Emerge From Cinder and Ash

I have had a rough year so far. I just wanted to challenge you with this difficult saying:
"In this world you will have many difficulties..."
Straight from the Saviors mouth. That's a promise. But I always get surprised by its practical truth. No exception this year.
And it WILL get worse!? Really? How much worse? When? Do I brace myself each day for the worst? It has seemed this year more apparent than ever that I am not prepared for the worse. But it always could be!
I have told people things that were happening this year which made them swear out loud, just totally dumbfounded for words, and it was just what was happening, not imbellishment or dramatic license.
I think I'm done. No more. Stop now and let me off this crazy ride. Now I sound like Im on an episode of the Jetsons!

"...but take heart, I have overcome the world." These words are solid too. In fact, I look at them as the only hope we have. Things will not get better, we will continue to suffer and go through trials. There is a way through it though. Not an easy thing to get through something. But not alone, and not without help.

I saw a picture while running the other day. It was an aftermath of a bomb, debris and ashes everywhere. Total destruction. Then in the middle of the cinder and ashes, new, untamed life emerging, bursting throught he deatha and decay. Green. New. Hopeful. Naive, yet powerful. That was something inside me. It showed particularly during a Coldplay concert. The language of my heart is music...and something inside me wanted to burst forth, be expressed, be hopeful. I just wept and allowed the pain to resolve to care from my Creator. He is constant, He has overcome. He lives in me, so He can do this bursting forth for me, with me , through me. More to come I am sure.

Dream House

Part of dreaming that causes me little sleep is the fact that at one place ou know your dream has to smash into reality. My house is a old one. I am a novice practical guy, learning as I go. This makes any plans very very painstaking. I can dream big, but getting the dream from paper to reality is a slow painful process. Kinda translates to other parts of life, I think. I have in the past found it very dfficult to dream big. Why? Because dreams can make old wounds sting, they can come when all obstacles appear too big and intrusive, making the bible passage, "hope deferred makes the heart sick". Its true! A broken heart needs to learn to dream again. SInce my fathers death, I have felt like the canopy on my tent was ripped off. Leaving life more vulnerable and exposed, I have fought the desperate feeling that life is pretty lonesome. But what I also noticed is that I have this need to be a kid. If my father was not around, then whose kid am I?
Being a kid, a child means to know you are taken care of, that you are somehow going to be caught if you fall down. To have someone who cares for your wounds and has the resources to help you out when you are overwhelmed.
That being said, my spirit, or heart or whatever needs to be able to dream with the covering of my father. KNowing that reality gives me peace. I have to keep my head grounded in this reality as the Father I have in my Creator is where I must transfer that displaced security. Death really confronts the hearts dreaming mechanism.
I am going to dream as I grow in this reality. And our house can only benefit from that!