Degrees

If you're suffering from depression, it's not because you're thinking of things as worse than they are, but because they are far worse than you imagine.

When at last you recognize your problems as unyieldingly insurmountable, then you may experience hope. When you come to understand the immeasurable degree to which you are destined for failure, you may reach a happy rest.

Jesus was raised from the dead. Imagine struggling with how to overcome death. What's your game plan? How badly will you feel like a screw up if you don't come back to life after 3 days? None right? That's crazy. Who comes back from the dead? Who will look down on you for staying dead? Nobody.

Well, stop feeling sorry for yourself: you're gonna be dead, and no one will think less of you for it. They might think of you less after a while though I guess. ;) Here's some good news: you're not dead yet! If being dead is clear accounts, then being alive is a bonus! I mean, one day your reputation will be that of a dead person. Who is so and so? Oh, they died.

You should be having a good triumphant laugh to yourself right now because you're better than dead. Is the pressure off? Are you free to live now, having the reality of your death? Try learning something new, and don't be afraid of messing up, at worst you'll be killed!

It gets better though. A cynic might accept his death and use that as a launching pad for productivity in life to some degree, but he'll never be at peace. He'll be a cynic. This is what's up: You don't have to stay dead, just ask Jesus.

On heroin and reputation

Yes addiction is "glorified selfishness", and that is a heart disease which we all share and feed in many ways, some of which are more socially acceptable than others.
Show me one person, one, who doesn't always pursue what they believe will bring them the most happiness. Some wise person said that pleasure is what each of us seek, even the man who hangs himself. In this we can't control our choices: we always choose what promises to most fulfill. Our sickness, our disease, for all of us, is that we continue seeking where there is no satisfaction.

The one who seeks to rest satisfied by despising another's shameless pursuit of their fulfillment, is likely further from finding their own.

I'm saying addiction is a disease, and that maybe it's less of a disease than some have who settle for less gratifying social approval. In both cases what is needed is a cure, a superior pleasure to expel the inferior. The heroin addict and the one who seeks the praise of their peers each only do so because they know of no greater relief, or reprieve from their own emptiness. I'm talking this way from personal experience on both counts. They do each have a choice. One option is that they can harden and shrink their capacity for joy, that is they may give up on the possibility that there really is something good and right that will bring fulfillment, and glut themselves on poison that pleases them less and less as it kills them. Or they may choose to keep seeking, to believe that there really is something better, something altogether unlike the thief they've bedded down with for so many nights, that possibly there is somewhere waiting for them figuratively a pure faithful spouse beyond comparison to these dirty, spiteful mistresses.

He is there. Our disease is only that we can't appreciate how good he is. Come to me all you worn out and heavily burdened, I'll give you rest for your souls, he says. The fulfillment we're seeking because we're empty, is simply the knowledge that he is full, that God is good, and satisfied, happy, and fulfilled without any need of you to put down the crack pipe or impress your friends. This is what he says through Jesus. And through this word of Christ we can be reconciled to know him as he is and let that be our rest. Keep seeking, Keep knocking, Keep asking, and you'll be the one who gets him. Your responsibility is to cry out for the boldness to believe.

Special thanks to Erica! Also Chris and Michella. Be addicts y'all, just go for what really pleases.

Entitled

She passes lightly over field and flower
Barely moving the grass beneath her feet
As if carried on the wind
May I know this grace again
And witness the beauty you sing inside

The fight cuts to the bone
And the night it wounds like a sword
You haven't left me here alone
I'm held, and I'm reaching

We've never known a love song
Don't know the steps, doot-doot-do-do
Never walked in fields of gold
On our faces before we knew
What a sin we share together now
Can we ever get away

It seems impossible that life should have this light
That day should cast away the night
As if torn by the wild
What can make us whole again
When it's love, obedience cannot be denied

This cry for permanence, it chains it grips
But we've heard love never seeks it's own
Waiting on true love's kiss
Oh we'll not be put to shame

We've never known a love song
Now we set our eyes on you
Never walked, never stood at all
Til you embraced us like you do
You draw us in, put us together now
Together we shall stay, always

We've never known a love song
Now we set our eyes on you
Never walked in fields of gold
Or drank the morning dew
You draw us in, we're together now
Together we shall stay, always
It's the dawning of the day

You have given us your voice
Strength gently spoken to our souls
Turn us from our course, to yours