by Him

i stare grace in the face. her eyes lit up and her posture upright. words that have never come, now flow easily as she tells me of new life. new, abundant life. freedom. grace. hope. it's all so new though she's heard of it for years. the storehouse of her mind was set free by a God who desires more than knowledge. He desires life. He desires her life to be for Him.

 as she speaks of brokenness and joy all the same, she recalls a God she can't help but believe in. she can't help but obey Him. the willingness to go, to be, to do whatever for Him. for He alone.

her words and her eyes and her posture and her tone tell of it all. a newness to a haggard life. though the years seem wasted, He picks those up and uses those too. all for Him.

this life once imprisoned by sin. once covered up by good things. once fragmented. 

it's new.

you know, He does make all things new. He does it. we can't.

and i realize how small i make the God that holds all things together. the God who calls the stars by their name, who laid the foundations of the earth, who gathers the waters of the sea into heaps, who causes the dawn to know its place, who makes the seeds of grass sprout. He causes well-being and creates calamity. He breathes life into every living thing. He does it. we can't do it. we can't even imagine up something so wonderful.

  the miracle of life in Christ sitting in front of my eyes was all of that...in Him. He did it. no effort, no good things, no trying, no good intentions can do that. 

only He can do that.

it's a beautiful thing to realize that all of His being turns into all of our doing. and all the while living in complete and utter dependence of the One who authors our lives. whether you believe it or not, it's true. and only He can bring you to life. 

i saw it with my own eyes.

and i know my own story of a heart living for myself. trying to be good enough. and realizing it never would be. falling broken on my bedroom floor and giving up. only to be brought into new life abundant. and the freedom, oh the freedom! 

as i press on toward the goal of Christ Jesus, it is the King of Kings inside of me that moves me to life. not only outward life but the inward life that makes outward life. abundant and full. and my job is to simply depend on the power that was enough to save me, to save her, to be enough in each and every moment.