Power

Power, true power,
Knows the love of One
Who truly frees, to
Live, die, and live again.
Power, true power,
Does not hold on to
Things that are decaying,
Or hopes that are fading,
Or a life that is dying. No.
Power, true power,
Embraces death
In a defiant grip;
Not letting go until
Death itself has been
Subdued and overcome by
Power, true power.
And then a life beyond
And a life which was, before,
Flows in (to the place
Where death once stood),
And is gathered up and
Lifted high – a trophy prize –
To One whose love freed to
Live, die and live again, in
Power, true power.

“The Father has an intense love for me because I freely give my own life—to raise it up again. I surrender my own life, and no one has the power to take my life from me. I have the authority to lay it down and the power to take it back again. This is the destiny my Father has set before me.”

John 10:17–18 (TPT)

The boat’s righting

As the hull leaned,
Under windward strain –
Perilously exposing its deck,
Like an open mouth
Ready to gulp the ocean –
She climbed the mainmast
(Although how, she did not know),
And once atop leaned out
Leeward, facing the storm
With all its blustering rage.
As she hung there, cruciform,
The hull righted and all souls
Aboard were rescued from the
Swallowing sea.
As she maintained her position,
Painfully exposed, she heard
On the wind a silent whisper,
“Hold fast to righteousness
And do not be afraid,
For this storm turns the tide,
And clears away the dead wood
And all that is not held fast;
This lifeboat will not succumb,
For you are its righting, and in
The morning’s calm you will
Lead my people ashore to
Rebuild a new land, patterned
On my kingdom.”

Diving for pearls

As I was lying in bed the other night, on my way to falling asleep, somewhere between semi-conscious thought and dream I saw a scene in my mind’s eye of a pearl diver.
What was apparent to me was that the depth at which the diver had swum was at the utter limit of his reach, experience and breath.

In this scene, at the very edge of the diver’s limit, just inches beyond, lay the perfect pearl – the parabolic “pearl of greatest price” (Matt 13:45-46).
In order to reach the pearl the diver would have to go beyond the limit of his breath, beyond the limit of his experience, and risk blacking out, or even dying if he was to possess the pearl.
It was in going beyond his limits that the pearl was possessed. The diver took the pearl and ascended back towards the light of day and the fresh air above the water’s surface.

As I reflected on this scene in the following days I was aware of how much of what I do, and what I believe is possible, comes from my experience as a human being bound by the physical laws of this universe.
But there are so many things – too many things – in our lives which simply don’t fit the categories of physical natural laws.
But then that is consistent with the truth that the material universe is not all there is and physical laws aren’t the only laws even if they are the most prevalent and dominant in our day-to-day reality.

As I reflected more deeply I was drawn to the necessity of breath for life and how for the pearl diver his last breath was always potentially his final one, and yet his last breath was like a doorway either to the next breath and life as normal, or a doorway which leads to death itself.
The pearl diver was bound to his last breath for everything he was hoping to achieve. Surviving on that last breath alone was for him the difference between finding his pearl and returning or exhausting it and dying.

But what if he decided to go further? What if he decided to go beyond his last breath and the outcome wasn’t death but more life? The fear of his last breath running out would prevent him from ever finding out if there was life beyond that last breath, and whether a final breath of one kind could be the beginning of another kind of breath.

So the pearl plays its part, because it’s only in the pursuit of the pearl that the diver will risk everything on his last breath. The invitation to live beyond his life-limit comes in the form of the pearl of greatest price.
To possess the pearl he must risk everything.
In risking everything he possesses the pearl.

The gospel writer notes that on the cross Jesus drew his final breath, and then he died (Mark 15:37). He wrote this so that we know that Jesus had died. This is important because unless he has died then the fact that he is alive again on the 3rd day isn’t resurrection but some form of resuscitation.

In John’s gospel he writes about Jesus coming to his disciples after his resurrection. Jesus breathes on his disciples and says to them, “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
Having previously taken his last and final breath, Jesus is now breathing on his disciples with a new kind of breath; a breath that transfers to them the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Whether there is a literal transfer or not, the image of Jesus breathing is intentional. The presence of GOD ‘in’ us by His Holy Spirit is like our own breath. Our breath is so close to us; it’s in us; it permeates into our entire being and transfers in and out of us, energising the body and keeping it alive. So it is with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had to breathe his last breath and risk everything on that last breath to know for sure that there was a different life beyond; one where he would go on breathing but in a completely new way.
But the last breath isn’t necessarily the final one; it’s just the last one. Every day we have the choice to take our last breath in all manner of circumstances or situations. Whenever we feel that we are reaching our limit and the thing we know we need and are reaching for is just inches beyond that limit, in that moment we have to choose whether we will risk everything on that last breath and discover the life beyond, or whether we’ll give in to fear and pull back to the surface.
This is the life of faith because you simply cannot know until you are in that beyond-place. Faith turns our beliefs into actions that take us beyond our limits.

I  believe I saw that dreamlike scene so that I would recognise that I too need to risk everything on that last breath to discover that I can breath beyond it, and in doing so I too can possess the pearl of greatest price.

This is a reflective poem I wrote to try and capture some of the soul of what I saw and to creatively reflect it back to GOD as a creative gift of insight, love and life.

The Pearl Diver
Down into the deep
The pearl diver descends.
Like a stone pillar he drops
Through fathoms vertically,
Searching for the pearl;
The one of greatest price.
In the deepest depths,
Where even light
Is crushed to darkness,
His life reaches its limit;
His last breath exhausted,
Depleted;
His mind and body
Saturated by toxic spent air.
It’s only when his limit reached
And blackness covers his
Consciousness, as the deep,
And death’s cloak begins
To shroud and coldly grip,
That he will find his pearl,
Just out of reach. But,
Pushing through and dying
To that fear in full surrender
Will extend his fingers – just –
To grasp the pearl and draw
It heavenwards; letting go
In buoyant ascendency
Until the light appears,
And deep returns to shallow.
Where once he had, since,
Breathed his last he now
Can breathe once more.
But now his breath is freer
And his life aliver still,
For he found his pearl and
With it found his life;
The one that lived beyond
That final breath and hid
Deep below with that
Seasoned pearl, worn round
In perfect grace-filled suffering:
His pearl of greatest price.

I touch the wood

I touch the wood
Of your cross of grace.
I cannot look at you
In the eye, but I know
That I belong there.
Standing there –
The unforgiving wood
Holding you there,
As your blood runs down,
Deep red on darkest brown;
An uneasy yet perfect display
Of colours matched,
As though from eternity
One had been created
For the other, just for this.

Your blood runs down freely
Covering my hand –
Scarlet stains that make me
White as snow; clean; pure.
I know that you have
United me to your suffering
To know your life through
Your shed blood in your dying,
And to know your passion
Through your shared pain.

It is a gift of love – a gift of life,
As the horror of your terrible
Death is shared with me,
To bear in my body what is
Lacking for others, for the sake
Of your beloved bride.
You share your precious
Life-giving blood with me,
That through Your death
I might have Your life,
And in Your resurrection life
I might know You in Your death.

Revelation at Quinta