Attention

def: the interest or thought that you give to something you are listening to or watching.

I'm OK with minimal attention

 until someone else seems to be getting more than I,

or

 someone else is getting it

 for something I do all the time, unnoticed.

I can get greedy for it.

I typically don't like chores that seem nameless.

I like to do things that give a sparkle and catch someone's eye.

Confessing these things are embarrassing

but they are true.

***

There's this God.

He just thought of this world, and it came to be.

And here it is.

I walk on it daily.

~~~ His Son, a true King… came here.~~~~

A king in a cradle…vulnerable…

Into a world that has a powerful, well-educated enemy on the prowl, 

How can a baby fight?

With Heavenly help. 

With God, whispering plans to a sleeping Joseph to go to Egypt.

Heavenly protection. 

From a very all knowing, all powerful Heavenly Father.

That is true of us.

Some of us are mere babes in the Kingdom of heaven.

How can we fight this crafty, cunning, subtle serpent?

We are no match for him….

We get our help from the same place the King in the cradle did.

All that power, all those years ago, still ignites, moves, creates and whispers.

The King went from the cradle to the cross and cried "It is Finished". (John 19:30)

Yet, there is one thing He still works at…

       Interceding for us. (Hebrews 7:25)

        Routing for us. (John 17: 20-23)

Like a man that gets off his lazy-boy chair and shouts at the game,

so I imagine Jesus does for us when we say no, or say yes, or do the opposite of our flesh, our world, our enemy.

We've got His attention.

Somewhere there is a King on a throne, perhaps bending towards you, warring on your behalf.

That is, if you are His.

That is, if you have bowed your heart towards His headship.

             That is if You say His name. (Romans 10: 9)

Jesus.

And like it.

And think about it.

And are changed by it.

Now, you are someone.

Because now, you love Him

     But He first loved you. (1 John 4:19)

Selah.

Think about that.

He thought about you before you thought about Him.

Think about that all day long.

      I have fallen upon the Rock. (Matt 21:44)

I have bended my knee.

I have asked for mercy.

Sold all I had to buy the pearl of great price. (Matt 13: 45-46)

  And found the treasure hidden in a field, and bought it. (Matt 13:44)

And now He constructs.

   And now He takes away. (Rev. 21:5)

 He always knocks, 

    and when all goes well, He dines with me. (Rev. 3:20)

This full grown King. 

That came in a cradle all those years ago.

I would have never asked for such a gift for Christmas.

But here He is.

With me.

       God with me. (Isaiah 7:14) (Matt. 1:23)

        Giving me His attention. (1 Sam 16:7)

Baseball Confession

"The good Lord was good to me.

He gave me a strong body, a good right arm, and a weak mind."

-Dizzy Dean

I have this image in my mind of a pitcher on a mound with a baseball in his hand.

Zoom in on the baseball, dirty, being fidgeted by the pitcher in all the rituals they do before they throw it.

When I have a thought mulling around my head, 

perhaps an agitating thought,

I keep fidgeting with it

I think maybe if I express it, it will be so powerful, 

that it will speed to over 100 mph over the targeted plate.

But to my astonishment,

often times it is weak and nothing at all once expressed.

The kind of emotion that wonders if the coach will get the relief pitcher.

So when I am turning a ball in my hand of confession,

I think, there probably is not that much power in this,

why should I bother?

I should just toss it up and catch it myself.

Play around with it.

But to say it aloud, is to throw it, to have the perfect, slow motion pitch.

And our jaws drop.

Why does speaking confession aloud have such an amazing effect??

Game winning effect?

I don't know the answer to that, but I know the stats.

Confession wins every time.

The power of a great flying ball.

The power of the spoken word.

"Talking to reporters over his pitcher's inability to hit, 

San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark joked 

'They'll put a man on the moon before

Gaylord Perry hits a home run.'

During a game on July 20, 1969; 

a mere 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong set foot

on the moon, Perry stepped up to bat

and hit his first career home run."

-Bleacher Report

I grow in freedom, rooted in love