“We like to buy certainty and take home our little boxes — because we like to check out people andcheck off our little boxes. 

But the thing is: Truth isn’t found in trite boxes — Truth’s found in the richness of Christ. Truth doesn’t come marked as simplicity — Truth comes marked with the fullness of grace, or it isn’t Truth. Truth is a Person and He is the complexity and the empathy and the integrity and the certainty and the supremacy of Christ.

And the river’s wide and deep and strong and long and there are layers to all this water, quiet depths. The travellers and followers and disciples, we navigate complexity. We acknowledgecomplexity. A river like this faithfully carries us Home.

Because the Truth is: We’re not called to carry boxes — we’re called to carry crosses.

Box carriers are about buying certainty for living. Cross carriers are about carrying the complexity of living.    

Box carriers strain for the power of controlled lives. Cross carriers surrender to the power of the Christ life.

Box carriers box things into simple. Cross carriers unpack things and sit with the suffering. 

It’s only those who carry crosses who can know how there is an intersection of the many complicated things that bear down on people. 

By this all people will know that you are my disciples — not if you label one another, but if you loveone another (John 13:35).”

~ Ann Voskamp

I don’t need to tell you what she’s talking about and I hope that I don’t have to tell you who she is.  I’ll let you discover the former and if you don’t know this mother- preacher- poet- seer- sage, then consider this your introduction to the author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are.  I present to you Mrs. Ann Voskamp’s reflection from her blog http://www.aholyexperience.com.  Your eyes and ears and heart and mind will never be the same.