I think there’s a strange new land for those who live on the edge of faith; trusting in the promises of God and hoping in the hopeless. It’s what the writer of Hebrews talks about chapter eleven. And it’s something incredible.

I think out in this place of complete reliance on God, there are endless miracles; I think that the metaphysical and the physical worlds are weaved together in such a way that there’s no longer any difference at all between a sunset and God’s speaking in my ear. I think out in this place there is an incredible presence of God and an abundance of blessings. I think that it’s out here that faith is grown by leaps and bounds, that souls are transformed through strife that dreams are realized and goals are set and met and lives are ultimately changed forever. I think that it’s out in this place of surrender of self and hope and trust in God alone where life is really lived.

I am trusting God for the impossible but I believe in His promises and though I can’t understand how He can fulfill them, I will have faith nonetheless. I think this is the place that’s talked about in Hebrews. And I think it’s a place that we should all strive to get to.

Many have been in this place before us; so many great people of the Bible. Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets (and these are only the names listed in Hebrews, there are many more!). All of these people have walked in this strange, foreign land. You can read about them. All of them have been in the place of completely trusting God, of surrendering hopes and dreams and ambitions, and of hoping in the promises of the Creator of the universe. These were men and women of extraordinary faith, they were heroes, and the world wasn’t worthy of having them.

I want to strive to live out all of my life in this strange land; this place of trust and hope in the face of despair. I want to be called an alien living where I don’t belong. And I want to know that my real home is in Heaven and that whatever I forsake here on earth is stored up infinitely more in Jesus Christ. What I want, more than anything, is to say that I dwell in the tents of Abraham, in the Promised Land, with no idea where I am going or what I am doing but hoping in something that I heard once; a whisper in the wind, something painted in the stars—the voice of God, alone.

In this strange land.

This past week has been one of those periods. Constant discomfort radiates from my spine like bad alternative music from a college radio station. Even though I’m not laid up in traction, I’m definitely annoyed. And as such, when I see happy pain-free people jog past me, all smiles and puppy dogs, I have the common human reaction: I want them to suffer too. If God is going to punish me, why can’t he get them as well? I’m not as much bothered by the pain as the fact that everyone else isn’t in pain. Because when it comes to the distribution of agony, I’m a tried and true communist: I think everybody should have some.

Best Friends....

The person who cradles your head when it is heavy with worry, sadness, loss.. someone you can turn to when it seems like there is nothing left, no hope, no point. Not everyone has a best friend, at least not a true best friend. I've been lucky enough to find a couple in my life, and I personally think that you don't need very many.

I've got a friend.. her name is Walla. Sometimes I get upset with her, and sometimes I just want to shake her and ask why she thinks like she does, acts so stupidly. Why it is that she hurts herself so..

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the fact that she has something in her eyes, and there is something in the way she talks to me, the way she is so painfully honest. She dreams like no one I've ever known, and I swear to God she must be certifiably insane but I love her more than I've ever loved any creature that has walked the earth. I don't understand it, and I don't care to try.. she's just one of those people. I'd have to say she's redefined friendship in my eyes, I never thought you could be so close to someone without actually being "in love".

I've had few very good friends in my life, but I'm eternally grateful for the ones I have had. It seems that at the same time I lost one of my best friends, the only one I had for a time, I gained a group of even better ones. This is an interesting concept.



"If you hold on tight to what you think is your thing you may find you're missing all the rest." - Dave Matthews