One I claim to love the most.
God created beauty and put us in the midst of it, but sadly somehow we've managed to hide ourselves from it. I know this is not what our hearts long for. We long to be swept up into beauty and adventure, to be loved and to live for something bigger.
I say let's step into the fullness of life.
Let's see the stars and let them remind us how insignificant and powerless our daily enemies of doubt, worry, weariness, and dullness are. Let us see the majesty of our God and be caught up in His embrace and His story.

Truth Meets Desire

This poem came out of a time we had today to ponder the story of the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus at Simon the Pharisee's house, as told in Luke 7. I found myself mostly relating to Simon in this story, which somewhat surprised me. I believe in addressing this man who was both disgusted with the woman's actions as well as skeptical of who Jesus really was, Jesus was calling to his heart, speaking to his desires if he was willing to listen. Jesus was not rejecting him for his judgmentalism, his sin, or his lack of faith. He was calling him by name, acknowledging him as a man who needed grace, if he was only willing to lay down his pride, receive forgiveness, and become as extravagant with his love as the woman, the "sinner,"
 was with hers as a result of that receiving.
Jesus' truth was calling to Simon's desire that had been overcome by his doubts.

The one who sees me sits in this room tonight
The one who knows and looks right through my pride
He is my shelter, glowing heart
A voice that speaks my name
An eye that pierces through my shame

I am here, I am now

I don’t know why or how
Creator’s breath, Creator’s touch
Moves through the invisible
Notes the imperceptible

When I sit alone afraid of my thoughts

Not wanting to utter the whispers that shudder
All through my mind, the unseen, the blind lies
He is the one who is privy to my pain
The one who gives me a safe place, who calls me sane

My safety, my guide

Who understands my thoughts better than I
Who calls to my heart when I’m tied by my mind
Arouses desires that stir and make known
The path I long to tread, to love and to yearn

When I don’t know how to learn

He opens me up so I can kneel and unwind
Lay before him my pride
The dirt and the grime
So audacious to assume
That my tears could undo
The filth on his feet
But his blood says they do

The one who hears my doubts

When they remain in my head in the crowd
Picks me out, confronts straight up what I’m about
And his words bring me back to desire
The longings that once were on fire
Before they were consumed by my qualms

The one who looks and sees
Pierces through every encroaching disease
And speaks truth that meets
A desire that knows my deepest needs

Art: The People's Safe Haven

Last night I had a revelation about art in a way I hadn't really thought of before. I was attending this concert and just observing all the people around me, thinking about what brought them here, why they went out of their way to come and enjoy this night of music.
Many of us hear and know that people tend to use art as an escape. I believe this is true, but I also think the reality of this runs deeper than we may realize.
People came to that concert last night to lose themselves, to get carried away in the beauty of the music and the talent and passion that was expressed. To take a night off from the every day grind that wears us all down. I think people look to various forms of artistic expression as a safe haven. It's a place they can go, something they can experience where the inner depths of their identity and longings are known. It's a time where they can let down and just feel, instead of doing and producing.
I believe artists have a very important job, and it goes way beyond entertainment. When people come to enjoy art, it is their time to get away, to find common ground with all types of people who all have the same desires and hunger deep inside. It's a way to connect with their Creator, even if they don't know that's what is happening.
Art has the ability to create a safe place. A place that welcomes you in and tells you that you belong and you are not alone.
That is why I believe it is so critical for those of us who are followers of the true Creator, our Father God, to create works of art with all the passion and life He gives us. If you are an artist, as I am, I encourage you to throw your whole being into what you create. And always do it with God's grace and power behind you and in you. Cry out for a greater release. Don't believe the lie that your job as an artist is not as legitimate as other professions.
Being an artist is a most important role in our culture today. Jesus is the people's safe haven, the only One who can truly speak to the depths of people's souls and not leave them empty at the end. As artists, we are the ones who provide that getaway that people need, that safe haven where people can come and let down all their worries and cares.
Let us draw people in to come away with Him. Let us leave people with a taste that lingers and warmly invites them to experience more.
Let us use the gifts God has given us and not hold back.

Steady and Sure

Jesus, every time I fall behind or bend under the weight of life
Please remind me you are here
Father, I don’t want to deny your attendance in my days
Your existence in my heart
Please remind me you are here
Not only here to stay but here to be my world today
That everything I do would travel a road back to you
That every endeavor, every act, every word
Would find its origin in you
That when I walk and when I talk
I would think of you and the love that you’ve shared
Not so I can hoard it
But so I can build a place of safety
A place of hospitality
Where my whole life is an open book
Ready to draw others into the story unfolding
As I lay down my life for your glory

Let me not look to myself anymore

What I can do, whatever waits beyond that door
The things too harsh to face
What I try to do without grace
My eyes you train to see you
To be fixed on your eyes that show me what to do
And how
And I will not fade or fall or waste away
When my heart is alive in your constant embrace
Steady and sure
I’ll lock my eyes on yours
So that I’ll remember why I was made

"Source" and "Take Flight" (A prayer and response)

This first poem starts out as an expression of frustration and a prayer that expresses my desire to be closer to Father so He can work and create through me.
The second I believe is His response. Let Him speak to you where you're at today. He wants to, with all His heart, even if you don't feel it.

Source

How much time can I waste

Thinking I have no words to say?
I’m on the edge of disgrace
Tears threatening to streak down my face
I’ve lost sight of your grace
In this moment
When all inside me wants to live with meaning
I sit around idly and can’t feel you
I know you haven’t left
Because if you had I’d have tasted death
But why do I sit here, lonely
When you’ve given me your voice
And I always have a choice
I need your love, what can I say?
I’m an orphan here, just waiting for that day
When I’ll know I’m wanted
I don’t mean to say I’m ungrateful
Or that it’s not true
By my heart doesn’t always feel as it should
Until I pursue yours
So teach me, Father
As I sit here, without words
Scraping and scrounging, trying to discern
What it’s all about
I’m lost just like all the rest
I have nothing your mercy hasn’t sent
So keep me humble and keep me open
But don’t let me forget that I don’t have to be broken
Forever
Hold me now, hold me close
I want to hear your breath, the bob of your throat
I need to know your warmth, your soft, gentle voice
That steals all the lies, that hushes the chaos
In my mind
You’re stirring in my life
I’m coming away with you
For what else can I do
In the midst of this pain
In the midst of all we’re going through?
You’re the anchor to my soul
The rose that teaches me to unfold
The warrior that opposes all my foes
And brings me near to your kingly throne
The words are there, barely
Scratching the fringes of your presence
But do my eyes see?
Open
Open up
Climb deep inside and show me
Who you are
How life speaks and points to you
As the source
Father hear my prayer
Your daughter’s waiting here
Not knowing what to ask
But not satisfied without your touch

Take Flight

Rest from your striving soul

Give it to me, I’m in control
Of every care, every worry
Everything uncertain in your mind
I hold in a bottle of time
For I stand outside
So
Let go, don’t you know
That I want you free?
That my yoke is easy
If you let me carry
All the loads, the confusion that overflows
Into your heart
The sacred place where our love started
Child, you invited me in
But I can’t live in a place so cluttered
With thoughts that are scattered
And not meant to be
Look at me
For I am here
And my very presence in your life
Trumps any fear
That tries to tell you you’re not good enough
You’re not
So embrace it fast so I can be
Your everything
Dear one, you are precious to me
I am not mad or absent
I am fully me
And you see, to be fully me is to be love
I see
Through eyes that wed the dirty sinner
When he was not yet clean
And I see you now
Pure as can be
A child full of destiny
That belongs to me
So come away and be mine
Detach yourself from what binds
And blinds
And find that my life
Flows through and makes a way
For you to not only get through this day
But be alive to my creative design
Take joy and take delight
For even in the fight
You’ll soon take flight