Seattle after Six Weeks

Today is the most beautiful day Seattle has had since I have been here. And an unexpected day at that considering it's November. With this unexpected weather comes some unexpected realities of my time here.

This is not the place I emotionally thought I would be in after six weeks of living college life, not the place I at all imagined. When the plane landed I was crying. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to handle life with all the scars I brought with me and without all the support and love I was leaving behind. My first prayer here was a plea to God to heal me and make me a useful tool for Him. I wanted to be a part of the world change my college talked and raved about and I was scared it just wouldn't be right.

All the dreams I had imagined about college were quickly shattered. Nothing traumatic happened, nothing terrible was done to me; I found myself having trouble with leaving my community behind. I found that my fear of finding nearly no one to connect with was indeed coming true and that the emotional wounds I had in California were the same wounds that were with me in Seattle. I was emotionally exhausted and all I wanted was to go home. I missed my community and I hated it here. I felt as if every friendship was a superficial "hi" to avoid awkwardness and have someone to eat dinner with and that was the extent to how deep they went. I missed the comfort of home.

It wasn't until about two weeks ago that it hit me. I have never felt so close to God. The wounds I thought would take years to heal were gone and the peace I had was the best I had felt in years, possibly my life. Out of my struggling and pain and vulnerability I was forced to surrender everything over to God. Not in the way that I merely tell God I'm surrendering and still attempt to take control over every aspect of my life I deem important. No, actually giving God the reigns on my life, actually giving up and telling Him I suck at handling my life and I don't even want to piece it back together. Completely surrendering. Trusting that His ways are a hell of a lot better than what I can only begin to fathom, having full faith that God will come through and it will be glorious. Every. Time. I suppose I couldn't do that until I was plopped in a foreign place with pretty much no one for support and no one that needed my support. Usually my problem with surrendering is that I feel so many people rely on me for things, that surrendering would be giving up on them. In my mind it became an issue over not only letting myself fall apart but feeling like letting things go would fail other people. I never trusted that God had them like he had me. I never fully felt God as my safety net. I never knew and never would have if I had stayed home.

So here I am. Six weeks later. It's like I had been living on a map so marked up with directions and highlights and marks that I had no idea where to go. And coming here I feel as if God has taken that map away and told me just to be. The last six weeks here have been incredibly hard and if I had it my way they would not have gone as they did. The feelings of alienation, of loneliness would never have settled with me. Yet in my unhappiness with my surroundings I realized God had blessed me with specific things that had totally healed and reshaped me when I was here. In the hardness of life, in the stripping of everything I held close, the Father began to show me how he loved me, the reality of relying on everything except him, and how worth it I am for him. Never in my life have I felt really worth being pursued by God. And in one sense none of us are worthy, but in another I see that he chose me. I, for once, truly see that he loves me and I haven't earned that. Being a support for all the people that I love, being there for others, trying to be a Christ follower has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he loves me and loves me unconditionally. I don't have to do anything. As many times as I had heard that, it was never real to me until now. And how could it have been? In the comfort of home I had distractions, years of patterns and excuses and routines that shielded me from seeing the realities of God's love for me. Here is downright hard, but there's growth. It's raw, it's difficult, it involves a lot of uncertainty, but it's good. God is good.

it's been a while

if i get anything out of this university seminar class, this is what it is going to be.

This.

This, this is why people have bitterness towards Christianity. This is why the world doesn't know what love is, who Christ is. This is why so many people have not even considered God. This, this sickens me. This is not Christianity. This is hate. This is hell on earth.

love.

most of the time my facebook creepin' leads me to nothing useful. and then sometimes i find things like this:

Unfailing, Neverending

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unarmed Truth and Unconditional Love.

Lately I have realized just how much you can't have one without the other. I wish I had more to write and expand upon but it's sort of one of those things I have a million and a half thoughts about and really nothing of substance to write down. Truth paired with unfailing love is the only thing I see capable of making the Kingdom tangible to the world. And Jesus desperately needs to become tangible to the world. If people cannot see or accept the unconditional love we give them, how are they expected to even begin to fathom and accept the Father's love and mercy? It's like seeing the shadow before the person. The shadow makes us more inclined to believe in what is actually making the shadow. If I see what looks to be the shadow of an alligator, but am told the actual thing is a sheep, I'm not going to believe it. As a follower of a true and loving God, I need to make shadows that mirror the Creator. Not to take the place of God, but to point to the One who created love, truth, gave us life.

Live, Love, Laugh?

act justly.
love mercy.
walk humbly.

You know those "live, love, laugh" signs that seem to appear in people's houses the older they get and the more kids they have? Micah 6.8 is like those, except actually incredible and not at all cheesy.


photo cred: rae worker.

Peace/Piece of Heart.

It's amazing to me how well the simple prayer of peace works.

Something like: "God come into this," "God grant us peace of heart," or "God, show us peace right now."

It's such a short prayer, but it is filled with so much meaning. It isn't just a prayer for peace; it is also an acknowledgement that we can no longer do it on our own. It is letting Jesus take the burden for us. It is giving up and letting God take power in a situation, an act of humility. Prayers like these force us to let go of our pride and our fight for control and when God is given control, he works. Why am I always so amazed?

When we ask for peace of heart, we are are also giving a piece of our heart to God. We can give him all those shattered fragments we collect from day to day and he takes those pieces and gives us back a piece of himself, the peace of himself.

I can't think of anything more fantastic.

No, Thank You.

Wake up. Get my kids up for school and go down stairs and proceed to pack their lunches. Feed the dog. Make the family breakfast. Kiss my husband goodbye and slip a note in his briefcase that tells him I love him. Drop the kids off at school. Go to work. Run errands. Pick the kids up from soccer practice. Help them do their homework. Make dinner. Go to a PTA meeting before I come home for family game night. Put the kids to bed. My husband contemplates fixing the hinges on the door of our white picket fence this weekend.

But before I get to this particular point in my life, I need to first take the steps to ensure I will be comfortableand sucessful. So...I go to college. Get involved in a couple of clubs. Become more involved at church. Get the "college experience" and a useful degree in something like business. I graduate. Get engaged. Get married. Honeymoon somewhere tropical. My husband and I buy a dog and name him "scooter." See above for more detailed everyday schedule.

If this is dream of the life ahead of me, I would like to respectfully say "No, thank you." That cannot possibly be the climax of a life I am called to live. Where's the room for God? Where's the room for His movement? If I live the safe and comfortable life above, I am living a life of obligation, compartmentalizing God, making him fit society's dreams and hopes. And the reality is, we are all fooling ourselves if we think God is totally fine with being fit into a Sunday service and maybe a Wednesday night home group and then maybe an added couple week missions trip one summer. I want to do something more with my life. And really, I guess I would be fine with only living the life of the first two paragraphs if my life was my own, but it's not. I want to follow Jesus radically so badly. I don't want to live a life of comfort and security and self-betterment that everyone seems to be condoning. No, getting a business degree is not of the devil, and having a picket fence in your front yard does not make you boring, and God bless you if you have found a husband that really loves you and kids that can create play-doh sculptures like no one else in their kindergarten class.

Truth is, I would actually like a couple of those things as well. But I do not want those to be my dreams. I want to dream and hope for bigger and better things for the kingdom of God. I want to see people healed, people come to know and love God with reckless abandonment. I want to see great things. I would absolutely adore having a family one day. But there has got to be more. The life I originally described in this post cannot be all I can hope and dream for. God has so much bigger plans for all of us than just getting a good job and snagging a spouse and the yearly bonus. That's all self gratifying. I want to see the greatest things of God. I want to gratify God.

Peace

You can't live like hell and expect the peace of heaven

Mmm Mmm

"Your addictions tell your identity you are not qualified to meet with God"

"God sees what we could be, not what we aren't"

Redemption.

Jesus speaks of redemption, of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness.

I want nothing, nothing, nothing more than to be able to show these to others to my fullest ability.

"Freedom reigns in this place, showers of mercy and grace, falling on every face, there is freedom"

Freedom Hangs Like Heaven

I've been thinking a lot about what exactly freedom means to us. In America, the word "freedom" conjures up a lot of ideas about independence and liberation. And to those of us familiar or interested in social justice, it brings to mind the oppression of millions and a freedom that seems so far from their grasps. People fight wars, give up their lives in pursuit of these freedoms. We've all heard spiels about both of these things. And I am definitely not discounting the heroism of such things. But I wish the Christian community talked a lot more about the complexities of freedom that rests in Christianity. Not the "you were born again in Christ and have freedom in Him" idea. While that is true, life with Christ, in communion with God, releases us to live above the absolute oppression of a sinful world, there's the other end of that that interests me so much more. We were born into absolute freedom. Absolute freedom to choose our own path, to choose to follow our desires and our wants, and freedom to follow a much narrower path in pursuit of something much bigger than ourselves.

Freedom is also what allows for sin and shame. Freedom is what brings us into the oppressions of the world. We keep ourselves from the freedom we so desperately long for by pursuing the wrong paths. My pastor has said on more than one occasion that "every single sin in our lives is an illegitimate attempt to meet a legitimate need." Well worded, right? The freedom we long for with God, the freedom that so many of us fall short of, is up to us. We can choose to grab ahold of the freedom we all were born with and pursue a sinful nature. Or we could take that freedom and willingly pursue the God of the universe. That is how far our freedom enables us to go, straight to the Creator of all things. Jesus was born into the same world as us, He had the same freedoms we do. The difference was in what He chose to do with those freedoms. We are given an opportunity to live in community with the Father. Every action we take can bring us farther or closer to that. It is up to us. Are we willing to give our lives for that sort of freedom?

need some encouragement?

And there will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears.
And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.
Get over your hill and see what you find there,
With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

-After the Storm by Mumford & Sons.

Crazy Church People.

"Thank you for being a crazy church person."

This news couldn't wait. These are the words that came out of my best friend's mouth tonight. She called and told me that the most exciting thing had happened to her, and for the first time in perhaps ever, I heard pure joy in her voice. She first thanked me for being a "crazy church person" friend and apologized for making fun of me, telling me how she was glad I never backed down when everyone else had been so hard on me for my "crazy church person-ess." I had no idea my pursuit of real church, real Christ, real community, had gone noticed by even my closest of friends. I've never felt so encouraged. But that isn't the point in me writing this. My story is this:

Now she had finally seen what I saw, and it wasn't the Christianity we both had been raised in, it was Christ and what he meant his church to be. Within minutes she had revealed to me how she was ready to pack up and leave Christianity forever, leave the religion she had been brought up in. But how something had changed. And she was itching to show the world what she had just had an epiphany over. THIS was God moving. I have never seen something quite like it. She had this drive, this itch. She described it as "only scratching the surface." Thank God. Finally. Finally someone sees, that is what the reality of Christ is supposed to do. Scratch the surface. Make us dig for more. Long for more. Thirst, hunger, pine for more. She told me how the church of the Bible, the real church, wasn't like the churches today. She mentioned the small groups, house churches, prayer groups, community, and friendships we had fostered and how those were church, how face to face contact was what church was. I have never been so overjoyed for anyone ever. I heard tears of joy in her voice. And I felt tears well up in my eyes.

She told me I helped her see what Christianity really was. Little did she know in that moment she helped me see just as much.

The type of Christianity I think most people see or are familiar with is not even Christianity at all. And when I see someone, like today, whom I love more than myself, see this and not only see it but want to tell the whole world about it, I am encouraged, because THAT is what being a follower of Christ is.

This news couldn't wait. This news can't wait. The reality of Christ is so unknown, even in churches. Who Christ really is and what that means and what he has for us needs to spread like wildfire. There are so many "churched Christians" that don't even know this. It is through people like my best friend that I believe that real Christianity grows from.

Like wildfire, let it spread like wildfire.

Younger Years.

I look back on my childhood friends. Friends of parent's friends, friends from school, friends from church. The kids of my elementary years. And I suddenly get this sunken feeling in my stomach. I cannot think of a single person who I have known from an early age who is following Christ and hasn't chosen a path that glorifies themselves. Not a single one. What's scariest to me about this is that I grew up in Christian schools, Christian environments. There is no point in denying it: I was a pretty sheltered kid. So I'm left wandering: what happened?? I know full well I am not perfect. But why do I feel like the only one standing after 18 years of living life? Where have they all gone? More importantly, why have they all gone? What made my childhood friends feel the need to seek other paths? What appealed to them? Is this the the type of people modern Christianity is breeding? People who are aware of God but do little about it? I want to know why. Why they don't see the God I do. Because if they saw the Savior I see, the Savior I love, the Savior I rely on, I can't imagine they could turn their backs on something so sweet. So who is the Jesus they see? Who do they imagine him to be? Is he just a figurehead of a religion of empty promises and false hopes? What false images of Christ are we, as followers of Christ, supposed to be breaking and replacing with truth?

photo cred: film by hannah basalone

Sisters.

Three years ago I made the decision to walk away from the religion of my childhood and walked into a community of people that would show me more than I could ever imagine I would learn in all the years of my existence. When I did this I had no idea I would be walking into the absolute hardest but most wonderful years of my life. They would show me what it meant to live life intentionally, how to receive love, how to give love, how to show the love of Christ in very real ways, and would give me eyes to see the world like I never thought I could.

Among this community of people, six beautiful ladies stand out among the incredible rest. They've been there for me every single step of the last few years. They are my sisters. I've grow so much with and because of them. I thank God for a lot but I can never thank God enough for these girls. They've literally held my hand, been a shoulder for many many tears, and been the source of countless laughs. But more than anything, these girls taught me what it looks like to live out Jesus. They struggle. They love hard. They don't give up. They answer to the Father. They are absolute blessings.

Every single one of us is so so different,
Christine. Loves like a mother, selfless beyond belief, unwilling to compromise.
Alyson. Accepting of everyone she encounters, unwavering trust in God, enthusiastic.
Kailey. Understanding, clever, sure of the promises of God.
Anna. Confident in herself and her God, playful, endearing.
Dayena. humble leader, entertaining companion, compassionate soul.
Gemma. caring soul, seeks the heart of God, patient.

These girls. These girls embody to me what I believe the body of Christ should look like. Through them I have learned what it means to live out the scriptures, what it looks like to put self after others, what a family should look like, how to express true love, how to seek truth, how to forgive, how to seek Jesus, how to live.

What I have found in these girls, is what Christ is all about. Being relational. Sharing the truth of God by being a person who whole heartedly seeks to try to live their life in the most unwavering, Christ centered way possible is a daunting task. Finding yourself in Christ requires quite a bit of getting lost. Community holds the map. We can not possibly live and make this journey all by ourselves. What's a road trip without companions who also want to search out the world's largest coffee cup? My point is this: I could not have experienced life fully without surrounding myself by great individuals. They have taught me more than I could have fathomed. Their perspectives, their encouragement, their love...revealed a portion of Christ I would have never known. Seek Christ? Also seek fellowship with his followers. There's no other way.

*photo credit: Alyson Rae, one of the lovely girls mentioned above :)

Living.

Today, I ran across something my friend, Luke, had said a while back:

"I think they're in love with the Jesus religion created, which is sad because that's not reality at all. For some reason it's just about salvation, and hope, but the fact that Jesus said he came to give us life, and life to the fullest, is lost."

Easter is my absolute favorite holiday. If you know me at all, you know I start talking about easter mid-January. Everything about it is just so beautiful. Our lives are beautiful. I believe what my friend, Luke, said to be very very true. People put Jesus into this comfortable box and then are confused when they can't find him there. Jesus doesn't live in a nice neat box. That's not the reality. I think a lot of times we try to focus on hope and salvation that comes with easter. And that is great. Don't get me wrong. That is so important. But it really means nothing if we don't think about what Christ's death did for us here on earth. He reconciled our sins. He took on our burdens and sins and failures, disappointments, broken hopes, and sadness that a life of sin places on us. With one, single act he cast light onto all those things giving us not only an eternal life but a life to be lived to the full here on earth. We are reconciled. We can live. Not just hope to live. Actually live.

Happy Easter :)

This fine day.

A few quotes to ponder:

"The world is tired of ideology and is opening itself to the truth. The time has come when the splendor of this truth has begun anew to illuminate the darkness of human existence."
-Pope John Paul II

"The classic theologians based their understanding of human excellence on knowing and loving God, which brings proper human dignity and flourishing"
- Ellen Charry

Band Aids.

It is not enough to believe. We must follow and pursue with reckless abandon.


Knowing this sort of terrifies me. I avoid the idea of "reckless abandon" because, as a human, I don't want to recklessly abandon the safe comfy circle I have going. Yes, this safe circle is not at all safe, leads me to feel insecure with this world and what it has yet I still cling to it like a baby clings to its blanket. I know what I cling to is not the full kingdom or plan God has and yet I still have trouble letting go. I say I don't want to do the normal Christian walk, that I want to live radically. But at the end of the day the only thing stopping me from that radicalism is my fear of it. I want it so badly. Yet, at the same time I shamefully want my comfortable life.

I admire those who pursue things in life without any care or worry about security. The revolutionaries, the radicals, those who have given up this world. Most times those people have no guarantee of security. So why can't I, as a Christian whom God has promised to always keep in His hands, just go out into the world with a reckless abandon, without fear, without compromise, without turning back, without hesitation?

Is it possible for God to rip off that bandaid for me? I wish it was. This fear of failing for Christ is pathetic. My failures are coming true the longer it takes me to make that jump for Him. To jump into a life in which I live completely and wholly for God, with no reserves, no inhibitions.

Life has ensnared me with its false promises of hope and comfort. I want to want to live wholly for Christ.

Un-truths.

Lies. Probably one of the worst inventions of the enemy. I've done a lot of looking back at my life and my spirit is usually pretty alright. Except under one condition. Lies. Being deceived. Every time that has happened in my life I literally do not know how to function. I break down; I am a literal mess. My mother recently told me about the few times she has seen me literally stuck in a depression or gloomy state. I remember every one of those times we talked about and the sorrow and weight that were put on me. And then I looked back at the root of things. Every single time it was because lies or deceit was involved. And it made me wonder: what is it about lies that terrifies, angers, upsets humans so much?

Is it that we feel like we don't have control? that we can't grasp things because there is no solid foundation left? or maybe we don't know how to cope when another person has wronged us so. Maybe it's all of these things. Maybe it's none. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that humans inherently have a want for justice. for truth. Those two things go hand in hand and when one of those is missing, so is the other. We hear "life isn't fair" all the time. And it isn't. Life isn't fair because it is filled with lies, with un-truths. I think thats one of the biggest struggles for man in life: fishing for truths, finding something true to live for, knowing absolutes, knowing an eternal justice. Truth is rooted in all of that. and when lies infiltrate and find their ways into our lives, something in us screams for justice, something in us hurts and feels an extraordinary amount of pain, of suffering. My worst fear is that I am living this life based on things that are not true, that are lies. Lies, "un-truths," are the basis of the enemy; they are the opposite of God, they are what we inherently fear most. aren't they?


(Photo by my friend Caitlyn)

Sparrows & Lilies

overwhelmingly the best analogy. ever.

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6.26- 34

Lent. The Beginning.

It's that time of year again, folks. In the past it's always been that time for me when everyone around me seems to be endlessly complaining about what they've given up and how much it bites that they don't have it. I grew up in the Lutheran Church and let me tell you, lent is a pretty big deal to Lutherans. So maybe that is why I have never been on board for the whole thing, as an act of defiance to a world I wanted no part of. I felt the 40 (or 46 as I have recently discovered) days was 40 days of opportunity for Christians to draw attention upon themselves and their so called sacrifices. This is one of the most frustrating and unfortunate effects of Christianity turned religion. The people who endlessly talk about what they have "given up for the Lord" but really were just trying to get a leg up on the other "not so holy Christians" disheartened me and for those reasons I had never once bought into fasting for lent. This was how I thought anyway. But I realize this isn't what lent is about at all. And the deeper I read into it, the more I like the idea of it.

To be completely honest, lent has always reminded me and seemed to highlight the types of people who call themselves Christians because they tithe a certain amount or have a really nice crucifix. The ones who would love to get into heaven by works. That is the type of so called Christianity I never want to be a part of. I'm not interested in doing this thing called following Jesus only when I feel like it is going to benefit me socially or because it seems cool. No thanks. This attitude has more than once led me to shut off the customs of the traditional church. Over the years, as I have tried to rebel completely from "traditional church," I have come to realize some of the most traditional customs of the church offer some of the greatest opportunity to become close with a very real and close God. And now I find myself wishing more people better understood these traditions and what they mean and how important they can be. I judged the traditions of the church too harshly.

That brings me to lent. Yes, a lot if so called Christians will do it simply out of tradition and without any heart or thought into the role it plays in communion with Christ. That, however, is no longer going to stop me from observing and understanding the most important event in Christianity. I want to take this seriously. I want to understand and to do this thing right. Afterall, this is God we are talking about, it doesn't ever get more important than that. Christ died for you. for me. We have heard that so so many times. And I feel we seldom understand it, seldom grasp it. I want to grasp this.

So, dear friend Lent, I am formally apologizing for never making an effort before this year. I'll try extraordinarily hard this time.

Pro/Con Lists.

Seattle Pacific or Baylor? Only God knows. And that's totally fine.

I'm a big fan of pro/con lists. Mostly because I hate indecision and the beauty of pro/con lists is that they completely get rid of that. Right now I feel like I have to make the biggest decision of my life so far. College. As a senior, you get used to hearing that word about 28 times a day. I feel the closer I get to graduating, the more I don't know where I'm going, what I'm going to study, or how life is going to go. Despite all this indecision, I am completely at ease with things. And if you know anything about me you know this is a big deal for me. My whole walk with Christ, the big conflict has been that I can't accept that He has everything under control. I mean in the past I fought and argued and literally screamed at God about everything in my life that seemed out of control or even remotely indecisive. And then this year happens. Now more than ever, nothing has been in control, nothing has gone as I have expected or as it seems, and I couldn't be more content. Jesus knows what He's doing; I don't have to know the details. For the first time ever, I am totally cool with God being in control. I always wanted him to be but I couldn't even begin to let him until I let everything get out of my control. This is going to be a good trip now that I'm not trying to drive anymore.

Action.

"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor."
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed."
-Isaiah 55.

What I love so much about this passage is that its full of calls for action. It asks us to come and be filled with Christ then to go out and live a life that shows that. And then, then it gets really beautiful. It tells us of what will happen, what actions will take place when we do this. Nature dances. Nature and creation are filled with life and so as followers of Christ, it is up to us to move into action. to move and physically take action. Isn't this what we are absolutely called to do? to move? How is God supposed to move in us, through us, if we aren't willing to take some action?