A Picture Paints a Thousand Steps

Looking at this picture it takes me back. Maybe it's because this picture was taken that way. I had just spent the day at this beach pretty much alone and undisturbed. It was a more chilly than beautiful day. Though the water was clear my thoughts seemed more clouded, that was until i just took it all in. I was at a beach in the middle of the day. Peace filled in the empty places. Loneliness replaced by the seeping rays of sunshine and the idea that i was alone on a beach but not lonely. Like Jack Kelly said in Newsies, "I'm alone but i ain't lonely..." It started to become real for me. I read the signs. I read the graffiti on the walls telling the non-locals to go home and the ones that say "ride the rail" "harness the wave" scrawled in surf wax. Written in passion. written with a purpose. Written to be known. The day seem to make an impact on me even though i had no big epiphany no vision of the future just a sense that I was in the Maker's hand and He loved me still and loved me in this stillness with which words failed to express, to grasp, to grant a way to see what happened within on a very ordinary day.

Ascending, what is known to locals as, the Thousand Steps I stopped turned looked back to what I just walked up. The shutter snapped this one. It shows the sea i played on and watched and reflected in. It shows the steps that seem to be grouped together in the most random of ways, groups of three sometimes five or ten. It doesn't allow you to fall into a rhythm of climbing. It makes you adjust your steps as you walk on higher with each step. I in this moment appreciate the heights I had climbed because I climbed something else that day and this picture allows me to remember that. To remember that the ocean day-break is at the end of steps. That the struggle to get there helps form us once we are there. That we should reflect on where we were to assure us that we are still making new ground. I feel like that. Like i've been to the depths and that when I got there it wasn't as dark as it looked and then there was healing, playing, love and comfort. With that hope i could ascend the Thousand Steps that still await me to take me to new heights and new adventures, maybe more depths but I know that too can lead to peace! His Peace to you, my friends!!!

something that matters

i love music. i don't know many people who hate music. every society, primitive to modern have a music of their culture. from the simple drum beat to the complex melody lines of many artists both in our times and from ages ago. music says things that people can't. musicals would be somewhat silly if that happened for real, people sings and dancing as if they all knew the steps and lyrics of a thought of one lone person struggling. but that's the thing isn't it? why couldn't it be like that at least in part? we are all people, we all struggle, we all have pain, we all cry, we all have victories even if minor ones, we all have been loved if by no one else by The God of All that is. That alone should make us sing!

not sure why i've even started writing. i just wanted to write something important, something that mattered. i do that a lot. i sit to write a song, a blog, a prayer script, a letter to a friend, a poem, anything. i want to write something worth writing. i realize i speak a lot of words and none of them matter very much, so when i write i want it to matter. i can erase these ones and write new ones, make it sound just right. though i rarely do.

maybe this goes to my core and attempts to interact with the Eternal, The One and Only, The Creator who creates still. who speaks with a whisper to move mountains, who teaches us to do the same. who asks simply to follow, trust and obey; not out of rote duty, not to belong to some high-roller's club, but to do so out of love, devotion. To mimic that which He's already done. to love the unloved, the unlovely, the burned-out, the burdened, the weak, the dismayed, the lost, the fearful, the ashamed, outcasts, the sinners, my friends, your friends, our enemies, each other, and ourselves.

sometimes the noise of the outside is mistaken for music. that music won't move you to action though, it merely distracts and detours. True Music comes from the Divine Conductor. He moves souls who are listening. Are you listening? am i? can we possibly hit pause on the music of the outside and listen to what's already being played within? i want to move to the rhythms of remarkable, the melody of the Maker, the tunes of Truth.

"it's too hard" i hear myself and others say. some even say, "what's the point of a church?" "...full of hypocrites. why should we bother with organized religion?!" my response is if we can't stand people who are supposed to love us what are we gonna do when we meet those who hate us? we are supposed to love them too...especially those who hate us, "for what gain is it if someone loves those who love them, doesn't even the evil person do that?" Jesus(loose paraphrase), "..no, instead love your enemies and bless those who curse you, bless and do not curse."

my hope is that my words become less even in writing, even in my speaking, my hope is that the music moves me even as i complain that no one moves. the music being that which is His and not mine, not yours; but in time i hope that it is mine and will be yours...that's my hope. i hope that this matters to someone more than me, it matters to me at the very least. pray for me even as i pray for you.

His Peace...That's Something That Matters


for a good read The power of a story

Why Don't We Move?