Does it Hurt to Become Real?

Recently I wrote a post about an EKG for the soul.
It sent me on a week's worth of personal thought and
'soul-searching' about this.
* * * * *
I've been doing some yard work and gardening... trying to clean things up around here...
As I gathered the thorny barberry bush trimmings... wearing gloves... I was still stuck and scratched by the thorns.
Not a big sacrifice to trim up some bushes ...
The song we sang on Sunday, All For Love, by Lenny LeBlanc, came to mind once again.

What would make You turn away from glory
Laying down Your life to save the world...
... Giving up Your Throne...Giving up Your Throne ...
... For a crown of thorns ...

I looked inside the bag... filled with thorns...
What must that feel like?
As mosquitoes bit and some of the thorns still poking me from inside my gloves...
What must that feel like?
Thorns, wrapped around and around - embedded on my head
- a mocking crown-

Prison and Death to the desired political King
~
Birth and Life to the spirit's needed Savior.

My soul-work was to look into what could be blocking my heart and soul from living a life of Grace.
I put more thorny branches into the bags...
Do I avoid thorny situations?
Stepping out on a limb might be too risky... I could get hurt, feel pain or humiliated.
I might be misunderstood, rejected.
~
Dying to self requires a leap of faith.
...but, I fell down in humility when I understood the sacrifice...

this death to self

. . . that Jesus made . . .
.
all he released
.
.
.
.

. . . with the certainty that the Source of Life is REAL . . .
This Real Love that resurrects and renews.

Luke: 17
On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.

Help me to let go of self.

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

. . . and receive life . . .
then, enter into Kingdom living
~ with a humble heart of thankfulness ~

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
* * * * *

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender.... Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick out handle?"
"Real isn't how you're made." said the Skin Horse. " Its a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up?" he asked, "or bit by bit?"
It doesn't happen all at once" said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.But these things don't matter at all because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

- Margery Williams

Photos: Ekg's found on Google Images
Skin Horse and Velveteen Rabbit from "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams
Girl with bunny ~ My daughter Rachael at two years.
Bunny now 23 years old
*Rachael's bunny cellphone picture taken this morning 8/5/09 for her mom's post :)
~love you~

Every Wednesday, we Walk with Him, posting a spiritual practice that draws us nearer to His heart.
Today, if you'd like to share your story of How the Word Lives.... just quietly slip in your URL.
...Next Week: "A Pilgrimage into Prayer"...