this field

throughout our lives, we will constantly be faced with choices.  with questions demanding answers.  situations demanding action.  challenges demanding we overcome, or surrender.  and not all choices, not all situations, not all intersecting paths on the roads we walk will have a clear right and wrong. we wont always understand why we’re facing the challenge placed before us.  we wont always know exactly what to do.  or why we have to do it.

sometimes we’re given choices to allow us an opportunity to bless another, sometimes the intersection allows us to challenge and stretch ourselves, to force us out of our comfort zone.  and sometimes we’re given choices that set our course, that make us.  that close one chapter of our lives and open another.  choices that brings questions, that uncover truth.  choices that bring hope.  choices that write our stories.

a few weeks ago, i stood in a place i’d never been.  followed a road id never seen.  looking out into a beauty i’d never known.  and it was in that moment that i knew the rest of this year would hold choices.  opportunities to climb, or stumble.  to become a better person, or to fall.  choices to judge and belittle, or to love because we were first loved.  and in those choices, in choosing to love, we gain an opportunity to uncover what true love actually means.  its in those moments, when we chose to love even though it doesnt make sense, even though we may have been wronged, even when we’re not sure why, that our eyes are opened.  we begin to realize how much of what we have is a gift; we begin to see those around us as gifts, we begin to see their value.  we begin to understand how much each are worth.  we see.  we understand.  or we at least begin to realize how precious they are.

when we begin to see someones real value, we begin to understand why an all powerful and all knowing being, would chose to love them.  when we begin to see them, as He sees them, we begin to see real, pure love.

i’m learning that sometimes the bravest thing we can do, is surrender.  to take what we’ve been given, and give it away.  to take that understanding, that glimmer of truth, and use it.  sometimes the bravest thing we can do is tell someone they matter.  that they were created with a purpose, with a plan.  and that even if they dont see it, that they were created with intention.  that there is nothing about their existence that is accidental.

that they are worthy of love.  and lovely.

that they are beautiful.

i want eyes like that.  eyes that see those around me not as friends and family, coworkers and fellow commuters, but as created beings birthed from a love that we have not yet begun to understand.  i want to see the world as He does.  because that world is true, it’s more real than anything else you and i will ever experience on earth.  it’s beauty, in its rarest form.

and its how i want to see.

it was in that moment, overlooking this field you see above, that i understood i was looking at beauty.  that i was challenged.  that i was given a choice.  challenged in my role.  in being a man.  in becoming the man, the person, the son, i want to be.  i was challenged with what i see.  with how i see the world, and those around me.

The kingdom of heaven is like something precious buried in a field, which a man found and hid again; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44

on the roads we walk throughout our lives, we will constantly be faced with choices.  we will be asked to do different things in different situations.  to play different roles.  to love differently, individually.  to love as He would love, if He were to have walked that road.  sometimes we will be lead to a field, and if we follow, if we chose to walk where He would have us walk, we uncover a treasure of worth beyond words.

i’m sure we would all hope, that in those moments, the treasure we find would be ours to keep.  that we would be the one chosen, the one to run and sell all we have to buy the field, to obtain the treasure.  but im learning that there will be times when we’re asked to stand as defenders around the field.  to protect the treasure, to keep it safe.  to shelter and cherish and value it.  to keep it secure and far from harm until the one meant to uncover it, is ready to do so.

standing in that field, seeing that treasure, challenged me.  made me realize, again, that i have a choice.  and if i want to be the man, the person, the son, the husband and father i want to be, then i’ve got a role to play.  along the roads im asked to walk, should i uncover a treasure, should i be the one chosen, then i will be overjoyed, i will run and sell all i own to buy this field, to obtain the treasure.

until that time, i will stand guard over this field.  i will tell someone they matter.  that they were created with a purpose, with a plan.  and that even if they dont see it, that they were created with intention.  that there is nothing about their existence that is accidental.  that their story is worth protecting.  that there is tremendous value in the center of who they are, in the center of the story being told through their life.  because the story being told in their life, right now, is worth cherishing, is worth the fervor needed to protect the ending.  because they, this field, is worth protecting.

because  they are worthy of love.  and lovely.

because they are beautiful.

caedmon’s call – ten thousand angels