more.

One word can change not only our understanding of what is written on a page - but one word can change the perception of our heart. One. Single. Word.

Be it:
Law.
Yes.
No.
Stop.
Forbidden.
Command.
Freedom.
Sacrifice.
Self.
Love.

One Word.

What I consider most carefully as I type, is that what you in fact read with eye, and mind, and heart. How you perceive the written word is a package deal. These words mingle with all of who you are, and I cannot control the outcome. My intentions are good, I promise, at least as good as I can so approach that Glittering Gem. I am limited; I know you realize that. But I wish you well. As yodeler of sorts or harbinger of truth, if you will, I wish to sing of lovely images - of strong truths - that inspire - that motivate - that refresh, God willing. His Word does not return void - and so His Word is at the core of every message you will find above or beneath my name.

I don't begin to suggest that I have it right. What I have - is I have it HUNGRY!!! I am a sojourner of 41 years - and only 13 of those years have been a determined walk in living the teaching of Jesus Christ. So if you are looking for wisdom of great worth - I welcome you to walk with me blog by bog - because I'm searching for it, digging for it, longing for it, too.

I want more of Jesus. I want more love. I want more joy. I want more truth. I want more hope. I want more patience. I want more awe. Yes! I want more of God. That is my passion! MORE of what we were created for. I hope MORE than anything you read and salivate on TRUTH that God leads us to realize together - THAT YOU and I - we were made for MORE than what we see in the cup that we hold. In the cup that we drink. So much more.

And if that is so...then would we be so willing to dump what we hold dear - to ask - to reach - for what God is pouring.

I read this today...and it will not let me go.

"If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But - if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love.

You see what happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue Love.

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward, and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased."

C.S. Lewis

Are you with me? There is far more. I've dumped out what was old in the old cup, and I am holding up a cup that is empty - and asking God to fill it, without even knowing what that will look like. He knows the more I am thirsting for. How ignorant I am in my thirsting - often so blindly grabbing at what is but a shadow of Him, and then settling for it... Instead of waiting - for the fullness of all He is.

How grateful I am for the promise that IF we

delight ourselves
in the LORD

HE
will give
us
the desire
of our heart.

What we long for - is more

of God.

I will wait for Him to fill this cup, and not fear what that will look like. even. if. the cup - to me - appears empty. day after day.

He is so good. Praying we realize that MORE today.