the Substance.

a little blurp from the most recent song i've written:

oh all the carrots this rabbit chases
round & round we go
when in the end, once theyre caught
lose most their appeal, well maybe all

oh all the wind i try to lay hold of
just when its in my grasp
i long for it no more, alas,
perhaps i'll find what i'm lookin for next go around

chorus-
oh i've fallen again. i've fallen again
for the thrill of the chase
i've fallen again i've fallen again
for the mirage
and all the while, and all the while, there you are
just waitingggg,
watchingggg,
fighting for meeee,
yeah you're fighting for me

oh all the carrots this rabbit chases
round & round & round we go
when in the end, once theyre caught
lose most their appeal, well maybe all

chorus-

oh all i crave, all i need
i find it's been right here,
right in front of me
could it get any more obvious
this earth has nothing i desire
but you, but you
nothing my hands can touch,
no nothing my eyes can see-
hold what You do for me

chorus-

so i resolve today,
and every other day
to remember, i'm gonna remember
nothing i'm really searching for is found outside me
but within...oh here you are
right. here. alll thisss time.

each of us carries the testimony in our lives of the Lord being ever so graciously committed to our freedom. for as long as i can remember [and for longer than i can remember] He is always, always taking off layers of the onion, always revealing the real version of me...i think He only ever sees the "truest version" of ourselves- but just by simply living life, that truest version of ourselves as He sees us can and does get mucked up with different crappy experiences that life can throw at us, etc, affecting the way we each see ourselves- but never really affecting the person He sees when He looks @ us.

so He''s always fighting for us and peeling off the muck, revealing that truest version...daily. and this song is just addressing the lie in our hearts that what we're looking for, all of us that comprise this human race, is found outside us- that we must spin madly on searching, seeking for something or someone to make us feel "more alive" or "happier" or "more whole", etc.
oh how i do long to daily allow the Lord to expose the deception of the carrot dangling in front of my face...that just one more endeavor, just one more relationship, just one more ministry opportunity, just one more child, just one new car, etc will ever make any of us feel "different" or "complete".
all in this life is only a mirage of the ultimate reality. the ultimate Substance is...Him. and Him alone.

in this Creator, this Ultimate Initiator, this Pure Love, there is not so much as a tiny shadow of turning...not so much as any darkness or variation at all. He is the fullness. the substance. the ultimate. all else is merely an incomplete glimpse/shadow/hint/mirage of a greater reality meant to draw us to Him...this is good. very, very good. so long as we allow the mirage/shadow/glimpse to thrust us up higher into the Substance. so long as we don't stop & glorify even the very good things of life. because the very good things of life are only prodding us to turn again & again to our God. may none of the shadows of our life steal His all-deserving praise dear friends.

so let this God of pure, all-out Love reveal each of our carrots. and may we each be brave enough to let them be exposed for what they are in our lives...simply means to an end.
Him.

no more carrots- just the Reality, the Substance, please :)