Threatening Safety or Safe Threatenings

We all seem to have the innate ability to recognize what seems safe and what seems threatening. The problem lies in the misguided self-interest that often calls something safe that actually threatens and something threatening that is actually safe. This is human nature's inclination to resistance to change. Isaiah 5:20

Myopic to Kaleidoscopic

Able to see and enjoy the mysterious unfolding of beauty in front and inside of me. Enlightened by new patterns of thought forming through mirrors of experientially timely words, timing becomes more important than time. Proverbs 25:11 An awareness grows of being empowered into freedom from the use of brute force that is replaced by the strength of influential gentleness. From Cyclops to single-eyed focus, I'm learning to live without the monstrous blind spots created by cultural myths that darken truth, its expression, and its joy. Matthew 6:22,23

I gradually move out of the reflective suffering of the status quo that counsels me not to commit because of the wasted energy of worrying about what people think.  

My overdeveloped analytical abilities and underdeveloped will no longer have power to keep me from the fresh commitments I can now make to the One who has the combination unlocking my heart and mind.

I unlearn the commitments that have defined me which are unstated and usually unrecognized.  

Slowly, the painfully harsh judgements against my emotions are being lifted. I can now listen for and interpret who I am through my emotions as they create the background music for my new life and its beauty. 1 Corinthians 14:15

Song of Salmon

Swimming up the stream of the familiar, I longed for someone to lift me out so that I could just flip-flop for a while. This desire felt like betrayal. Unknowlingly, the force of streaming waves against me were a betrayal of something deeper. A betrayal of my faith. Isaiah 63:10 Ignoring the warning; "You turn", I had sacrificed the very faith I had been given by slipping on appeal of a listening ear. If I would just bend my ear to the call to Righteousness by faith, I would see the greener grass is freshly cut in the other direction. Psalm 72:6   

Transforming the Waste Line

Deep calls calls to deep As I create prosperity and disaster.

So which above is the jar of alabaster?

What seemed as waste by one summation

was transformed by grace

into worship and admiration. Matthew 26:6-10

Diehard Battery

"Charged" with relentless self-condemnation. We're trained to believe this is noble yet it's abuse from perfectionist tendencies of distrust. Relief is found by holding others to illegitimate legalistic demands which never satisfy. Matthew 23:24 The deception of this false humility leads the self-condemned to feel as though everything is great. In his mind he's proven himself right while those around him suffer from his authoritarian rule. This is the distorted fear and attraction of the known rather than the unknown.

Healing begins from a willingness to detach from the unhealthy loyalty to the familiar, i.e. the way I was raised or have learned to protect myself. Colossians 2:20-23

Ingenious Ingenue

Restoring me from a lover of my skills to skillfully loving. Redeemed innocence of a dove yet wise as a serpent. Jeremiah 2:31-33 

Oh, What a Feeling

True recognition of the way I feel by stopping to acknowledge it brings its deeper meaning of self-understanding. The result is a growing awareness of knowledge within me that determines my subsequent behavior rather than my behavior determining my knowledge. I match my behavior to knowledge rather than seeking knowledge through my behavior. Romans 16:19

Hurtin for Certain

Meaning is more important than certainty. The sweet work of meaningful pain through risk and commitment is evidence of a marriage made in heaven. Hosea 2:14-20