perspective.

i have been given a beautiful new perspective during these past 30 some days.  i have had a good life, and i have much to be thankful for.  i have known a lot of great people and lived in some great places.  i have seen a lot of beauty and heard a lot of hope and beheld a lot of love.  i have endured a few struggles here in there, most of them less traumatic than i thought.  but i can say that after all that my life has been, brief as it may be, i look back on it all with great peace.  and at times, when i sit here having lost so much of it, longing for that life for which i was living with all my being, i am reminded of the life that i have been given, and the life that i have been promised, the life for which my spirit groans.

i do miss america.  i miss the beauty of its bohemians, the hope of its dissenters, and the strength of its sprawling landscapes that refuse to give in to the confines of man's tiny imagination.  i miss the hope of the kingdom that is rising amidst the rubble of its empire.  and i am reminded that hope is mysterious, that it is not anchored in people nor place nor idea, but in the Living Christ, the Hope of Redemption.

live boldly.  love irrationally.  don't be afraid to say no.  be less afraid to say Yes!  turn your back on lies.  challenge the powers that say you have no choice.  tell them you are willing to die, because you are already alive.  take back what is God's, and offer it to Him with joy.  

be still.  be poor.