Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

ok. i’ve got fences. i’m sure we all do, but that’s no excuse. the truth is that i’ve got lists of all the things that YOU can’t do, and i ignore the fact that YOU say that all things are possible with YOU. it’s like i took YOUR statement and decided that YOU were lying to make YOUR self look better. i am so so so so wrong.

i was listening to a song on saturday that i haven’t heard since high school. there’s this one part in it where joe from the insyderz says freedom comes from faith in what you believe. so i’ve heard that at least a hundred times, but it didn’t really sink in until i read this plea from paul to the church in corinth to be free.  it’s like i’ve believed these things, and some of them are wrong, but even the ones that are true.  like on some level i believe that YOU can do all things.  i just don’t have faith that YOU’RE going to.  i’m not free.  i’m fenced.  i don’t just want to have faith that YOU saved me.  i want to have faith that YOU are saving me.  that YOU are still alive.  that YOU are able.

what is life like without fences?

freedom comes from faith in what i believe.

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

i live on the sidelines, in my pop-out chair on the sidewalk with an average size gutter separating me from what is happening in life. what kind of parade is this? this parade that i watch so diligently and applaud as it passes me by? this is a victory parade. this is a perpetual victory parade. i sit and watch and breathe it in. i breathe in deep and fill my lungs with the exquisite fragrance. i recognize it. i spectate it.

But i don’t dance. i don’t know the parade route. i have 42 excuses to not be a part of the parade. beyond formal engagements, it is difficult to get out of the chair. i got the shady spot on the sidewalk and it’s easier to watch it. celebrate the victory with a gutter separating me from participation.

but it’s draining to just sit there. i want to be in it. i want to be caught up in it. from place to place. the perpetual victory parade. i need it. i know i do. i can feel it pumping through my veins. i can feel it screaming in my chest. i can feel it in my elbows.

i rest in this: that YOU bring the knowledge of CHRIST. it is through me. through us. but it is YOU that is bringing it. i just have to get in the parade. i just have to dance. get caught up in the perpetual victory parade.