I was struck a few weeks ago by a mural on a wall in the hospital. It was a long wall with a picture of hundreds of floating lanterns scattered across it. I usually stop at something like this and take a picture. I’m struck by it, but I don’t exactly know why. I didn’t think about this wall again until earlier today after reading Galatians 2:20.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
This mural came to my mind as I thought about these verses and what it means to be alive in Christ. To be crucified with Christ means to be dead to myself, my pride and my own plans. It means to confess my sins, surrender my life as it is and accept HIM in exchange. To be alive in HIM means I must become nothing so that HE can take over.
The only way a sky lantern can fly is because they are almost weightless. If they weighed any more than 3 ounces, they would not fly. They have to be “nothing” so that when lit, they can become what they were meant to be.
Am I truly willing to become nothing so that Christ can lift me into who I meant to be?
What do I need to let go of so that HIS light can shine and HIS strength can lift me?
And when I start to fly, how do I stay aloft? The power is not in the lantern itself, it is in the fire. All I need to do is surrender and remain weightless.
Sometimes I am at a loss, sometimes I write, and sometimes I sing. A song written out of my desire to remain weightless.
Weightless
Lord, I don’t know what You want,
But make it my desire.
Lord, I don’t know what You know,
But that’s not what You require.
I want to love what You love,
See how You see.
I want others to see You in my eyes and not me.
You answer with gentleness,
You pull me aside.
No one can love like You love,
Though they’ve tried.
Your love runs too deep,
Too strong, beyond mind.
And I hear Your voice whisper
So near and so kind.
“Let My love lift you, be weightless and rise.
My life is enough, I have heard all your cries.
Just lean into Me, be still and you’ll see,
The best way to love, is to be loved by Me.”
Lord, You don’t need me,
Yet Your love holds my heart.
I don’t need to be enough.
I’m allowed to fall apart.
You don’t want a facade,
A show or a my masks,
You just want me to be empty,
And surrender my tasks.
I can’t love others well,
When my glass isn’t full.
But if I let You pour in,
You overflow my soul.
Again I feel you near, You look in my eyes.
You know how I feel, You hear all my sighs.
You answer with gentleness,
You pull me aside.
No one can love like You love,
Though they’ve tried.
Your love runs too deep, too strong, beyond mind.
And I hear Your voice whisper so near and so kind.
“Let my love lift you, be weightless and rise.
My life is enough, I have heard all your cries.
Just lean into Me, be still and you’ll see,
The best way to love, is to be loved by Me.”
SG 4-12-22
A Loss For Words 