the makings of enchantment

i woke up this morning disenchanted with the world,
it tasted flat-like a two week old opened can of pop.
my cereal box tells me that there are “so many ways to stay satisfied,”
which simply alludes to a never ending hunger that this box is trying to fill.

empty. desire. void. yearning. pining. longing. need.
ravenous.

america is known for its gluttony.
canadians and sweedes known for their necessity for peaceful integrity.
parisians have their fancy clothes and strong cafe′.
europeans are equated intrinsic worth by how their futbol team did today.
countries that are barren are given a ranking: “3rd world” we call them, as if this title will keep “us” from ever having to associate with “them”.

to generalize: people are known for what they love.
people are known by what they don’t love.
people are known by what they do.
people are known for what they are not doing.

people are desperate.

we are willing to sell our souls for loaves of bread.
the poorest of the poor giving up their children in hopes of a better day.
we drink our sorrows down the drain.
as if a mask of avoidance will dull the pain.

drugs. sex. violence. alcohol. shopping. pornography. lust. anger. rage. pride. abuse. greed. inactivity and lethargy.
discontent.

what a tidal wave of merchandise we have created to void ourselves of life.
these things rushing past us over a hundred miles an hour,
taking with them our houses of dignity,
our transportation to a better life,
our fields of dreams.

all this to cover a simple feeling of desolation.

we are left like japan.
naked and broken.
forlorn and torn.
empty with reactors ready to blow.

i woke up this morning disenchanted with the world.

but i am thankful there is more to me than this earth i see.
so full of its emptiness it causes within a mortal ache.
you see, we were made for more than this globe can ever afford.
have you found worth in the wining the dining or that crazy cool job offer?

this world left me naked and bare.
all i had left was wretchedness weakness and shame.
broken like a faithless bride found in her disgrace.

i was that girl ezekiel finds in a field wallowing and screaming in my own blood.
i was abhorred unloved and sinful to my core.
yet He took me in, clothed me bathed me found favor with me.
HE loved me.

i did not understand this depth of love.
how could this be real?
i knew what i was worth!
i knew of where i was found.
i knew what i was capable of.

so, once again: i trusted in my beauty “i made images of men and with them played the whore.”
YOU loved me, yet i hated You for it.
i couldn't fathom unrelenting love.
it was too hard to face.
i was too much to bear.

ezekiel 16 describes me best. “how sick is your heart! declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, yet you were not like a prostitute because you scorned payment.”

this story does not end here.
this world does not suffice.
to find our depth of worth, we have to pull our vision away from the micro.
we get so caught up in the details we miss the story line.
its time to go macro, pulling away from one face of misery,
to a bigger view of how life truly works.

we were made for more than this.
we were made.
first we have to understand this. we were made.
not by some happy accident or millions of years of pulling atoms together to make a face.
we were made.
we were made in an image.
image bearers some may say.

a cosmic Deity, who made us and placed us here.
so that we could understand that this world cannot fulfill.
no soulmate is perfect enough to fit our cravings.
for we were made with a desire that overrides.
“eternity is written into the hearts of man,” ecclesiastes vehemently cries.

WE WERE MADE FOR MORE THAN THIS!
the imperfection will most certainly pass away, when the perfection comes.

on a day very similar to this one, GOD became man and broke into this world.
the Christ was given to bear the burden, the shame, the pain, the sick and twisted longings and desires, the anger and the hurt.
on the Via Dolorosa, a panful journey indeed, he walked with the weight of humanity strapped to his back.
God took every moment of broken disenchantment as his own.
Christ is what Christ offers: perfect love.

we have now overcome.

not through any one thing that could ever be done, but in one moment when Jesus was crucified.
after going to the abyss and signing his name where mine should go,
he bought me with a price,
got up from the grave and rose forevermore!
i am no longer bound to this place, where moth and rust will one day destroy.
my passions are no longer chasing after a fleeting breeze.

I AM FREE! the chains are unbound, the pain is being unmade,the heart that once could not love, has found:

meaning, cosmic worth, value, dignity, validity, significance.
fulfilled.

like a butterfly who has burst out of its chrysalis i am finding who i was made to always be.
loved and in love with my bridegroom to be. awaiting the day when all will be as it should.
forever able to say: "enchante′, my love."