Will you dive in?
Fully identify yourself with Christ,
be “All in!”
in the game.
Fear makes me want to put my toe in
(not dive).
Fear can go in a little
and still change it's mind.
But when I dive, I'm all in!
There's no mid-air game changers.
It's done.
I dealt with fear at the shore,
and I won!
Nothing holds me back now.
God asked me if I’d dive in.
I thought I’d been swimming for so
many years
I couldn't possibly be held back by
fear,
Yet there it was.
What if I fail?
Could my pride handle the shame?
Maybe not,
but my true self is tenacious,
and hates being motivated by fear.
My true self dives in!
Fear be damned!
I'm all in.
2 areas of bondage I can see clearly in
my life.
Both are generational sins
I have been steeped in
since my earliest memories.
Both color my personality
making me attractive to the world.
Both have such a strong hold on me,
only by the power of God
will I ever hope to be set free.
Worse,
no one roots for me to be set free,
except my Savior.
I long for that covering of kindness
Noah's son had,
who walked in backward and covered his
father's shame.
I long for the covering of protection
of the lambs blood over the door post
when the angel of death passed by.
The covering God first made tenderly in
the garden
to hide Adam and Eve's nakedness.
Oh God, I want to be all in.
No shadow of turning with thee.
You said you would never leave me
or forsake me,
How could I love you with half my heart
and turn to adore sin as well?
Fear comforts me with a different
covering.
It says:
“Hide here,
if you are seen for who
you really are,
they will reject you”.
There it is!
The weapon
that has been used to harm me for
years.
Rejection.
When my dad left my family at 10,
I was rejected,
I followed and lived with him for
years.
I tried to live with my Mom at 14
but when I felt my fathers pain and
wanted to return to him,
my mother left the house and pushed me
away (rejection again).
At 16 my dad kicked me out of the house
for good.
This weapon
“rejection”
has been sharpened through years of
suffering
and used against me at every thought of
gaining help for my escape.
The bondage held over my head maybe
from a defeated foe
but at the thought of being exposed
and turned away,
I willingly give my freedom back.
Even as I'm invited by the Lord to go
all in,
I wonder if the bravery that has served
me so well in life,
will fail me now.
Will I take myself out
of all my resolve
and rationalize my sin
and bondage
bow my head and silently
go back to my cell?
And I don't even know the way out.
Only a dim light off in the distance
that bids me to “confess my sin”
that I may be set free.
I confess often enough
but this continues to say “one to
another”
so the truth is that:
God never means for us to go at this
“faith thing”
alone.
With mentors who are long sense
dead,
being insufficient,
to the disappointment of my pride,
and fear of my flesh.
Oh God help me.
Is there no other way?..
Yes,
of coarse there is another way.
The scars from
years of bondage
have left their mark on my soul.
Yes, I can go at it alone.
Letting few in (to see the core of my
pain).
Telling few of my fears,
and not often.
Years pass as my flesh wars against my
spirit
both growing,
both using their tools well.
I walk with a limp (my pastor said)
as one marked by pain.
It was the abuse of my past,
the abuse of my present,
the grief for my sin
and the failings of my present.
The sorrow I cause the Lord
the sorrow I see in others
it's all I have been forgiven for
and for all I still do (that needs
forgiveness)
it's for all that still wounds me
and all that grieves the heart of God.
I don't wonder why I cry,
I wonder why others don't.
There are tears in His presence.
They repent.
They are right and good for the soul.
One day (I know)
He will wipe away my last tears.
He has seen all the others
and sat near me in my times of sadness.
Just one more reason, I love Him so.
So when I hear:
“Will you dive in?”
How can I say
“No”?
