All Things New

Isaiah 43:18-19

English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

¹⁸ 

“Remember not the former things,

    nor consider the things of old.

¹⁹ 

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

    and rivers in the desert.

Last night I was invited to a Speak Easy in Minneapolis. (Speak Easy being a party of poets getting together to listen to their own in a secret, intimate setting. Seriously, this was an honor, and I was so blessed). On the way there my dear friend (who was the real poet in our group and the only real connection to this poetry panel) began talking about a new piece he was working on. (Because of the content, and the younger eyes I know meander my blog, I'm going to use discretion and not explicitly say what the topic was. However, if you are interested come watch him preform on Tuesday at Kieran's Pub.)

There is something I really appreciate about this friend. He is real! He is very real. Very raw. and very open about the world. Something I think more of us could deal to glean from. He uses his poetry to prod the brains, and challenge our superficial, Minnesota-nice, American culture to sit back, analyze our lives, and ask the question, 'Really?!" I don't think there's enough people willing to take on that challenge. 

We're not willing to question. We're not willing to doubt. We're not willing to sit back and wonder if everything we're doing in our lives may be wrong. However, my poet friend is and he's willing to push the rest of us too. 

Something he said that struck me as very profound was "There are many things that we all can agree are a problem. However, we are not willing to have an open, maybe even vulgar, conversation about it. Therefore, nothing ever changes and as long as we never do, nothing ever will." (This was paraphrased. However, the point is the same). 

This year I have almost religiously been reading Post Secret. Post Secret is an online blog of people's post card, filled with secrets, sent to a man to set them free. I love this page. It breaks my heart to see the distress so many of us are living in and by actually saying the truth, some how there is freedom. 

In honor of new things, here's to a new day with tasty
breakfast ofBruegger's Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bagel,
grapes, and cafe au lait with a dash of cardamon. 

That's where it begins. It starts with the open, honest truth. It starts with noticing the junk in our lives and being real about. It starts when we stop hiding. When we release our secrets, freedom comes. Having the darkness brought to light, we are enabled to forget the former and be transformed into a glorious new creation. 

"Behold, I am doing a new thing." That is what the Lord orated through Isaiah and I still believe this to be true for us today. 

So many secrets are surrendered to the man at the end of a post office box and freedom is found. What would happen if we surrendered our secrets to a God at the end of our prayers? Could it be we may find freedom? What would happen, if the church became the body, and instead of stigmatizing and hushing those things we struggle with, we had an open conversation where we could grieve for ourselves, comfort one another, and let the Lord make us a new body? 

I think change would happen. 

Abba, 

Today I pray that you would enable your people to be vulnerable with one another. That we would not be afraid to have the open conversations that provoke change. That we would seek rawness with one another and intimacy with you that we may find ourselves in your likeness. Behold, you make all things new. May we surrender to the newness you have in store for those who surrender to you. 

Amen.