To Be...

"Never looking back, or too far in front of me, the present is a gift, and I just wanna BE."

This is the last line of "Be", a track by Common, produced by Kanye West.

Been reflecting on it for several days now...

What does it mean to "just be"?...

A friend of mine, associated it with that popular saying that says, "Let go, and Let God..."

That sentiment is beautifully put in Psalm 46:10 :

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

The idea is, God is in control...

It also speaks of freedom...

If I can just be, then "I am what I am before God; nothing less, nothing more"...

It's who I am, when I am stripped of all pretension, all positions, titles, awards, and possessions...

It's who I am, when I am no longer bound by the chains of greed, envy, lust, pride, fear and anxiety...

It's coming as I am before God... with a full awareness of my unworthiness, yet throwing myself with abandon at His feet... counting on His mercy...

Kinda like newborn birds who can't see, and have never seen their mother... their only way of survival, instinctively, as if "by faith", is simply trusting that she will be there...

Childlike trust; simplicity; freedom...



"In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them,

and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

(Matthew 18)

The Stubbornness of Self

When our self, our ego, is slighted, when it is bruised it rises up in "self"-defense...

How hard it is for self to die...

How destructive and ugly is our sin...

Here's our condition, as expressed by A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God:

"God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we, as
well as He, can, in divine communion, enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of
kindred personalities.

"[But], we have broken with God. We have ceased to obey Him or
love Him, and in guilt and fear have fled as far as possible from His
presence...

"So the life of man upon the earth is a life away from the
Presence, wrenched loose from that "blissful center" which is our right and
proper dwelling place, our first estate which we kept not, the loss of which is
the cause of our unceasing restlessness."

A sad state of being... One which I can identify with all too readily. : (

Yet despite this, our stubborn self refuses to die...

But Jesus Christ overcame the power of death and sin. How? By dying a violent death.

So we too must follow in our Lord's footsteps, even to this death, if we are to live in freedom.

Tozer writes,

"The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us
will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. He must be torn out of
our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood
like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence, as
Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel
ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of
self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart. "

Yikes! Like that?!

Yeah...

But if we would be so bold as to allow the Lord to do this, we will begin to taste divine life; sweet freedom!

It's what Tozer describes as "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing."

Like a Rolling Stone...

Rolling Stone Magazine recently did a story on young Christian men and women who have committed themselves to sexual abstinence before marriage.

Whether or not you agree with the author's take on the subject, it's definitely a must read!

Find the link and join the discussion @ Ms. Jadestone's.