Safe and Sabbath

 "Be still and know that I Am..." Psalm 27:10

There are many different insights where pups should sleep at night. I had heard "Do not start the habit is letting them sleep in your bed. It'll start a lifetime of restless nights for you." I had read, "Do not let dogs sleep together. Keep them separated to sleep." (I got two dogs so they would have each other to comfort, so they are intentionally together unless they choose apart time). So, I tried and failed. My first intent was that they sleep in their pen in their own room. I realized the cruelty of this idea in that - they spend all day in a pen when I'm out. When I'm home, all they want is to be with me - whether awake or asleep. With 16 hours of being in a pen - is this life? It's worse when they know you are there and they know you are separating yourself from them - is this punishment? Separating them from each other was just as cruel. Now, as puppies, they cannot be left to wander unattended, so they do need to be contained - i.e. pen or crate. The trick was being present while getting sleep. 

I'm not made to sleep on floors like puppies...so had to find a solution for us all. 

So, my sister suggested the pen (crate for some) by my bed so they could see me while I laid in bed to bring a sense of safety - seemingly a win/win. Moderately better but still only little rest. The moment they woke and sensed separation, they cried for me. (Puppies especially are weaning from the comfort of their mother so they need to be close to their new mom.) By chance, to calm them, I placed them in the bed with full intention of returning them in short order...until we all slept through the night. Eureka! I was still hesitant by a new habit (and high bed), but it seemed to be the answer. Oh, was it ever the answer from the start, I just had to learn from their view. 

Dogs can also see in the dark, unlike humans. So they see and sense everything. The slightest move in the night, and everyone is up for hours more. Some nights it's still two hours sleep, one hour up, then cycle again. And when there is community, there is often loss of coordination. One tires, one plays. One sleeps, one fights. Then trade. There is no formula, only night by night mysteries. It is fully up to them on their terms. You just wait until those terms flow in the same direction.

God showed me: "You can only feel safe enough to truly rest when you are close to Me. Sigh in my Sabbath. I've lifted you up and held you close for the ultimate in comfort, safety, and peace. Just as I designed you and chosen you to be with Me. How you respond from this place of resting your heart next to Mine is entirely your choice: Will you come close and soak in the rest or will you jump away for reasons al your own? Will you choose to see in the dark My gaze on your face and your heart until you quiet in my love? Sometimes we are alone. Sometimes we are with others that I've gathered to rest with us. Will you focus on Me who draws you close or will you fight and bite - Me or them? Every night I draw you close in the dark of night - maybe dark of your mind, your circumstances, your anguish, your unbelief, your work, your world...there will always be dark and I will always be there with you. See Me in the dark and come close. Even for a little while before the world comes to distract again."

Life and Death

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. -Matthew 13:22

I have a black thumb. I so much as look at a plant and it dies. Knowing this gifting, I keep landscaping to a minimum and appreciate my postage stamp yard. However, due to a recent tree root pruning, I needed to lay sod around my townhome. Sod laying is intensive work followed by weeks of daily irrigation, just to keep the grass alive. Didn’t help that the ground hasn’t had rain since Noah, so it was up to me to tend to the growth. I did my part; some sod did not. Despite my best efforts, dry brittle grass still emerged like a beige carpet. I would not be mocked by death. Once diagnosed as DOA, the brown was banished so the green could grow. I literally hand removed the dead brush of blades and tossed them to the wind. There was no reason, I reasoned, to waste time, money and effort to nourish the dead. I was far more interested in the life buried beneath.

As I sorted between the healthy, flourishing green blades – rooted in soil and searching for water – to weed out the dead ones, I saw me. They say the soul is a garden flourishing or dying at any moment. The key is water (living water, of course) and tending to the pruning of disconnected branches or blades. From a certain angle, the soul looks to be flourishing. But when drawing closer, the dead branches are seen strewn about. Shaken by the Wind and waiting to be discarded. If left unattended, they will only impede the flourishing growth that seeks the light and life. We always hope the dead ones move on their own without any effort on our part. We would much rather water and bask in the beauty of our productive efforts than deal with the disposal of the dead. But, as it turns out, both are equally required. For life to push through, the carpet of carnage must be seen and removed. Burned to ash, if needed.

Pruning and uprooting are horribly painful, especially when the roots are deep into the soil. We’ve become so accustomed to the sight that we’d rather live among the gravestones than deal with the digging. Which we can, if we choose. But until the death is disposed of by our own digging and destroying, the life below remains suffering and sparse. Pruning, as painful as it is, gives hopes to buds of true life.

Growth is not fast; especially in a drought. Patience in performance comes when we shift our focus to the task as hand: remove the dead and water the living. Dead to me are selfish decisions and tragic consequences. Dead to me are betrayals and lies. Dead to me false identities and faithless beliefs. Dozens of weeds emerge each day – choking out the life of rooted identities and heart choices. The worst are the ones unseen. Tending, pruning, uprooting – all are required to see the beautiful blooms.

Bury the dead, without markers of stone. Tend to life to rise again. Water and wait. 

Skin Scars

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

I have a skin problem. I’ll spare the disgusting details, but to say, it’s a tissue issue I’ve had for 25 years. It only flares up occasionally, but when it does, it’s viciously aggressive. Every day and night is draining, extracting, medicating. The flares are temporary, but healing takes time. Literally weeks of daily attention to the root issues are required. There is no rushing the healing. There is only my part of constantly cleaning and applying the balm. The wound heals on its own time and terms. I tend to focus on the small areas that flare up but have found that lasting healing requires attention to all areas of suspect: the evil lies in the unseen.

What only I know is that what the public sees on the surface, is literally, the tip of an iceberg of deeper, root issues. Others may be repelled by my wounds, but I am the only one who can dress them in balm. Make up and cover up only last a few hours and do nothing for the long term. I am aware that scars will come, but scars are always better than wounds. Scars are proof of healing. I have also found that I am the only one who can attend to my own issue. No one, especially on a constant basis, can treat me. By the same token, I cannot tend to anyone else’s issues. We can have conversations, but I am the only one who takes action – or inaction – and I am the one ultimately affected and others at the view

There is a popular saying in the last year: “it’s not a skin issue; it’s a sin issue” This is obviously in reference to racism as a choice is acting on sinful mindsets, not the pigment itself. Yet, for my life and living lesson, there is much more to defining the problem. One thing every living human has is skin. Maybe varied by birth pigmentation, but united in reality: epidermis is inevitable.

I have a sin problem. I’ll spare the disgusting details, but to say, it’s an issue I’ve had for over 45 years. It flares up in noticeable, behavioral extremes - but when it does, it’s viciously aggressive. Every day and night is draining, extracting, and medicating the heart. The behavioral flares are temporary, but healing takes time. Literally days, weeks and years of daily attention to the root issues are required. There is no rushing the healing. There is only my part of constantly cleaning and applying the balm of the Word of God. The wound heals on its own time and terms. I tend to focus on the small areas that flare up but have found that lasting healing requires attention to all areas of suspect: the evil lies in the unseen.

What only I know is that what the public sees on the surface, is literally, the tip of an iceberg of deeper, root issues. Others may be repelled by my wounds, but I am the only one who can dress them in balm. Make up and cover up only last a few hours and do nothing for the long term. I am aware that scars will come, but scars are always better than wounds. Scars are proof of healing. I have also found that I am the only one who can attend to my own issue. No one, especially on a constant basis, can treat me. By the same token, I cannot tend to anyone else’s issues. We can have conversations, but I am the only one who takes action – or inaction – and I am the one ultimately affected at the root and others at the view.

One thing every living human has is sin. Maybe varied by life in manifestation, but united in reality: separation is inevitable. One thing every human being also has is a choice to apply balm or fester. Healing takes time, but only when mediation is applied. Mediation by the Healer of the heart. The root treatment of the wound lives out in the fruit distribution to the world. Eradication is inevitable.

Unseen

 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18

From sleep to wake, the subconscious, uncontrollable phenomenon of dreams is crazy. As the insane, subsection of each of our minds play out the most bizarre stories to our own private showing – the shift from sleep to wake moves our daily awareness from unreal to reality. For many, the dream is the haven and the reality is the nightmare. There are millions of writings on dreams because, whether we recall them or not, every human dreams. Whether reliving the past or projecting the future – or mostly, having absolutely nothing to do with either – one thing is also true and common to all: dreams are not real. Dreaming is real, dreams are not. They are an illusion. I can’t count how many times I’ve woken up and said, “thank God that was only a dream.”

So, my wondering is not of the dreams themselves (which thousands of books have explored)– as they are more varied than human fingerprints – my wondering is what is real v. unreal; senses v. stimulation; truth v. deception. From movies to mindbenders, we all are fascinated by the constant crossing of real and unreal/seen and unseen. We simply believe: what I see is the only real and unseen is not real. As the saying goes, "seeing is believing." Yet for the reality of faith, believing is the seeing. 

When I rise from dreaming each and every day, I rise to the crossing web of seen and unseen: the floor is seen, but the oxygen is not – both are my reality. Then onward to thousands of other crossings between seen and unseen that make up the reality of my life. At the exact same moment always is the underlying, life sustaining truth: what I see is temporary and what I do not see is eternal. That almost sounds like transporting into the Matrix. But it’s actually reality: all seen (or felt or any other five sense experienced) is never forever. As much as we want this to be of the awesome experiences, and of course, not of the awful moments. Good and bad, mountain and valleys, satisfied and starving, beautiful and horrible – all temporary. I tell my life that all I know is only what I can see (or sense). 

Except for the more real, more comforting, more sustaining truth: what I can’t see is eternal...and experienced which elevates (not negates) everything. More than "forever" which is held by time – the unseen is eternally fused to me because the me I can't see of heart and spirit is made for eternity. Some unseen is beautiful; some unseen is atrocious. But that’s not my control or concern, just like dreams I can’t control. My concern is where I focus – by temporary grasping or eternal holding.

Focusing on the unseen doesn’t say the seen/sensed isn’t real. The pain is real, the healing is real. The betrayal is real, the love is real. The rejection is real, the relationship is real. The fear is real, the joy is real. The losses are real, the abundance is real. The addiction is real, the recovery is real. But crossing over each of those realities is a common, greater Reality that is bonded to the unseen heart as true as the experiences will fall off like a coat in summer. The unseen remains with me and calls my focus to be true to me, whatever circumstances crowd for my control. Focus on the only true and eternal: faith to brings sight to the blind. Illuminates the steps. Just ask to see the unseen; to step into the dark and trust the Light of the one who gives breath and His sight. Dream on; but live more. Focus in faith and see the world of our own hearts and lives as never before. See the unseen to truly, abundantly live as we were made to live - breathing air of grace and love that can't be seen, only known. Ask and See.