When God Is A God Of Inside-Out Living

Anyone whose ever been slashed with internal scars, knows the defeaning quiet and how it can disform a weary soul.

Frozen white smothers the landscape in our back five acres, like His grace that promises to coat, deep within.

White-washing, laying a blanket over everything ugly, over everything unappealing; like what most all of us ache for; real, authentic, inner transformation.

We live in a world where we keep pretending and painting over real with colors of black, green, white, or pink; dressing and performing, tiring ourselves with coverings that hope to hide what’s laid dormant.

But, the soul cries loudest in the silence. Scars from not just foes, but those we have invested in most, ache and bleed bitter/sweet, spilling out from within…

And we all so desperately need another to come, see and say, “What you are doing…who you are, matters”.

We need the paparazii and the parades to not just be for the glamorous and decorated, but for this world to recognize, the silent laborers are the ones that actually change the world.

And what if this world shifted upside-down and we started living inside out? And those scars, the betrayal, the hurt that holds each of us captive were visible to a truth-telling soul.

What if images were hidden, and the deepest longing of the greatest dreamers escaped into a Universe waiting to greet them, aching to make a way, brave enough to pave a path that might lead to a greater tomorrow?

And what if the silent didn’t absorb the aching of every struggling heart, but met the searching with visions and purpose they always sought, but never knew the pathway to, until now?

What if the Maker of the Universe isn’t quiet and far off, but announces His sovereignty, a thousand times over, through every sound, we miss in our noisy world of chaos?

What if the flowers didn’t lay passive, the sky remain stagnant, and the earth didn’t wait….but shifted and rotated?

What if all of creation was aching out in a chorus along with us, to reach their Maker who lovingly and continually calls their names?

And what if winter wasn’t for covering, but revealing…Spotting, asking, and calling forth those questions you have dared to ask, those dreams you’ve barely met, those answers you have wanted, but struggle to barely grasp?

What if we weren’t running to something, out there, but His promises dwelled deeper, interally, like every seed in the fruit our teeth expectantly sink into….

And we didn’t hate the wait, but understood and even met with joy the anticipation of growth and dreams creating themselves, beneath the soil, in winter?

And what if those scars, the ones we never shared or wanted, called out to us from the inside, not satisfied with coverings, hiding who they are, denying why they came, or rejecting the purpose for which they marked us?

And every “hard” did not become the enemy of our souls, but a willing companion that birthed, like the earth, every beauty we know and see….

Storm warnings are coming. And yet, I know, springs filled with fragrance and lillies, beauty unimaginable always follows the harshest winters.

What if nothing was waisted. Not the valley’s dreariness, or the earth’s wildness, or our own human selfishness, as we lay it on the alter for all the world to see?

What if the dark just makes the brightness all that much more magnificent, like the stars that shine most glorified on the darkest summer nights?

And what if we stopped loving gray, hiding it all in this perfectly manicured, talored response of “I’m great”?

What if we unfolded like a flower; every hope, disappointment and color, and accepted eachother’s pain, just as much as we love our victory survivors?

The night sky used to be feared. The turning of the earth into the dead of winter, was something I resisted….

I once foolishly thought I could stop winters, dark seasons, or evil in other people.

But truth be told, we are all held captive to the great Earth Maker. The One who spoke us into being, and planned each day of our existance, giving each of us grace and mercy, faith and callings, before we even knew our name or took our very first breath.

And what if the goal of life wasn’t about “avoiding hard”….

But learning to cope with disappointments, embrace eachother’s weaknesses, love, even the unloveable, while respecting all of life, regardless of measure or purpose, whether people give or how they might fail us?

There is a quiet that terrifies every unsettled soul when snow comes and silences the earth, with the reminder that His grace is still working on this earth.

And maybe it’s not in the winning or going, being or doing….but in the knowing…we are whole, regardless of what we have or who we have ever been….

Despite night skies that can wrap around us, hold tight, and insist they’ll never let go.

What if we lived inside-out, with the promise that all we know isn’t temporary, but eternal. What we are, isn’t what we see in the mirror, but the thoughts, ideas, and dreams, we allow to grow wings in us.

As the earth settles and reporters warn of the six more inches covering all we see in our north region, here in America…..

God is a God of inside-out living.

A wide-open earth finds grace that He gives. Grace isn’t earned from our own control, how we see life or choose to interprete it.

So friends, lets forgive. Let’s stretch past these silly corpes we carry, make a way for who we are, and speak loud into a Universe that aches for good and waits for the Messiah to shines brighter, turns darkness into all He has waiting for us.

Us realizing, the winter was never our enemy. It just shows us whose God, and reminds us that we are all better when we love, reach, forgive, respect and let the seeds blossom into our full calling….

Revealing fruit that is sweeter than anything we might hide, fear, run from, or despise in the depths of our own souls.

Jesus still heals. Won’t you turn yourself inside out and let him see what dwells deeper than what’s on the surface? Somewhere inside you lies an authentic blanket of grace, wanting to redeem you….

Like the soft, winter snow, falling faultless from the sky.