Next Level

Here’s what I’m learning these days:  In parenting and beyond, celebrating and propagating the Kingdom of Heaven has nothing to do with avoidance, alarm, or fortress mentality and everything to do with opening up to, and cultivating the perspective of Jesus for everyone and everything. Fear and freak out take up the real estate of LOVE, courageous foresight and faith.

A fortress mentality maintains that one is consistently under attack and therefore refuses to listen to any criticism, constructive or otherwise. It rejects views that do not fit within the safety of tradition, of learned and comfortable positions or goals. This seems to be the perceived appropriate stance of many who attempt to steward/parent young people. Young people are thought to be either the actual enemy, or they’re wittingly or unwittingly aligned with the enemy.

I believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is HERE. Jesus is present, not far away wishing He could come close and give us a hand, but we’re just doing such a crappy job that that would be an impossibility. He is utterly willing and able to shift vision and speak to mindsets and behaviors that lift and inform rather than judge harshly and fearfully build shaky and breachable fences. Letting go of the learned activity of fear and embracing freedom and enjoyment can feel uncomfortable, but it is within your grasp. Jesus came to take captivity captive, so I refuse to allow my relationships with my teenagers and young adults to feel constricting or frustrating. Focusing on the Good and magnifying it in prayer rather than standing before the Father saying ‘do You see what I hafta deal with over here?!’ builds the beautiful and compassionate people that I KNOW I’m dealing with! 

As of June 8th, 2021, I have spent two solid months of constantly, consistently, and with mounting gratitude, standing on the wall of Intercession on behalf of my kids’ spiritual health, freedom, journeys and relationships with their God, with specific attention to their one on one, vertical and personal communication and holy spirit connection. I’ve always prayed for them, but this time, I decided to focus only on the gifts, and not what I thought should be happening.

I have daily released any grasping, control or shame and rejected any attempts to ruffle my feathers or my own perceptions with regards to behaviour or choices that don’t jive with my ‘brand’ as a Mom Person who follows Jesus. I know that my kids know how crucial they are to the age that they are lovingly and strategically placed in. I am certain that they have an ease of relationship with their Source and protector that began years and years ago and is unshakeable as a result of lived miracles and answers to their childhood prayers. I hear their beautiful expressions of an unconventional and creative friendship with their forever Parent and I marvel at their flexibility and vision with regards to actively keeping their Creator out of the box we’re so used to attempting to squash Him into. They understand the quotidian miracle of wind, skin cells, leaves, food, air, their involuntary nervous systems, and words. They see coincidences and serendipitous happenstances as the Holy Spirit interventions and communications they truly are. 

I am sometimes shocked by my lack of shockability. I remember being a teenager and young adult with some minor and poorly informed inklings of the reality of God, and thinking “I know that what I’m DOING is stupid, but I’m not actually an idiot. I DO know better. I just have to try/do this.” It’s odd to have a ringside seat to someone you’d take a million bullets for trying the same sorts of things with one major difference...they love Jesus. Weird, right? How can someone love Jesus but experiment with things that would seem so other? Why am I not more freaked out? 

I have no fear because I see and hear their Faith. They know that God's hand delivers their next breath and heartbeat. They understand that the molecules and atoms they stand on in real time were created by and are currently maintained by the Lover of their souls. They reach out to Him daily and realize that they are seen, whatever they’re doing, and on some level, probably way more deeply than I was able to articulate it to myself, “Sure, I’m doing something intensely unorthodox, but that doesn’t negate Your love for me.” The comportment conversation is one they are more than able to have with their God, in His perfect timing. 

I have no doubt that everything we journey through builds our authority, compassion and understanding. Every trial and screw up, every fork we’ve ever stuck into a plugged in toaster, every ridiculous thing we’ve ever  walked into with our believing eyes open is able to be redeemed and used for deliverance, authority and restoration. 

I’m not freaked out because I see the intercession and charity that goes on behind the scenes. I see the love and honour of Jesus radically demonstrated to ones who pass as ‘unloveable’ or scary. I see the heart and the snuggling and valuing of the homeless, and the fierce and fiery zeal for justice that burns inside of them for their nation and its People. I see their desolation over little ones cast aside like garbage when they needed their families and their traditions. I see and experience the deep respect and honouring of people of all ages and walks of life that they display daily. 

The prayers, declarations and intentions released over and into my children are growing tremendous fruit. The unfolding and maturation of faith is beautiful to watch, in every season, when we are able to embody trust and wisdom. When we don’t have to attack every little ‘win’ with a ‘how did that make you feel? What was the Lord doing there?’ BARF! That’s the worst. For real. Trust me. 

All we’re required to do is create with our words, our love and our intentions, a spiritual infrastructure and ecosystem that germinates, grows, blooms and flourishes in and over them. I latch onto the positive, God given qualities and thank Him, repeatedly, for all of these things. Out of these details grows more revelation about who my kids are and why they’re here. More Blessings, more ability for me to love with burning authenticity. When we look beyond the gutter to the horizon and choose to bless and not curse, we are released from captivity over and over again. We have got to see well. We need to travel beyond human perception and be juggernauts of Faith and Trust! As my friend Barb said recently, we can’t be looking straight at Joseph and only see Egypt. We must see process and purpose and we can’t be scared. 

The fact of the matter is that we all share a Good Father. It’s what He wants to be. We’re here to love and be loved. We experiment, we screw up, we make weird decisions that aren’t the best. If God can get past it, so can I. The Love is real, and it’s SO much deeper and safer and more wild and alive than we can possibly perceive...Walk into it and exist from inside of the column of unshakeable protection and Goodness. You’re one decision away from an ever expanding Peace for yourself and for your children that is impossible to articulate.