Unconventional

The unexpected is often sweeter than the anticipated...
So much of our lives spent going through the motions...
"Playing church..." settling for the norm of small dreams.
The safe of what has always been is good enough, right?

This princess doesn't want to settle for safe... she wants to live in expectation... hopeful that each day has sweet gifts of its own... She chooses risk... reaching out and grabbing hold of the unexpected.

I don't want to play by the world's rules...  I have no use for a vending machine God... investments going in when I want something... treat of choice all too often getting stuck in the rungs.

I desire...
The unconventional Jesus.
The Jesus that does the radical...  inviting us out on the water for a late night miracle.
I want a Jesus that loves more than I'll ever know... always seeing who I am becoming.
A Jesus that fights for my name and my beauty.
A Jesus that wants my heart more than my money or my attendance.
A Jesus that whispers through winds... shouts through storms and stamps with His color.

My heart burns for The Unconventional Jesus... He is who I follow.  It's terrifyingly wonderful.
It impacts all facets of my life.
Pastor and I... parent, teach, school, discipline, and feed our children differently because of the MORE rooted deep in our hearts.
It is SUCH A MESSY PROCESS!

Our smalls pay the price for being set apart...
They do not get what the world says they are entitled to.
Most of the time they get a simple..."I see you, and I thank you."
We have instilled the value of being a team.
They act out of love and honor... they delight in being seen.

Other times... sweet rewards and fun are the fruits of their labor.
Instead of coins or cash... candy is the payment of choice.

The eldest... 10 and still very much enjoying the art of imagination... she doesn't buy into the lie that she is too old for make believe fun.  

Being childlike has value for all ages.

Paper-play in hand for jobs well done... simple pleasures are enjoyed.

I smile as I observe their methods... 

Precision like a Dr. doing surgery...  Reaching and choosing... No room for error.

Delighted in their delicious plunder...

Mounds of joy... covering the counter...

Buckets fill fast...

Unconventional...

Training hearts against seeking entitlement. 

For just like me they live out of the abundance of sonship not the poverty of slavery.

  

I love the Father so I seek to honor...

He receives my love offerings with joy.

He blesses because He is good... not because He owes.

As a daughter... I receive with great joy.

He cannot be put into a box.

He is not a formula. 

And so we invite the...

Unconventional and unpredictable...  

We savor the ways He speaks and moves...  ways contrary to the world... we leave safe and step out of the boat...

Hungry to lay down my backpack of entitlement and pick up my pail of provisions...

He is so much better than the vending machine... His ways so much better than convention.