The Rebel
“Come to me all of you who bear heavy things and find rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you, for it is easy, and my burden is light.”
Really man?
I have found myself in that place multiple times. Where I was looking for promises in the scriptures to sooth my soul like some sort of pill.
Rarely happens.
Yet, when I approached the breath of God, and I came with a humble heart, something different happened consistently.
I may have not felt cured of what was bothering me, but I was able to take a breath and feel differently about it.
Perspective.
Life is hard, cold, and cruel enough on its own. The struggle to find meaning and purpose in life is a heavy enough burden, and with all the other things we so often tack on with the cries of our hearts?
Heavy
You have been through a lot. You have toiled hard and maybe even to no avail, yet….
You matter, and the works of love done even in the midst of the unappreciative are seen by someone.
More often than not they are seen by people who care about you.
I assure you that they are always seen by God.
I the Lord test the mind. I give according to a man’s reins (principles), according to what his deeds deserve.
So much of our striving in this world comes down to our desire to find a sense of meaning and transcendental significance. The desire to find a sense of independence and power from beyond the regular reality in our lives.
The desire to master, hold, and to be I feel.
Perhaps in the mental landscape of the mind many have the desire to be a master and commander.
Since fate can be so unyielding perhaps, we should be too in staying where we have been in life and breath.
This is oft our rebellion. This is oft our sentence.
We decide that we know how to protect the love of our hearts from the uncertain world better and more thoroughly that God himself can.
I know that I have done this for sure.
Against believing in the reality of felt love and affection. Against the steadfastness of his power and all-sufficiency.
For it is what we know. It is unnatural to go against the designs of fear, and normalcy… even if the designs are by no means normal and good.
For what is natural to us though (being acceptant of our rebellion) it is nevertheless rebellion.
Not all rebellion is bad. It is our duty to turn what is destructive to us into something creative for the good.
Let us turn our eyes unto Christ. He stood in rebellion against darkness, famine of the soul, existing without life, and the theft of identity which comes from rebelling against his goodness and power.
Everything that we dream of exists within the unfamiliar, within the unknown.
Alas not… for the unknown — though it is such — is not so unknown.
How?
When we abide in him. The rebel and savior for the whole world.
To rebel with him is to certainly make peace with him.
It will always be signing our own death sentence as well… against the enemies of our soul.
We are signing a declaration of independence.
As the forefathers to the nation did and rebelled against the powers that caused misery against the people — that is signing their death sentence for all intents and purposes — we do something similar on a spiritual level.
That is when we really mean it.
Many have fought to maintain the independence of their nations, how many of them have fought for the independence of their souls?
Yes… no man can serve two masters… and we would be hard pressed to live without one.
But the master who died for you is the one who gives freedom.
By offering his nature to transmute and redeem your own.
To follow him is to surrender to surrender.
To battle against shame, and doubt.
To accept his own faith in fraternity with our own.
The only way that we can soar to the Pleiades of his life and heaven on earth is to rebel against the gravity that holds us to the junkyards of our past.
Rather than rebel against his invitation to deliverance and restoration by choosing to stay down in the muck that we wound up in, or even were born into.
Rebel against depression, fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, just getting by, coping, evil of every sort, in Jesus name.
And it is more than okay to seek out help from people, professionals, recommended medication, and therapy to blast off.
Jesus is our brother and friend. He has a chariot of fire and he wants us to ride the clouds with him, side by side.
In Jesus name, I pray that we soar, and revel in what we rebelled against for him.
What is that?
His love.
Blessings, and thank you for reading.
