George MacDonald Quote of the Day...

From the man who comes to know and feel that Power in him and one with him, loneliness, anxiety, and fear vanish; he is no more an orphan without a home, a little one astray on the cold waste of a helpless consciousness. (The Hope of the Gospel, God's Family)

Living Truth

I am glad that Jesus didn't point to something other than himself, like a book or a tablet or a scroll or any object around him, and say, "That is the way, the truth and the life." When he referred to himself as the Truth that told me that the ultimate truth is not a purely abstract, mental concept. Truth wasn't something to wrap our minds around but our hearts. In other words, Truth is not a proposition but a Person. Here in this divided world, we can express a truth without living it. In heaven, where all is tried by the fire of God's presence, only those who are living truths will be able to stand the heat. There can be no duplicity. Only true integrity (wysiwyg) will be able to bear the "weight of glory."

Reel it in to the present

I am a man divided

I think truth

I fondle lies

wysiNOTwyg

I smile outside

Only God knows what's going on in the inside

who can deliver me from this perpetual state of duplicity?

case in point:

last Thursday I cut down a large diseased section of our fig tree

I left two branches for my son to help carry to the front sidewalk

My son tells me that he can't lift them

They are too heavy for his pencil-thin arms

I ignore him because I've got more important things to do

The next day the large trash truck is coming

I remember the two limbs

I run out, grab them, and haul them to the front sidewalk

They feel light in my hands

I remember my son's words

"They're too heavy for me, Daddy"

He lied.

I confront him at the breakfast table

Humiliating him in from of his mother and sister

He starts to cry

He stops eating

I justify my anger by saying I want him to know that he's stronger than he thinks he is!

My wife tells me that I only want to prove that I'm right

She knows me well

But I ignore her and drag my son out to the front yard

To make him prove that he is wrong

He sees the two branches that I've separated from all the rest of the limbs

He says Those aren't the branches!

I say Those are the branches!

We play several rounds of ping pong

I am the stronger, better ping pong player

He carries the limbs to the sidewalk with some effort and says

These aren't the limbs!

The ping pong whooshes pass me

I try to help him see the truth

All he can see is an angry father who is more concerned that he is right

He calls me a liar

I shout at him and tell him to go to his room

I face his mother who looks at me like I'm a stranger

She has to teach him for the rest of the day

And I've just ruined it for her

What do I care? I'm right! I know the truth!

THOSE WERE THE LIMBS!

She tells me that I have to face the weeping angel in the room

I go and stand before his door

Lord have mercy on me

Give me the words to say to help my son see that I'm right

I walk through the door

There is my son

A Tempest

Rocking

Weeping

My heart skips a beat

I forget my wrath for a second

I forget the truth I was going to whack him on the head with

He says he wants to talk to mama

He wants to share his side of the story

I say she's not the judge

He can share his side of the story with me

He knows I already know his side of the story

And he stands condemned in my eyes

But he braces himself

He says those weren't the same limbs

Maybe a kid in the neighborhood came by and took it

I look in his eyes

I don't see a desperate criminal trying to weasel his way out of a crime

I see a little child desperately wanting to be believed

Wanting to be loved

I say do you really believe those aren't the limbs?

He nods his head

I breathe

The moment of truth

Ok, son, I will believe you

Even though my mind tells me that those are the same limbs

I will choose to believe that you believe they aren't

I know that there are many things I've done in life that were or weren't true

But only Jesus will be able to sort them out for me

And when that happens, it will not be a day to mourn

but a day to rejoice

To see our lives the way He sees them is freedom

And life

And love

It was like watching the sun rise in my son's face

the rain vanished from his eyes

he smiled

he couldn't believe what just happened

there was no condemnation

Next thing I knew he was happily helping his mom water the garden

The Day wasn't ruined

yes, i know what some of you are thinking

i just reinforced his propensity to lie, to get away with it

maybe i did, maybe i didn't

but you know,

i wouldn't be surprised

if an angel were holding those limbs down,

making them immovable

just to test me

sort of like Balaam's Ass who saw the angel

and in the end ended up saving Balaam's ass

or maybe my son did try to move them

but because they got caught on something

and because my son has asperger syndrome

and therefore is easily distracted

he really couldn't move them...

What is the truth?

The truth is Jesus was with my son when he tried to move the limbs

and I wasn't

If I had been with my son

The way the Truth chooses to be with me

I could have saved him and myself from much madness

Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner!