God’s design

Missing Heartbeats

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One fifteen thousand times a day,
your heart was born to beat that way.
Jesus died for you and he rose again,
abundant life is now yours and freedom from sin.
The joy that you’ll feel will make your heart skip some beats,
now you’re free from that Adam disease.

If it seems I’m missing just a few of my heartbeats,
if counting them I come up shy every time,
it’s cause Lord, you fill me up with love and new meaning. I’m your design.
Your perfect love covers all my imperfections
and all I’ve gotta do is to surrender me.
You make my heart so full God that it skips some beats, see,
but they were never mine.
No they were never mine.

Joyfully my heart beats. Joyfully my heart beats.
Joyfully my heart beats. Joyfully my heart beats.
Joyfully my heart beats. Joyfully my heart beats.
Joyfully my heart beats. Joyfully my heart beats.

Life everlasting
Love never failing
Push away from the shore
Now you’re sailing!

God gives a new heart when you turn from sin,
when you turn to him.
You’ll put away your childish ways and become a beacon of light.
Help those you meet in the world gain new sight.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.”

If it seems I’m missing just a few of my heartbeats,
if counting them I come up shy every time,
it’s cause Lord, you fill me up with love and new meaning. I’m your design.
Your perfect love covers all my imperfections
and all I’ve gotta do is to surrender me.
You make my heart so full God that it skips some beats, see,
but they were never mine.
No they were never mine.

They were never mine.
And you take my breath away.
They were never mine.
You take my breath away.
They were never mine.

© Joel Tipple
#25/14

it’s not for me

my gift is not for me
not for that empty spot on my trophy shelf
not to keep me company
when i’m lonely

it’s not for holding so tight it’s crushed and ugly
or for hiding in a closet where it gets musty and moldy

it’s for fitting together with all the rest
as though part of a body Lego
forming as one to function
as our God surely knows best

it doesn’t puff out its chest or compare itself
showing the bitter side of pride
it doesn’t waste much time in the mirror
asking its reflection why

the better part of each day it spends
in deepest gratitude
looking forward to each turn of the road
as it winds and wends

© Joel Tipple
#24/14

Sacrifice

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To give everything
without consideration of recompense
to some
would seem ludicrous in the extreme.
Why would you?
How could you?
What would possess you?
to sacrifice
everything?

Could it be…
Nobility? No.
Fame? No.
Some well-intentioned but misguided
balancing of red and black ink?
No.
Insanity? No.
Vanity? No.
Stubborn disregard for the standard mode of thinking?
No.

Ultimate
sacrifice
belies
all attempts
to fit it neatly
within
our human
mind.
The ultimate warrior,
Jesus Christ,
is where we discover
God’s design.

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

© Joel Tipple
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