Copyright 2010 by David T. Dodd II
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
05 04 03 02 01 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 978-0-9843991-0-9
eISBN: 978-1-4835583-2-5
Cover Design by Mary Hooper/Milkglass Creative
Cover Photo 2010 Hooper
To
Tennyson and William
Contents
Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets,
so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end,
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will not delay.
HABAKKUK 2:2-3
PREFACE
LIFE IS TRAGIC; GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Jesus the Christ has transformed my life from the time of my youth until now, and He will be doing so beyond the publishing of this book of dust. He does so because He wants me, whether I like the action or not. He has kept me a child, so I can remain like he made me: dependent. He has given me a desire to give myself away, so I can have more beyond my self: servant. He has given me a passion to see a vision fulfilled: leader. He has made me a dependent servant leader, an emissary of a great and glorious God.
Jesus said that He came to give us life and that life to the full. Jesus calls us to see who we are made to be, so we can do what we are made to do. He desires for us to live with passion in intimacy with integrity, so that we can live fully, love deeply and lead well. In the Beatitudes, Jesus gave us a declaration of liberty and fulfillment. In eight statements, Jesus gave us keys to the storehouse of life and it to the full. This book is about the storehouse, the quest for our lives and Gods unending goodness. And it is about how to live it, beginning with the fact that we cannot do it, but He can.
When I was in my high-school years, I remember seeing the Beatitudes. I actually have memory of my eyes on the page. I just had no idea what they meant. I thought they were something I did with the right attitude and action. At that time in my life, I frequently read the Bible, looking for something I could not find, something I knew I needed and something I tried hard to do. I tried to be good; I even wanted to be good so bad things would not happen. I really did not feel good, though. The Bible, I thought, would (and did) tell me how to do the things that would make me good, so that I would be okay and not afraid. Do these things and be successfulif not really successful, at least somewhat acceptable.
I thought the words were something someone could do, with concerted effort and focus, and then things that were good would happen. I believed life was made up of the following mantras: do to have, perform and reward, action equals results, ultimately, create your own destiny. If you think it, you can achieve it. I didnt know that we do not have such power, as to make destiny, though we do have the power to refuse Gods desires for us. Humans work like they have such power. Life does not work like humans demand. Life is actually what occurs while we make our plans. Life is bigger than us. God remains lovingly greater than the life we know and better at planning than our limitations could ever bring us to. He is destiny.
I became insane, no longer whole with myself, others, or God, trying to perform enough to make me okay with myself, others, and God. I believed that I could do enough things that would make life fulfilling and me not afraid. I attempted the impossible with Gods help. We humans delude ourselves with this kind of insanity. I had forgotten that God does the impossible without our help. Every child knows that to be true, and when life does not happen like the child imagines, they cry perfect tears and God hears them.
Not until after many years later would I find that the Beatitudes present the doorway into liberty and the pathway into life. When I finally remembered how I was created, I began to see what I had missed and could have restored and much more. I did not just look at the Beatitudes on a page; I was allowed to move into them. And now I have no desire to live anywhere else.
The Beatitudes have been referred to as ascending stepslike order that we climb. Without doubt I see them as steps, but not that we climb. They are more like movements of progression and expansion that God does for us as we surrender. They bring us close to God and to the full harvest of dirt living on this earth. They bring us into full life in this world, the tragedy and beauty. They also hand us spiritual eyes of eternal focus and transformative vision of heart.
The Beatitudes, also, have been called circles that concentrically and continuously bring us back to our beginning admission of need. They are. But they are circles like a honeybees flight, rather than circles made by a compass. The bees flight without fail is purposeful, pointed and passionate. The flight pattern looks like the flight of the blind, chaotic even, yet it zigzags its way pulled and pushed by scent and sense of the flower and the hive. The bee will do this wonderment that makes food from flowers to its death, serving because it cannot do otherwise, perfectly predesigned. The circles of the Beatitudes are like chaos that has Gods mysterious, unfailing order branded to them. They are steps and they are circles, yet we are led through them and shaped by them in a way that will not give us control. He has control; we have freedom and fulfillment.
The Beatitudes are a blessing promise: the statement of a King who came to us as paupers to declare us emissaries, to let us see who we were made to be so we could do what we were made to do.
They declare an invasion of truth into reality, and point to a doorway into a new kingdom. Jesus is a King who has a kingdom, and the Beatitudes are the gateway and then the pathway into the fullness of both, the King and His kingdom.
Finally, the Beatitudes are a mystery, impossible to do; the words are directions to a surrender that sets us free. He does it; we let Him. He reconciles us to ourselves, each other, and Him. Then we, in all walks of life, offer the medicine of recreation to the sick of heart.
This book is not about my life. It is about life, which has me in it, too. From the first page to the last page, it speaks of redemption, recreation, and reconciliation.
the BEATITUDES
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:3-10)
REMEMBER
Im not big, but I am a big deal.
I lost the latter and tried to change the former.
Power became my drive, rather than passion making me fully present.
Power over presence.
