The Five

One of them was abandoned. Two of them are heart broken. One is in a messy place. One has fallen off the face of the world.

Yet abandonment can prove to show necessary change. Broken hearts can be mended. Messes can be organized. And the gone can be brought back.

Eventually we have to own up to the simplest of facts, we’re all carrying around our chipped shoulders or broken facades, our tattered souls. We can’t go on and on with a porcelain doll’s face replacing our own. Eventually the cracks will begin to grow and the fake’ll give way to the real. The tired. The worn.

We’re not made to live falsely, you know, contrary to which we’ve been made to be. It’s unsustainable, though it may be fun for a bit, it cannot last.

Sooner or later the end will come and the free air breathed in, because the mask is shattered. Sooner or later we’ll discovery that being who we’re made to be is much better than being who we’re wanted to be.

So to the abandoned; are you ever really alone? To the heart broken: is there not one to mend the brokenness? To the messy: isn’t what matters most already taken care of? To the one who’s disappeared: for how long can you be gone and not be you?

Personal Fault

“Come overwhelmed with life. Come with a wandering mind. Come messy…” Paul Miller

When I first read this line I thought of another, “Come with what you do not have and buy what’s undeserved. (Shane and Shane)”

Both struck me at an opportune time. This whole last semester has been both blurry and busy. The final semester of senior year, the changes happening at the church, the homework of every class, and the daunting third try at College Algebra all worked their ways under my skin.

Sleep wasn’t really sleep, if you know what I mean. It was a dark period where I was still tired after I woke up.

In all of this I became rather cynical (more so than normal). Judging others for their shortcomings became easy. Looking down on those of ‘lesser understanding’ was second nature. Being proud of what I know was how I’d act.

Yet conviction comes when you least expect it.

In a conversation with a friend, whom I love, talking about his very personal struggles.

It was just a passing thought in offering some advice, “You speak about how you still love the arrogant despite their sin, pride, but you don’t do that, do you Sam?”

Acting as though I had it altogether is like a vase sitting on the edge of the mantle, just waiting to be nudged off.

My point is this: I’ve not lived the mental Christian life well. The fight in your brain against sin, yea that one. Where you encourage others and, at times, reach to their level.

So, “Come overwhelmed with life. Come with a wandering mind. Come messy…” “Come with what you do not have and buy what’s undeserved.” Because He's love for his people drew Him to the cross.