where is grace? (psalm 34:18 & psalm 147:3)

where are You, Jesus?

where is Your grace?

are You near to
the heart
&
in the dark world
of the schizophrenic?
of the psychotic?
of the neurotic?

do they have Your
attention?

if You are not
there...
then grace is defeated
&
You are NOT near to the
brokenhearted.

crazy #5 (Isaiah 42:1-7)

crazy
is the man
or woman who
sees the invisible
God.

or so the world
thinks.

You
were crazy,
Lord...
for You saw the Invisible
One
everywhere.

You heard Him
in every
conversation.

You saw invisible
to us
opportunities to obey Him
in the most unlikely places.

and
You obeyed Him when
it made no sense.

crazy.

why
do we cling so hard
to our sanity,
Lord?

why
are we so afraid of
being like You,
Lord?

crazy #4 (Isaiah 42:1-7)

Lord,
Your cousin, John, was
crazy.

truly crazy.

crazy food
crazy words
crazy for YaHWeH
crazy place to preach
crazy crowds came to hear him

he even met his death by a crazy
king.

he took one look
at You, Lord,
coming
up out of Jordan's dirty
water...
he felt the wind
from the wings of
YaHWeH's Own Spirit
and
he went stark
raving mad,
"look!
look...everyone,
see YaHWeH's Own
Lamb
ready to be sacrificed!
He
alone will carry
away
the sins of the world!
once & for all!"

was Your whole family
crazy
like John?

for what it's
worth...
most people say
we
bear the family resemblance.

crazy #3 (Isaiah 42:1-7)

Jesus...
in the dark
alone
You did the necessary
death-work
that no one
else
could do.

obedient to the call of
the Father
You showed us LIFE
by dying...
You became the WAY
by cutting off
Your Own life
for us.

You made TRUE
the prophetic shout
"Death
is swallowed up
in victory!"

yet
in the depth of the deepest
obedience
ever done by anyone
in any time,
You wept out words of
abandonment...
"Why have
YOU
forsaken Me, My God?
Why?"

the heavens darkened
and
with no answer from YaHWeH
You were still crazy enough
to trust
the One Who seemed
most absent...
"Father,
into Your hands...
here is My Spirit...
it is forever
Yours."

if any of us ever has a
faith
that is crazy...
we could only have learned it
from You,
Lord.

crazy #2 (Isaiah 42:1-7)

how crazy were You,
Lord,
to trust us
with Yourself?
with Your mission?

we are mixed up...
so messed up
that there is
no way we have anything really together...
and You came to us
& refused to leave us.

You died
killing death on Your
way
into it
breaking open the way for us
to live the same YaHWeH-filled
LIFE
that You did.

You made room in all our
hearts
for YaHWeH’s Spirit to live
should we choose to
follow the crazy man
from nazareth…
to call You, Lord!

then after doing all this
You left us with
Your Own Spirit
&
mission.

since You were
crazy
enough to trust us,
we were
crazy
enough to try to obey.

crazy #1 (Isaiah 42:1-7)

crazy Jesus…
coming
to us with no defense
against
the hatred, the anger
we had for You,
Lord.

You knew us inside
& out…
so
what possessed You
to come to us armed
only
with faithfulness?
with love?
with grace?
with YaHWeH’s invisible Spirit?

what possessed You,
Lord?
were You crazy
like they said?
crazy
to obey YaHWeH’s call?
crazy
to find the weakest of us
to hold & to heal?

were You crazy,
Lord?

if so,
why aren’t we?

tough things #4 (Deuteronomy 6)

it's so
tough
NOT to be God
that You decided we needed
lifelong
lessons on our
non-God-ness.

is that right,
Lord?

why do we SO
want
to be Your equal?

do we really wish on
ourselves
the power of
death?
life?

do we really wish the
power of time
was in our hands?

do we so want to
judge
the universe that we
forget
how little we
know?

are we really that insane,
Lord?

YaHWeH's Job #7 (Psalm 50:21)

Lord,
do our prayers sound something like this?

“Lord, make my life easy
make it simple
make the truth into
an elastic thing…
whenever I need it to be that way.”

or are those types
of requests
the self-taken task of the Evil
One?

why, Lord,
do we so often
agree with our Enemy
about You?

are we insane?

insanity # 2

choosing to run
our own lives is
insane
because this means
we must
make EVERYTHING happen
right…
we must therefore
worry about EVERYTHING…
we must take
responsibility for
EVERYTHING…

being a god
is very difficult work…
especially for each of us
who less than You are...
isn’t it,
Lord?

insanity #1

all of life
comes down to one
question
in several forms:
who is sovereign?
whose will gets done?
who runs the universe…
You or me,
Lord?

does
insanity
begin when we
choose
to become god
and take responsibility
for things only You
can do, Lord?

i think so…