Defensive

The perpetual state of demanding innocent blood, fear killing hope. Matthew 27:22,23 Rather than demanding justice, I learn to act justly. Micah 6:8

Acting justly at the injustice of past or current wrongs is expressed by the pouring out from my heart the hurt and anger in surrender. 

Commitment to the process of surrender ushers me from Robin Hood-style acts of robbery into the liberating, strong, and loving hand that puts me back on offence. Have a ball! Psalm 62

Pull Ups Keep Your Chin Up

If you allow what lies deep within to be drawn out of you, push less often comes to shove away or flee. Proverbs 19:2 Who pulls me up waits patiently for me to stop pushing due to letting myself down or only letting go of what won't let me go . Get in the Oh! zone by going with the flow. Job 11:13-16

Boxing Circles

The manipulative use of techniques by a control freak not only suppresses the freedom of expression through actions as simple as blowing bubbles by a child, but also suppresses the imagination involved. Being boxed in carries the risk of leading one away from use of this precious imagination in the future. Addiction to technique kills ceativity and innovation, i.e. the Spirit. Colossians 3:21

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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