Taking up where Jesus left off - Mark - pages 345-352

As I was finishing up the book of Mark today I was struck by the end of Jesus' life and the responsibility He's given us to carry out his mission in His stead.  We get to be Him to this world.  As he incarnated the Father, we incarnate Him to the world.  What a beautiful privilege, what a weighty inheritance.  

Even though there are times when I want to collapse if fatigue, I'm reminded of the life Jesus' lived and the death he died so that I could have life and spread that life to others...

Can there be anything so precious

as a heart set free?

Eyes released from darkness seeing afresh

The starkness of life’s true reality…

our spirit’s liberty.

My life was meant to count…

To amount to something more than chores

and boring motions leading to

Hollow laughter

where nothing matters.

Can you gaze through the haze?

The maze of confusion and delusions

Polluting original beauty and glory

Stealing the story we were created

To live, to breathe, to be.

Will you let it slip through your fingers

Continuing to linger in the shadow

Instead of feeling life in the marrow?

Will you surrender to resignation

And isolation filled with hesitation

Or will you stand and fight

Against the blight of sin’s curse

For better or worse leaving your heart

On the battle field wielding your sword

With the dream of freedom

Beating in your breast.

What could mean more than this kind of life?

This is for the freedom fighters…my savage kingdom-companions.