FRAMES


Life seems to be over-saturated with square/rectangle Frames. Everywhere I turn - at work, at home, and on the road - I see frames. Desks, walls, windows, television monitors, road signs and parking spaces litter my daily vision. 

Some lives are framed. These people seem to have their whole lives mapped out for them - on purpose or not. One "side of their frame" could be Generational Expectations. Another side might be Economic Weights and Challenges. A third side could be Social Pressures to be a certain person. The fourth side I reserve for our own making - a culmination of all three sides and our self-made boundaries/limitations.

Now, don't get me wrong - some boundaries, some structure is appropriate - everything in moderation. I have heard the phrase, "Stay within the lines, the lines are our friends." But life is fun and creative when we can explore off-road some. I believe we hold better perspectives, our batteries are charged more and we are healthy for ourselves and others when we are not so confined.

Ah, to be deep in the forest or mountains, figuratively or literally! Here the view is like a splash of cool, refreshing visual perspective to my mind and eyes. No frames. No boundaries. No limitations. Just woods and a trail that leads to another trail to another and so on - providing different unbound scenes each time.

Romans 9:19-21 encourages us, as "the clay", not to "talk back to God" about why you were made the way you were. The verse states God makes some lives "honorable" and other lives "common". The actual passage reads - 

"But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?"

I still feel we can respectfully approach God on the subject. I believe in His time, He will reform an edge or two; extend a border and begin to make me more varied, more mysterious, more useful and more beautiful - inside and out - like my forests and mountains.

God
"He said, 'Can I not do with you, [Chad], as the potter does? Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, [Chad].'" - Jeremiah 18:6 [Israel]

Me
"Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." - Isaiah 64:8

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." - Psalm 51:10

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." - Psalm 139:23-24

As I keep surrendering my plans to the Lord; as I continue to submit my edges and limitations to my Savior, I pray you will do the same. This desire to break out of my shell and stretch seems to breed more hope. I can hear the character Red from the movie "Shawshank Redemption" stating my sentiments now - "I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope." Does not sound like any limitations there. And it sure sounds like there are no Frames.

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