Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Coming together

It could be that the 90-day challenge is starting to cause some breakthroughs, it could be that the timing is right, or it could be an Isaiah 43 thing... but lots of things in my life seeming to be converging at the moment in a series of empowering, life-giving epiphanies. I am all about it.

The thing is, I've been feeling stuck for a very long time. It had recently gotten very bad, and I continually prayed, telling the Lord that I just felt stuck and didn't know what to do about it. It was becoming a daily conversation between Him and I... mainly one-sided. Or so I thought. Then Joshua and I went and had dinner with some friends from Highland. These people are warriors on the spiritual realm. I don't think you really know what fighting is until you battle in the spiritual plane. Anyways, at the end of the evening they asked if they could pray for us before we went home. Of course. So in the middle of this Holy Spirit-inducing-mad-goosebumps prayer Amy looks at me and says, "Stuck. I'm just getting the word 'stuck.'" It was my tenderhearted moment with God, when He spoke through a human vessel to say, "I hear you." Amy prayed for movement in our lives. And since then... change has begun. Thank you, Jesus.

I am having realizations, and epiphanies, and hope, and truth spring to life inside me again, like brilliant springtime buds bursting forth after a frigid and harsh winter. There is a literal feeling inside my chest, and an uplifting in my mind. I am excited again. Oh, how long has it been since I truly felt excitement about life? Too long. It reminds me of Narnia and how everyone had just gotten used to the land existing in a state of perpetual winter while the White Witch reigned. Then Aslan breathed new life onto the landscape.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland..."

You do make beautiful things out of dust. 

1 comment:

The Spiritual Hobo said...

Great Site. Thanks! Heres a true story of mine in return.

I BROKE THE TABOO WITH A TATTOO

There was a time when I felt like (my) death was close to me. I ignored the eery feelings for awhile, chocking them up to pessimism, but eventually I faced the strengthening force, first by admitting to my self that it existed. Left Eye got this far, but recognizing spirits isn't rocket science for god's sake. You have to fight shit like this, not freeze like a deer caught in the headlights!

I FOUGHT MY TABOO WITH A TATTOO.

It was 1986 and I was in Davenport, Iowa, when I finally decided to face the Reaper before he faced me. Since the Reaper has no face, I'm speaking figuratively.

I was sitting on a bar stool when a fellow came in asking if anyone wanted to get a tattoo. We chatted, and before too long I was the customer that he was looking for. We left the bar and went to a little garage space that he tattooed out of. The scene was totally unprofessional, as far as tattoo shops go, but since I was a carny (carnival guy) it wasn't anything new to me. I stopped the artist from apologizing for the place and we got down to the business of picking something out to tattoo on me.

There wasn't a lot to choose from, no walls of colorful flash or volumes of designs just a single, thinly filled, loose leaf binder. Having never wanted a skull tattoo, I surprised myself by selecting one with a black rose between it's teeth. "That's the Black Rose Of Death tattoo," the needler told me. "Perfect," I proclaimed! "It's just what I need to fight the reaper. Put it on my left arm where I can keep my eye on him.¨

I believe that the left represents the spiritual side and the right represents the physical side, so my tattoos are placed accordingly. One month later, in Chicago, I was stabbed (in the heart and stomach) to death. The doctor that saved me, said that I have a new birthday and... I still have that tattoo, too.