Hidden Treasures

Its time to come out of hiding.

It is time to come out in the open.

It is time for new patterns.

For you view your life as a grand adventure, with so many things that could have gone so differently.

For you have experienced so much more than you let on.

You know what it is like to be in a vibrant "start up", with the world at your feet, to be inspired and to be inspiring.

For so many bought into your vision, and in so many ways your vision came to pass. For in whose mind would have ever conceived that such a small business could "partner" with those companies who sit on the stage of the world and everyone knows their name.

For you would rather put all this behind you. In so many ways you have slammed the door shut, and buried it in the sands of time, never to be found again.

You never want to return to it, because it contains so many cherished memories of who you once were, but it reminds you of all that happened after. The theft, the robbery of all that was good about it, the reframing of what was to be called something entirely different. The disaster that no-one could have planned for, became the end of the world as you knew it. You think to yourself "my life would have been so much different if it wasn't for 9-11". It was like the eggs being stolen from the nest, before they had the opportunity to hatch.

And then great evil entered your life, the one who came to rob, kill and destroy, came and took away all that you had left. He dared even to say it like this "the creative destruction of [insert your name]".

And he caused you to walk away from all that you were, and all that you had accomplished, and for you to say "I am never going back there, I will never return to that place."

For you know what it is like to be like Moses.

You know what it is like to leave behind all that you ever knew, over and over again.

Yes Lord you keep saying to us "Behold I am doing a new thing!", yet what is so amazing about the "new?"

For it bursts forth in the unexpected place, in the dry place, in the desolate place, in the abandoned place, in the uninhabited place, in the place where only death lives. Is it not the epitome of all that is missing, all that is lost, all that is departed, all that is lacking?

For the new thing bursts forth in the place of the old thing that is lacking.

Do you not believe that I can restore EVERYTHING THE LOCUST HAS EATEN?

It feels like nothing is left of value.

For it seems to me that you have described that which is barren, that which is dead, that which is a symbol of defeat and loss. Is this not the valley of the dry bones.

And what will you say about this?

And what will you say about this?

And what will you declare about this?

And how will you describe this?

Will you count the bones, like you are counting the losses?

Will you hold up the skull of the dead, and tell me all about how he died?

Will you write in great depth about all the ashes?

Yet what have I shown you now?

For when all I see is a pile of ashes, there is nothing to distinguish one loss from another, only my remembrance of it.

Yes how do you describe that which is burnt?

Do you remember the burning, the loss of what you had poured our heart and soul into, the intensity of the fire that still scorches your soul, the face of the evil one who took such delight in robbing you of all that mattered to you, most especially the essence of all that you defined yourself by.

You remember that defining moment, but also another, so many defining moments.

Who are you, and what are you doing here!

Yes that one.

For you love to say to so many, we should be defined by who we are, not what we do.

For you still want to say "Hi, I'm x and I do y"

Yet when you meet with any king, they are left changed by the experience.

They are transformed but I get no financial benefit from the "transaction"

Yet you are my Moses.

For in the eyes of men, when he was a Prince of Egypt he was revered and admired for his standing, his position, what he wore, and the role he performed.

And yet when he withdrew himself, when he was overcome by grief and loss, and pain and suffering, and the desire to have a full impact, to right the wrongs of his generation, when he could not handle the mantle I had placed on his shoulders from birth.

Sound familiar?

Too close to the bone.

You make me laugh.

TOO CLOSE TO THE BONE!

You mess me up Lord.

TOO CLOSE TO THE BONE!

For when you are close to the bone, you feel the presence of death, UNLESS....

UNLESS

UN LESS

Remove yourself from LESS.

Be without LESS.

Change your posture, change your life, change your words.

For all your enemy speaks of is death, and destruction, and loss, and decay, and robbery, and loss of meaning.

For he tries with all his might to convince you that all is without meaning, and that which you considered meaningful really lacks any meaning. For he turns your heart from that which is meaningful to that which is meaningless. From the fullness to that which is lacking, and worst still that if you hold on to that which was meaningful, you find yourself in the place of abject grief.

Yet have I not called you LEGION?

The one who wandered amongst the tombstones, for you know a lot about what it is to walk amongst the dead, to hold the hand of the dying, to watch as they breathe their last, like it is some trophy to be awarded to the one who does it best. And to stay with the corpse - that is an even more worthy and noble act.

and your response!

WHAT THE HECK!

And yet.

And yet.

And yet.

In the place of the AFTER.

In the place that comes AFTER.

In the place that was BEFORE, and yet now AFTER!

For I am in the BEFORE and the AFTER. I am ALPHA and OMEGA, the BEFORE and the AFTER.

For you know what came next for Moses and for Legion.

For Moses, his time in Egypt served him well, in order for him to return to that which was BEFORE and take my people into that which was AFTER.

For his time AWAY, his time in the place of ABSENCE, became his time of the PRESENCE.

For I found him in the place of ABSENCE, I became present in the place of ABSENCE.

I sprang forth in the desert, I burst forth in his desert, I ignited a flame of passion again in the place of emptiness, and the place of loss.

For he returned to the place that was BEFORE, possessing the knowledge of what was AFTER, in order to bring forth those who were BEFORE, into that which was AFTER.

For his knowledge of where they were, only served him on the return, yet his knowledge of what was AFTER, served him better to take them into their destiny.

For the future is your mantle, not your past.

For the future is your mantle, not your past.

And for LEGION, AFTER my arrival, AFTER his transformation. AFTER his release. AFTER the moment of freedom. He now walked amongst those who were alive in the body, but dead in the spirit, causing their minds to be transformed, to be delivered, to be released.

For he now walked amongst the dead into order to bring life to their bones.

So what shall we say unto these bones.

For am I TOO CLOSE TO THE BONE!

Shall we lie with them, shall we embrace them, shall we describe them, shall we bury ourselves in the ashes of all that was lost.

NO!

Let these words of mine fall upon your lips.

For the latter glory shall far exceed the former glory.

For that which was dead, shall arise, shall produce a huge army, a victorious army, an undefeatable army, an army that attracts the living and causes the one who brings forth death to run in abject fear and horror.

So arise and shine.

For you can see it now...

Your face beaming as you look upon that which was BEFORE, in the knowledge of what is to come AFTER.