Moses discovered it.
I am discovering it.
The cost of obeying the call.
Of leaving all behind to follow.
Taking a stand for the Truth
can come at a high price.
Loss of riches.
Loss of identity.
Loss of reputation.
Loss of familiarity.
Loss of home.
Loss.
Of all I've known.

The price of freedom.
The freedom that comes
from following Him.
Is full of losses to grieve.
But what I gain.
Is so much more.
Eternal treasures.
Beyond compare.
A deeper knowledge
of His great love for me.
Discovering my new identity.
My eternal destiny.
Discovering why He chose
to lay hold of me.
Freedom in Christ.
Beauty for ashes.
Joy in His Presence.
Glory!
Glory!
Glory!
Which can never be stolen from me.
If this is the price of freedom.
I say...
Amen!
For everything else is loss.
Compared to knowing Him.
Gaining Jesus.
Who is my Life.
And whose Love is better
than life itself.
This.
Is the price.
Of Freedom.

i

So many lines and laments
scribed in ink and feeling,
for the girl who is the ocean

but she is a swell and surge
too dauntless and wild,
for a lover whose bones crave the shore.

She craves the squalls and gusts,
and cast iron skies,
a worldly drift to sate the salt in her skin,
the deep pull of currents in her blood.

She is chaotic but not reckless,
she is fickle, but not feckless.
Love her boldly or not at all
her bones belong to the sea
but she will always return to the shore.

Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,
And shall my soul that lies within your hand
Remember nothing, as the blowing sand
Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep
When winds along the darkened desert sweep?
Or would it still remember, tho’ it spanned
A thousand heavens, while the planets fanned
The vacant ether with their voices deep?
Soul of my soul, no word shall be forgot,
Nor yet alone, beloved, shall we see
The desolation of extinguished suns,
Nor fear the void wherethro’ our planet runs,
For still together shall we go and not
Fare forth alone to front eternity.