Marinating Since 08/27/2023
Two things that I just thought – that I want to write; and somehow I am already forgetting the first… I say, “somehow” but isn’t that how it often happens? At least with a longer phrase. The first was a phrase that made me laugh as I said it. I shall now enter into the “think think think” mindset to remember… But before I’ll just scratch down the second thought, soas I don’t forget it in my ternary thinking…well, it is in the title: being a welcome mat to the house of God, laying down our own lives so that others may enter in, scraping dirt off on the way in even…long suffering, enduring, love like no other!
*thinking* (thrice)
Eeek, I can’t remember it! It was a great phrase I thought, but I didn’t write or record it right away, and so it goes. Perhaps it shall come back to me in time. Meanwhile, to make up for forgetting the first, I’ll write another phrase that made me laugh this morning as well, a play on an OG;
“Give a man a cup of coffee, and he’ll ask for another. Teach a man to make coffee, and make him an addict for the rest of his life.” *laughs*
Oh so great. It doesn’t have meaning behind it in the same way the OG saying did, but still laughable!
Okay okay, moving on to the “Welcome mat”
I am called to love others (and so are you), to put their interests above my own, to lay down my life for them as Jesus did for me, to really LOVE them! Therefore, this whole thing inside of me that wants to make everyone understand where I am coming from, so they can see my motives and not judge me, that thing needs to get ka-booted, to a large extent anyway. If I know what is right and loving, especially what God has called me to do, then I can do it with great confidence, looking to the fruit and not just the immediate reaction to the “tilling of the soil”. We must endure the tilling of the ground; the prep work, the pruning work, then we will enjoy the fruit of our labors. But we mustn’t try to bypass the hard work to get the fruit prematurely.
If God has given me a gift of seeing things others cannot, I must largely be contented to being the only one to see that, and still be faithful to take the actions to work towards that goal, even when others cannot see the purpose to my actions and think me a madman, or worse; a heartless person. Am I willing to take the dirt for and from other people, that they may enter into the fullness (house) that God has for them? Will I fight for them? Will I give of myself, to see them taste of the fruit? Can I let go of my own ego, lay it down, take the beatings and lashings from others as they walk all over me, because of his love for them?
Oh my God! I need your help, I need your grace! I don’t want to let go, I don’t want to be beaten unjustly! and even by those I love the most! But I want to love like you! You were beaten and lashed by those you loved the most. You took it because of the joy you saw on the other side! Am I willing to do that as well for others?!! HELP ME ABBA! I want to love like that. I just have such a hard time laying down my own pride, of putting my heart on the altar to be ripped apart and set ablaze. I need your strength. HELP ME!
I want to love with the love that you have shown me, to love with ALL my heart! Yet I know I can’t love with all my heart if there is still pride in my heart, the pride must be removed so that I can love more fully. Come do what only you can do God! As Eustace was not able to remove the nasty dragon scales from himself- it was only the deep claws of Aslan that could do it – so *shutters & cries* come king of my heart and rip deep, go to the core, remove that which hinders your love…let your claws, tender and piercing, tear me to the core. GRACE! Just give me grace, and I thank you that you are gracious even in the tearing! Cut me to the quick, and may I be humble enough to receive it.
Teach me to welcome others to the fullness of your house, even if that means I am walked upon, treaded down on the way through, and the filth scars my face, even as some deign to spit upon it. (Isaiah 50! You are with me!)
May I love like you have loved me!
The Ponderings of
Jack Bones
English