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The Dust That Dances

A Meditation on Ezekiel 37

There’s a valley.
You know this valley.

Not because you’ve walked through Ezekiel’s vision,
but because you’ve walked through your own.
The valley where hope has been buried.
Where the laughter has long stopped echoing.
Where the bones … your bones … lie scattered,
bleached by time, brittle with disappointment.

It’s that place where the dream died,
the relationship cracked,
the faith went silent.

Ezekiel is led there…
not by accident, not by misstep,
but by the hand of the Lord.
God takes him to the place of loss.
Not away from it.
Not around it.
Right into it.

And the question comes:
“Son of man, can these bones live?”

It’s almost cruel, isn’t it?
The question you don’t want to be asked.
The one that forces you to look
at the wreckage of what once was.

Ezekiel hedges:
“O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Which is Hebrew for:
“I can’t say yes, and I don’t dare say no.”

And God doesn’t explain.
God doesn’t hand over a five-step plan.
God doesn’t analyze why the bones got there in the first place.
Instead, God tells Ezekiel to speak.

“Prophesy to these bones.”
Speak life into what has no ears.
Call to breath when there are no lungs.
Preach resurrection into the silence of the graveyard.

And as he speaks…
the bones start to rattle.
Bone finds bone,
ligament finds ligament,
flesh wraps around skeleton.
It looks alive.
But it isn’t.

Not yet.

Because form without breath is still death.
Order without Spirit is still emptiness.
Religion without Ruach is still a valley of bones.

So God says again:
“Prophesy to the breath. Call it from the four winds.”
And when the Spirit comes,
the bones rise.
An army of the resurrected,
standing on their feet,
alive by the Word and the Breath.

And maybe that’s the whole point.

God takes us to the places we’ve buried,
not to shame us with what we’ve lost,
but to remind us that resurrection begins in the valley.
Life doesn’t start in the temple…
it starts in the tomb.

Your bones … those broken dreams,
that faith you thought was gone,
the parts of you you left for dead…
they are not beyond the Breath.

Resurrection is not about trying harder,
but about yielding to the Spirit
who comes from the four winds
to do what you cannot.

So maybe the invitation is this:
Step into the valley.
Name the bones.
Prophesy anyway.

Because in the hands of God,
even the dust knows how to dance.

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episode 8: dayenu, russians and really good wine

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ichci-92347d

There is this great word, Dayenu, it is powerful but before we talk about Dayenu we need to talk about the Passover which will lead us to some observations about russians and tie it all together with a conversation about good wine. All this to point out that God is giving us an invitation for exodus…to know and experience grace more deeply, but the path can be hard sometimes.

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Sometimes The Answer Is No

I like saying yes.
Perhaps that is because I am a pleaser at heart.
I also tend to root for the underdog in most situations.
I think that is why I am still a #mariners fan.

Today I have been hiking through the rural farming district of Tororo Uganda. My purpose here is to locate and assess potential water springs that my organization #planetchanger might protect in order to provide clean water for communities who have none.

My heart and soul long to say yes to every community I visit. As I hike down to the watering hole, women and children are scooping murky water and pouring it into a smattering of jerry-cans that lie around that they will then lug a great distance to their huts and homes.

When they see us arrive, their eyes light up with hope. Perhaps fewer babies will die, maybe fewer community members will get cholera or some of the sickness if we work with them to protect the spring and provide clean water.

I like saying yes.
But, sometimes, I have to say no.

Today, we were climbing down a bouldery hill into an area where people were collecting their water from a dirty spring, but that was all they had access to.

The hike was long and hot, the trail was small and awkward, and the spring site was really large. This would be a hard project for us to complete.

On the way to the spring, I passed by a series of graves. This one gave me a gut punch:

I “really” wanted to say yes to this project. No momma should have to lose a 1 one-year-old baby because of water sickness.

After the assessment was finished, it was clear that this water site would be too large for us to do. The cost would be huge, about 10 times the cost of a normal water project. The road needed to access the water spring was so bad that we could not get the bricks (hard-cores) and materials needed anywhere close to where they needed to be. When you operate on a small budget, sometimes you have to say no.

So, the answer to this one was no.

And that hurt my soul.

I paused as I walked back past the graves. Most of the people buried there we 36-42 years old. Also too young to die. I looked again at the grave of the one-year-old and said, “I’m sorry.”

I argue with God a lot in moments like this.

I wish I had been born into a family with millions, or, I figure God could at least throw me a PowerBall win so I could say yes to more projects that inspire hope and create healthy thriving communities. But I wasn’t, and the PowerBall hasn’t hit for me.

While visiting a potential water project site a young man named John Richard Omsungu said,

“You see our conditions in Africa. We are surviving on God’s nature (natural water supply). We need spring protection for clean water. Please, will you help us with getting clean water? 

While my NGO Planet Changer is small, and although we operate on a small budget, we have accomplished some amazing things that truly humble me.

Since 2011, we have protected approximately 50 springs in rural Uganda, bringing clean water to tens-of-thousands. Communities that are now healthier and have hope. Communities that have come together to help build their water system with our National staff creating sustainable solutions that they are proud of and helped create. That continues to inspire me.

So, I like to say yes.

Today I had to say no to some potential projects.

But, I also said yes to the next round of water systems that we will able to accomplish together with the people who will benefit from their creation.

Thank you for helping me say yes to as many opportunities as possible when you invest in what we do at www.planetchanger.org

Today I heard “thank you-thank you-thank you” from many men and women who we have partnered with to bring clean water to their communities. I tend to find myself saying the same words back to them back in these moments. “Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life. We are all one no matter where we are from, and at Planet Changer we know that #waterislife.

Together we are Inspiriting hope!

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Generating Good

generous-2

Generosity is a brilliant word and a powerful concept. Kahlil Gibran states , “Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.” That is worthy of pondering for a bit.

From this word we understand other things better, like, generate, generator, generative.

Generosity generates something…
It creates something…
From nothing, generosity breathes life and regenerates something beautiful.

However, generosity is not simply about money and wealth. It is a lifestyle that is always humming with creative goodness that brings light to dark places, food to starving spaces and beauty to desolate places.

Steve Goodier sums up the scope well:

“Money is not the only commodity that is fun to give. We can give time, we can give our expertise, we can give our love or simply give a smile. What does that cost? The point is, none of us can ever run out of something worthwhile to give.”

Generosity also has the power to free us from a myopic life of self-everthing. Self-service, selfishness, self-reliance, self-worship. The worship of self has run across the borders of narcissism in our culture, and generosity has the ability to heal us of this most pernicious disease. The Buddha noted:

“Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.”

The following video is a commercial from Thailand…it reveals the power that a little generosity has to make the lives of others better, and when you do that you cannot escape the personal benefit generosity re-infuses into your own life.

That video causes an unsolicited smile to form on my lips…

Being generous feels good and the scientific stats reveal that generous people are healthier, happy and live longer lives that are worth living.

The Bible has scads of passages about generosity, here are a few to help you pray and invite a spirit of generosity into your life:

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  2 Corinthians 9:7

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Luke 6:38 

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Psalm 112:5

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.  2 Corinthians 8:12

Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Luke 6:30

May you realize just how rich you really are and find yourself coming alive as you become a generous soul that gives especially when there is no chance of repayment.