Connection...

Connection...
Most people want it,
long for it,
but fear it.
They hope it's possible
but are pretty sure if they invest themselves
they will most likely be rejected;
so they settle for partial truths,
partial connections
and end up with surface level conversations
and not very deep relationships.

Is transparency worth the risk?

While being wise with what you share
and with whom, is good.
Yes! It's worth it.
Some may judge you,
let them.
Some may misread you,
let them.
Some may really connect.
The longing for unity at it's core comes from the heart of God.
Jesus prayed we would be one
(even as He and the Father are one).

I believe some have a longing to receive,
and they will find they connect with others as they give.
They may even believe they have nothing to give.
It all begins with surrender to God.
Here's what I have...doesn't seem like much,
but I'll give it,
then BAM 5,000 are feed.
God does that kind of stuff every day.
God bless you

Waiting to be discovered

I realized I was waiting to be discovered.
It was like a longing or a craving
that finally tapped me on the shoulder
and told me it's name.

Along with that revelation,
I wondered if everyone
was waiting to be discovered
and wondering what they would be valued for.

Reminds me of something I read once.
Paul said "but I press on to take hold of that,
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" Phil3:12

You see, when Jesus looked out
into the future of mankind
and said "I want her!"
there was a reason He said it!
Like, there was something about me
that He felt was useful, delightful, lovely, precious, valuable
[wow, those were hard words to write]
He looked at all His works of art
and chose some of them
to bring near
and I was one of them.
You were one of them.
Just let that sink in for a few minutes.

Now, when Paul wrote the statement
(about taking hold of that for which Christ took hold of him),
there was a declaration of purpose and plan for his life.
Paul was just saying I want to be in that plan and about that purpose.
What ever it is.

Now some will get stuck in this thought of
"what is my purpose and what is the plan of God for me"
(for years!)
but the truth is,
it's always "Right Now" with God.
He starts with us, in this moment (right now).

So what ever we are doing, we can ask
"God what is Your purpose right now?"
Perhaps it's for you to stop what you're doing
or perhaps it's to do it (what ever "it" is) for God's glory.
Like in a humble way, so He get's the credit.
In an excellent way, so we don't dishonor His name or his church.
In a loving way, so we show the heart of God and image of Christ.
In a cheerful way, so we shine like stars in a crooked and deprived generation.

So I started by saying "I was waiting to be discovered."
I think we all are.
It's just that although we have been...discovered.
We are lost searching for some future thing
instead of embracing the "right now-ness" of God.
If we are His
His hand is upon us and He has a plan for right now.
Yes, He has gone before and prepared the way
Yes, He has been in our past as well (let that heal your memories)
But it's RIGHT NOW with God.

So surrender right now and walk with purpose
into the will of God.
Don't be fooled you cant do it alone.
Only yoked with him
and listening to him whisper this way,
now that way,
now like this
will you grow.

We will realize our true identity
and it's only found in God.
Reading, studying and savoring His Word.

You see the "Word" became flesh and dwelt among us.
Christ is our identity.
And He knocks at the door of our heart
and desires to become part of us.
To dwell among us (intimately)
and make his home with us
and work with us
explaining things to us along the way.

In essence, when we focus on the love of God
and surrender to His will and plan
we cannot fail.
It's only when we are distracted by the "what if's" of life
that we begin to sink.
But if our focus is steadfast on the Lord,
there is no need (ever to fear).
And we will have our purpose in life fulfilled.

A Moment of Reflection

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, 

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him...
I pictured walking by, not being attracted to him,
but his eyes captured me.
I was filled with love,
inescapable, arresting, love.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Him.
I longed to live in those loving eyes.
Is this why they blindfolded you when they beat you?
Could they not bare to look into those eyes?
Like one from whom men hide their faces...
They just couldn’t bare to behold your deep,
deep love.
I paused and couldn’t walk by.
All time stopped, all else in life disappeared,
It was just you
and the eternity of creative,
redeeming,
rescuing,
protective,
compelling,
love.
I longed for it.
It called to me.
I found it all in the gaze of your loving eyes.
All life was wrapped up in this moment,
Please, may I stay, I thought.
Then I realized it was you who stopped my motion,
you stood still capturing me,
longing to stay with me,
and share the moment.
You were not on your way somewhere else,
you had been waiting,
watching,
calling me,
all with this look,
all in your eyes,
the window to your loving soul.
Surely you took up my infirmities,
And carried my sorrows.
You were pierced for my transgressions,
and crushed for my iniquities,
I want to pour salve on your wounds
And weep at your feet.
Thank you my champion,
My Hero,
My King,
I was unable,
you accomplished, what I could not.
I was a failure,
But you qualified me.
Thank you my hero,
My King.
I was an orphan,
You adopted me and put me in a family.
You were punished to bring me peace,
You were wounded that I might be healed.
I was lost like a sheep,
and had gone astray.
Yet, you like a lamb were silent
and led to slaughter.
by this oppression and judgment,
I was set free.
My light of life,
You have made me righteous
And justified many
You poured out your life
unto death,
To give me life.
The reality of this love,
is clearly seen,
as I look into your eyes.
I worship you my Champion and King 

c. Kim Damon 2010

Psalm 139 ...when I consider

The One I serve has his attention focused on me.

He is attentive to my movements and knows what I meditate on.

He understands why I leave and rest, and do all things.

He knows my every motive and action and word I'm about to speak.

He guards my back, protects my front and comforts me with his touch.

There is nothing in all creation so fantastic.

I cant even think up something as perfect.

His glorious love is inexplicable, it stays with me always.

I will enjoy it in the afterlife, surrounded and filled by him,

Were my destiny to be in hell, His love would grieve with me,

Were I to explore space,

or delve to the depths of the ocean,

his powerful, glorious love would embrace me still.

Even if all sin and demonic power closed in on me, even there, the light of his love would see me, embrace me and sustain me.

All this God, because I am the work of your hands;

and you fashioned me.

You split my cells and caused them to multiply, wrote my gene code, picked my eye color, hair color, strengths, weaknesses and family, all before I was born.

How can I do anything, but adore you?

All that you have done, makes me devoted to your praise and adoration.

Even before I was conceived, you saw the DNA of my being and culminated the events of my formation and birth.

You beheld me first and decided all my moments, even wrote my story in your journal, before I even breathed air.

This is all more wonderful than my mind allows me to conceive! That I have been held in your mind, been touched and formed by your hands and seen with your eyes, is beyond glorious to me.

In fact, the amount of times you have been distracted by meditations of me is more vast than the expanse of the galaxies.

And each morning, I find you still with me.

All this gives me disdain for anything that rejects your loving kindness.

Any words that bring you dishonor, repulse me.

I can't even tolerate the sight of those who are irreverent of your precious love.

Please examine all aspects of my love, my mind, my motives, my soul and remove those things that do not honor you. And help me always reflect your goodness with my life till we are joined for eternity in paradise.

c. Kim Damon 2015

All the beautiful things

Every good thing is from God. There are many distortions,
many diluted strains of beauty,
but if you distilled every beautiful thing,
when it's pure,
you would see God's creative hand
giving it to us.

To us.

To us?

But God we corrupt.
We distort.
We confuse.
We tarnish, mistreat, misuse,

fail at our best attempts

at gratitude
at worthiness
at receiving
reallocating
re-gifting
re-cycling
re-using.

Oh God why did you give all your beautiful things to us?

All my knowledge of You
is confident in the answer

It was love.

But how could you love us so much?

Such love is this.
Such love.
So beautiful
so divine.

God if my thoughts and prayers to you

come before you as an offering,
they are not beautiful enough,
they are not pure enough to lay at your throne.

But if it's what you ask of me,

I give it all.
I give it all and wish to give more.

Make me more so I have more to give.

Make me holy so my gift to you is precious to you.

And I hear in my Spirit

how even my broken,
human
frailty is a beautiful offering
if surrendered to you.

It's not easy

to give what you feel is not enough
to wish for it to be more.

But just as the child who picks a bouquet of dandelions

and presents it to their Mother
has not given less than the most extravagant of roses,
so are our gifts of love and devotion to the Lord of Heavens armies.

So I give it all.

All my best, all my worst,
all my strengths (such as they are)
all my weaknesses (because for some reason you want them too)

I give it all,

even my sin.

God, such love,
there are not enough tears to cry
to express my gratitude
for this love.

And to think One day

it will be full.
One day all the beauty
will be seen in your face
with no distortion
glory as far as the eye can see
and as long as the mind can imagine

and then longer

and then farther
and then it will be only the beginning of your
love displayed for those you adore

Your chosen ones.

Thank you.

The Challange

There are some pretty great challenges out there.
I've seen many this year
actually I've been tagged in six or seven.
Facebook is a great spreader of fads like this
but that makes them sound bad (sorry).

To be challenged is like being dared to do something.
As a kid I never could resist a dare.
I would jump in,
dive in,
kiss a boy
or make a prank call
all on a dare
(more than I planned to confess).

The idea is that we do a thing
we're scared to do (normally)
because someone is waiting to see if we'll do it!
So maybe it's our pride?
Or maybe we need each other to be brave.

I've been ice bucket challenged,
art challenged,
scripture challenged,
cookie challenged,
truth telling challenged
all in this year.

All of those took at least a little bravery
and I wouldn't have done (many of the things)
without the encouragement of those who tagged me.

OK, is this going somewhere?
Yes.
You guessed it...
I challenge you...

Wait.

May I just say, this will be hard.
And may I say, that unlike some challenges
(like the dare to kiss a boy or make a prank call)
this one, will bring about your good.

I challenge you to get strength and support from another.
It's not really my idea (not at all!),
it's God's idea.

There are two parts to this challenge.
The first is to spend some time in prayer
about something you feel God has asked you to do
(or stop doing) and write it down.
The second is to send a message
(to whom ever God puts on your mind)
and ask them to pray for you.

That's it. If you read this, consider yourself tagged!
And I hope one day to hear about how God blessed your obedience. :)
May He make you brave
and may you and the person who stands with you in prayer
be blessed!

You might not want to read this

You might not want to read this.
Sorry it's a bit long.
I have a fever...
fluid in my right ear...
a sinus infection
and an upper repertory infection,

I'm not even complaining about it.
I'm on an anti-biotic now
and I've learned some things about myself.

I take health for granted.
I rarely get sick but this one has been kicking my butt
for about 2.5 weeks now.
It makes me thankful for the health
I'm not currently enjoying
and it makes me thankful for the new body
I'll get one day,
that will not get sick or die.

I'm also grateful for the illness
because it helps me to slow down.
I'm taking pleasure in little things
like soup and how good tea feels when I drink it.
I'm thankful for the miracle
that is Nyquil
because it stopped my coughing for 6 or 7 hours straight.

I'm thankful for the doctor who calmly saw me
after a day (and probably weeks)
filled with sick patience
giving no fear for his own health
to be in a tiny room with us.

I'm thankful that I got to see my friend Emily Baxter
at the doctors office (who I haven't spoken to in months)
what a blessing!

I'm thankful for the friends who hug me anyway
(without regard for the germs) I

'm thankful that my class last night went on
without a major coughing spell in the midst of it
and for clarity of thought enough to go and do it.

God is so good that not even an illness
or a cold winter filled with snow
or any tragedy not things above or things below
or anything else in all of the history of things
or ever
could separate us from His love,
care and provision.
God bless your day!