“Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I’m doing it to you:
You’ll summon nations you’ve never heard of,
and nations who’ve never heard of you
will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
because The Holy of Israel has honored you.”

Seek God while he’s here to be found,
pray to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.

“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

“So you’ll go out in joy,
you’ll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
living and lasting evidence of God.”

Today, I stumbled across an awesome site, Project Gutenberg.  Granted, these books aren’t new and hip, but tried and true classics.  I’m intrigued by the thought of getting into a bit of .

One such book piqued my attention – the Colored Inventor – a Record of Fifty Years, by Henry E. Baker.

In the opening paragraph.

And it would seem entirely fit and proper that those who were either directly or indirectly benefited by that proclamation should pause long enough at this period in their national life to review the past, recount the progress made, and see, if possible, what of the future is disclosed in the past.

Wow, now that’s some wisdom right there. Those who have benefited from Lincoln’s Proclamation, pause long enough to review where you’ve come from, observe the progress made towards equality, and see, if possible, what of the future is disclosed in the past (I can only pull from this last segment, to see how the bondage started and escalated, and guard ourselves from it ever happening again; but I could very well be wrong).

I can easily apply Baker’s wisdom to this very day, specifically to unforgiveness in my own life, coupled with judging others to protect myself.  I don’t want to go back into bondage to unforgiveness, and yes, I need to exercise forgiveness and releasing judgement on a DAILY basis.

So now that I have freedom and have learned new tools for exercising forgiveness, looking back on where I came from, I see my pattern as easily repeatable, and see the triggers to becoming bound in unforgiveness again.

Anyway, I have way too many books piled up in the queue, but I hope to make time to read this; it looks to be a great book, if not just to see into a window of the past.

It’s incredibly freeing to detach from things I thought I needed; choosing not to participate.

In my mind, I know it’s easy to be in balance with having an extended online presence… you know, I honestly wonder what it would be like to not even have a blog or website either; to not have any online presence at all; to not participate in any of it.

How much time would I have to do other things?  I always love going on vacation where I’m not attached to the internet and all this stuff.

I might shut it all down.

post edit:  I did shut it all down, except this blog.

In the clip from the last post, after the man on the table had died just short of 12:00am, Dr. Cox tells Elliot to call the time of death, at which point she tries to lie her way into them meeting the goal by waiting 5 more minutes until calling the time of death. Dr. Cox’s specific reaction to this is crucial as well.

Essentially, he says to Elliot, don’t find a way around the truth in this situation, just to ease the pain of accepting it for what it is.

If Elliot and Dr. Cox would have pretended they actually reached the goal, when they actually didn’t, they would have cheapened the pursuit and worth of the original goal.

This is applicable to SO many areas of life. How many times have we pretended our way around what we really wanted, satisfying ourselves in the almost?

The issue isn’t so much with giving up or settling, but selling out our dreams; selling out ourselves. When we sell out, we’re essentially saying we’re not worth the effort and struggle to reach the REAL end. IT WILL BE HARD WORK. DON’T SELL YOURSELF OUT. You’re worth way more than that.

Note, this blog and all of the posts are more for me than anything, but I hope you’re encouraged as well.

I don’t ever remember the Lord speaking to me through any TV show as much as Scrubs.  Tonight was one of those evenings where I felt like I connected with the truth, re-centered, and stepped back in.

Tonight I watched Episode 12 of Season 1.  In it, among the other sub-stories, Elliot (the blonde woman in the clip below), is struggling with asserting herself in decisions (a recurring theme, both in the show, and my life).  The conflict in the scene is between her and Dr. Cox, who has managed to keep a full ICU stable since 12:00am; something he calls, at the beginning, a “Perfect Game” (baseball reference to a no-hitter).  His goal is to have none of his patients in the ICU die in a full 24 hour period, which like a no-hitter in baseball, is quite rare, at least, in the context of this show.

I’ve queued up the clip to start at 3m26s, which is the apex and theme of the episode.  Come back after finishing the scene, which ends as Dr. Cox walks out of the room at 6m50s :)

At the beginning of the clip, JD gives Elliot the advice to “Get back in the game”, which is the advice I tell myself multiple times, everyday.  But what Dr. Cox says at the end of the clip is brilliant.  Although they failed to get to the outcome they were shooting for, he says to Elliot, “now get yourself another cup of coffee; new game starts in 4 minutes.”

But the way he says it is the best part.  He doesn’t say it with sorrow or longing for what could have been; he doesn’t hold onto anger; he says it with hope.  He had already accepted the situation for what it was, gotten up off the ground, dusted off his pants, and was ready to play again, trying again to hit the target.

This is how the Father sees us, and this is his encouragement.  It’s so easy to look around at our failures and lose hope in our goals.  It’s so easy to get discouraged and give up on our dreams.  What so wonderful about our Father is that he’s always there, ready to help us start over in going for it again.  Like Dr. Cox, he doesn’t see the situation as a failure.  More importantly, he doesn’t see us as failures.  He loves us, and wants us to succeed.  Yes, we fail, but he never writes us off as failures because of it.

He wants us to reach our goals, and he’s for us.  Yes, there are things in life that only he can fix; our brokenness and addictions; and he fixes them with ease.  What I’m specifically talking about in this blog post is how God fathers us.

The Father is encouraging us to reach out and go for it, and when we fall down, to get up and try again.  Persevere.  We all will fail, but it’s important to learn and try again.