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I JUST NEED TO PROCLAIM THIS to anyone who "identifies" as a man, or woman, or LGBTQ+, or Democrat, or Republican, or Hobbit, or Padawan.... We are not much different. We watch the same movies. We commonly cheer for the heroes, and against the villains. We're moved by stories of kindness, courage, and thoughtfulness. We're angered by their opposites. We share the same core values that make us human.
I CALL YOU FRIENDS. Because if you were in a car accident, or in need of help with something, or a listening ear... I'd be there. And I suspect you'd be there for me. We could get a coffee or beer or flavored diet water up the street and have a meaningful conversation.
YOU AND I ARE NOT MUCH DIFFERENT! Peal back the layers, look under the hood... we share an incompleteness. That compels us to something else. To be whole. It's the reason we get together with others. Or pick up our phones. Or play instruments. Or video games. Or do art. Or workout. Or meet a friend. Or read. Or turn in whatever other direction.
No, we are not much different at all! We have strong drives and desires that impel us towards that completion. And from trial and error, we learn which are getting us "there," and which are not. We learn which choices leave us more wounded or healed. Languishing or flourishing. In greater despair or delight. With greater emptiness or fulfillment. With greater alienation or intimacy.
WHOEVER YOU ARE, WHEREVER YOU'RE AT RIGHT NOW, there's not a single person I know who does not face even powerful desires that merit self-control (myself especially!). Who has not been burned, or even wrecked, by giving in to those desires. Being burned and going back to the flame thinking it will be different. Yours are yours, mine are mine, but we both have them! We both share this same, human landscape of coming to discover the beautiful shape of our unsurpassed identity.
THROUGH SUCH EXPERIENCE we discover a very real, unseen Path we did not define, but in which we are defined. A Path every bit as solid as the berms lining a highway. Meant to keep us safe. Attuned. Whole. Try as we might, fight as we may, we discover that we cannot so much break these defining "berms" as be broken against them. Such Path, for all of history, for every person who's ever lived, marks the shape of love.
AT THE CORE, THERE'S NOT A SINGLE PERSON I've ever met who is not pining to be loved. And to love. Who's not pining for intimacy. Meaning. Purpose. Value. Real, authentic, heart and soul connection with others. Given the stats on depression, what we see painted on most faces we pass in public, what we experience among too many close to us... we ought to ask: What's happened?
IN A WORD, we're suffering from amnesia. We've forgotten who we are. More consequentially, we've forgotten Whose we are. In the fog of amnesia we are vulnerable to every voice promising us an identity. Promising us happiness, status, or success. But the degree to which each of these is fleeting is the degree to which each proves to be artificial. A counterfeit of something very Real we were made for, that in our depths we know must exist. Try as we may, short of connecting with this Real, we find ourselves groveling from one identity to the next, all the more empty. All the more disillusioned.
SO IT MUST BE PRONOUNCED, what was discovered by every soul who ever passionately pursued every other artificial, counterfeit identity and kept coming up short: Our real identity, our real nature of unsurpassed value, is none other: We are sons and daughters of an eternal, deeply loving, caring, living, present Father God.
Perhaps one of the clearest indications of this is the degree to which this truth has been disparaged. To the detriment of so many. Consider the common portrait in television or movies, if not in our own real experience: Why today does the mere mention of "father" or "man" connote something negative? Lazy? Selfish? Unkind? Oppressive? Deeply hurtful?
HERE'S THE IMPORTANT, TRAGIC THING: Our negative experience of men, magnified by our entire culture, translates into our regard for God. The One who fashioned us for Himself. The provision for our greatest poverty. The One who alone can satisfy our deepest desire for unconditional, meaningful connection.
AND SO WE NEED REDEMPTION. Real redemption. The kind that flows from genuine, authentic connection. In those interests, I'm moved to say as a man, a husband, father and friend... on behalf of all those men in your life, with everything in me (please hear their deepest heart crying out to proclaim the same): I am so sorry for how you've ever been wounded by men in your life. Your father. Or boyfriend. Or husband. Or friend.
I'm so sorry because of the pain it's caused you, how it's haunted you, colored the way you see the world... mostly how this may have compromised your awareness of your unsurpassed beauty, purpose, value.
AND I'M HERE TO PROCLAIM: Hurting people hurt people. But healing people heal people. What matters most is not what happened years ago, or last week, or even a minute ago. What matters is right now.
DEAR FRIEND, this is a brand new moment. In Him there is clarity. In Him there is healing. In Him there is forgiveness. In Him there is restoration. In Him there is all you could ever want, and that which only can satisfy your deepest longing. Your deepest desires. Nothing else.
KNOW THAT THIS LOVING GOD, at the beginning of time, looked down upon and saw you. In this very moment. And so deeply loved you He couldn't be separated from you. He took on your very nature. Cared enough to experience every trauma you could imagine. Because He couldn't live without you! He took on the full pain and penalty of your choosing to go beyond the Path. Hitting the berm. To break you free. To evict the Enemy from your life. Your Soul. So in you He might rise again! And pour forth His Holy Spirit.
DEAR FRIEND, the only thing that surpasses your deep, unquenchable desire for fulfillment is His great desire to be Your Fulfiller.
As we enter into this holiest of weeks, grace is being outpoured. His love is being outpoured. Pressing in. With unrelenting abundance. For you. That you know Whose you are. Know the price for which you were purchased. Know His desire for your authentic happiness. Freedom. Joy. Intimacy.
LORD JESUS CHRIST, make me aware of Your great love for me. Right now. Help me forgive. Apologize. From my heart. To be free from all else so I can be filled with Your Holy Spirit. I give You permission! Let Your eternity be born anew in me!
YOU AND I ARE NOT MUCH DIFFERENT! Peal back the layers, look under the hood... we share an incompleteness. That compels us to something else. To be whole. It's the reason we get together with others. Or pick up our phones. Or play instruments. Or video games. Or do art. Or workout. Or meet a friend. Or read. Or turn in whatever other direction.
No, we are not much different at all! We have strong drives and desires that impel us towards that completion. And from trial and error, we learn which are getting us "there," and which are not. We learn which choices leave us more wounded or healed. Languishing or flourishing. In greater despair or delight. With greater emptiness or fulfillment. With greater alienation or intimacy.
WHOEVER YOU ARE, WHEREVER YOU'RE AT RIGHT NOW, there's not a single person I know who does not face even powerful desires that merit self-control (myself especially!). Who has not been burned, or even wrecked, by giving in to those desires. Being burned and going back to the flame thinking it will be different. Yours are yours, mine are mine, but we both have them! We both share this same, human landscape of coming to discover the beautiful shape of our unsurpassed identity.
THROUGH SUCH EXPERIENCE we discover a very real, unseen Path we did not define, but in which we are defined. A Path every bit as solid as the berms lining a highway. Meant to keep us safe. Attuned. Whole. Try as we might, fight as we may, we discover that we cannot so much break these defining "berms" as be broken against them. Such Path, for all of history, for every person who's ever lived, marks the shape of love.
AT THE CORE, THERE'S NOT A SINGLE PERSON I've ever met who is not pining to be loved. And to love. Who's not pining for intimacy. Meaning. Purpose. Value. Real, authentic, heart and soul connection with others. Given the stats on depression, what we see painted on most faces we pass in public, what we experience among too many close to us... we ought to ask: What's happened?
IN A WORD, we're suffering from amnesia. We've forgotten who we are. More consequentially, we've forgotten Whose we are. In the fog of amnesia we are vulnerable to every voice promising us an identity. Promising us happiness, status, or success. But the degree to which each of these is fleeting is the degree to which each proves to be artificial. A counterfeit of something very Real we were made for, that in our depths we know must exist. Try as we may, short of connecting with this Real, we find ourselves groveling from one identity to the next, all the more empty. All the more disillusioned.
SO IT MUST BE PRONOUNCED, what was discovered by every soul who ever passionately pursued every other artificial, counterfeit identity and kept coming up short: Our real identity, our real nature of unsurpassed value, is none other: We are sons and daughters of an eternal, deeply loving, caring, living, present Father God.
Perhaps one of the clearest indications of this is the degree to which this truth has been disparaged. To the detriment of so many. Consider the common portrait in television or movies, if not in our own real experience: Why today does the mere mention of "father" or "man" connote something negative? Lazy? Selfish? Unkind? Oppressive? Deeply hurtful?
HERE'S THE IMPORTANT, TRAGIC THING: Our negative experience of men, magnified by our entire culture, translates into our regard for God. The One who fashioned us for Himself. The provision for our greatest poverty. The One who alone can satisfy our deepest desire for unconditional, meaningful connection.
AND SO WE NEED REDEMPTION. Real redemption. The kind that flows from genuine, authentic connection. In those interests, I'm moved to say as a man, a husband, father and friend... on behalf of all those men in your life, with everything in me (please hear their deepest heart crying out to proclaim the same): I am so sorry for how you've ever been wounded by men in your life. Your father. Or boyfriend. Or husband. Or friend.
I'm so sorry because of the pain it's caused you, how it's haunted you, colored the way you see the world... mostly how this may have compromised your awareness of your unsurpassed beauty, purpose, value.
AND I'M HERE TO PROCLAIM: Hurting people hurt people. But healing people heal people. What matters most is not what happened years ago, or last week, or even a minute ago. What matters is right now.
DEAR FRIEND, this is a brand new moment. In Him there is clarity. In Him there is healing. In Him there is forgiveness. In Him there is restoration. In Him there is all you could ever want, and that which only can satisfy your deepest longing. Your deepest desires. Nothing else.
KNOW THAT THIS LOVING GOD, at the beginning of time, looked down upon and saw you. In this very moment. And so deeply loved you He couldn't be separated from you. He took on your very nature. Cared enough to experience every trauma you could imagine. Because He couldn't live without you! He took on the full pain and penalty of your choosing to go beyond the Path. Hitting the berm. To break you free. To evict the Enemy from your life. Your Soul. So in you He might rise again! And pour forth His Holy Spirit.
DEAR FRIEND, the only thing that surpasses your deep, unquenchable desire for fulfillment is His great desire to be Your Fulfiller.
As we enter into this holiest of weeks, grace is being outpoured. His love is being outpoured. Pressing in. With unrelenting abundance. For you. That you know Whose you are. Know the price for which you were purchased. Know His desire for your authentic happiness. Freedom. Joy. Intimacy.
LORD JESUS CHRIST, make me aware of Your great love for me. Right now. Help me forgive. Apologize. From my heart. To be free from all else so I can be filled with Your Holy Spirit. I give You permission! Let Your eternity be born anew in me!
