In the spring of 2014 I was going through a major crisis of faith.There were so many things that weren’t fitting into the box of who I knew God to be. So many conversations and Facebook reposts and articles I read that just didn’t make sense. It was that of a cold, sterile, guilt-filled, fear-inducing God.

I was beginning to see my faith come apart at the seams and I had no clue what to do.

But at the end of that journey I realized I had a new tool in my box. A prism. Something that I could look through and I could clearly see whether it was going to burst into color or not.

Things that are the character of God burst into color.

And if they aren’t they fall flat.

It’s literally as simple as that.

Because if I have taken anything away from the past year it’s that we were born to be loved. Period.
It’s not about changing everything about yourself or starting “fresh”.

That’s a mouthful and not a truth that a lot of people are ok with. I feel so many people in this world want to separate everything of themselves and just run. But there is good inside all of us.

We just have to flood the parts that aren’t life-filled with life.

When I clean my water bottle I fill it with water and scrub it as best I can. But to get all the soap out it takes more then just one rinse because soap leaves a residue that you have to flush out. I don’t just keep filling it up and rinsing it out. That doesn’t really solve the problem. You have to just let water continually pour in and flood the bottle and eventually all the soap particles will flush out and the bottle will be filled with solely clean water.

It’s a process and it takes maybe a little more water then normal BUT I know that my bottle is filled with fresh water.

The flooding process keeps the water moving, it doesn’t get stagnant.

That’s how the love of Christ works.

He doesn’t want to change us, he wants to flood our very being with his life and love so all that is Him is us and all that is us is Him.

And if I am being real that is hard to take in. I think sometimes it is easier to believe that we just need a new everything. That the previous model was no good so we just have to toss it.

But people-we gotta realize that we are humans, not the latest version of technology. You aren’t going to get an upgrade every two years.

You are you. That’s who you are supposed to be.

We were created just exactly how we were supposed to be. We weren’t missing pieces, they’ve just gotten covered or clogged up over the years and we need to flush them

I’ve had endless revelations in the last two months of being in Bellingham. I could write for days, but what I’ve realized above all is I’ve landed in a place that is focused on the love of Christ.

That doesn’t mean we stand in a circle and sing kumbaya.
It means we fight against hell to pour the light in. We don’t speak to the dark: we call in the light.

Let’s stop speaking to what is dark, let’s unabashedly flood in the light.

Push at the dark with a steady, steady stream of light that cleanses, heals and restores.

And THAT is how I view my God now.