An Unconditional Passion
The Scent of Cinnamon and the Open Sky: When I sat down to publish Part One of my hometown memory series last night, the sheer sensory weight of that 1985 morning at Otsiningo Park completely flooded my room. I could smell the coffee dripping at 6:00 AM, taste the warm cinnamon buns baking in the oven, and see my family launching into action as our well-known neighborhood “wheelchair brigade.” We bundled Grandma up with Amber the dog resting right on her lap, and we wheeled her down the concrete sidewalks just to watch the massive, propane gas pumped hot air balloons as they drifted close enough to our porch roof to talk to the pilots and passengers. It was a day that felt completely beautiful, carefree and full of joy, the cold heavy medical equipment of ventilators, IV tubing and all other possible kinds of tubing and restrictions were long gone. We were moving on, living differently is all, that Grandma was still with us was the most important thing. For there were so many new adventures ahead to share as a family, adventures that would last longer than a lifetime.
I couldn’t hold back my smile and laughter as I wrote about our Tucker Inn on Wheels adventure at the main gate when suddenly the barriers dropped, the security ropes parted like the Red Sea, and we were escorted straight down into the heart of the action and able to park the van on the grass next to the road just in time to experience front row, a massive balloon being filled with hot air from a propane gas flame. So many of these kinds of unplanned things have happened curiously and noticeably over the last 43 years, that I have only recently started calling them the loving pursuer moments.
Emerging from the Wilderness Matrix: It was only this morning, sitting in the quiet stillness of the pre-dawn hours while the rest of the house was deep asleep, that the true revelation of that carefree field finally cracked open inside my spirit much like it did three years ago when I happened upon John 19:30 “It is finished” and set out to find “what was finished?” I opened my Kindle screen and found my eyes locked onto the ancient text rows of 1 John 4:7-5:7; which describes the Bridegroom whose passion awakens the love of the Bride.
For years, I have been traveling through a grueling, lonely wilderness journey. I have had to fight bruising battles with my own family circle, face the heavy weight of the hospital floor, and more than anything, wage a not-stop war against the high-voltage “fear porn” of the modern prophecy preachers. The false teachers and legalistic structures love to turn the Bible into a transactional corporate contract, packed with rigid checklists and performance boundaries–telling you that if you fail your compliance audit, the Creator will drop an eviction notice on your desk and “divorce” you. They project their own human limitations onto the infinite character of God, trying to turn the Father into a cold corporate executive who cancels his contract when the numbers don’t balance. I know I use the words “fear porn” often, but as far as I am concerned fear porn is the most dangerous weapon today! So, I promise I will continue to use it!!!
The Covenant of the Relentless Pursuer: But the text strips that entire corporate deception completely away. John declares the absolute baseline fact: “We love him, because he first loved us.” It is a prior love that existed long before we ever checked a box, filled out a spreadsheet, or tried to prove our worth. The True Bridegroom doesn’t operate on a transactional corporate contract. He moves on an unbreakable Covenant of pure, unconfined, and relentless Pursuit! He is the Loving Pursuer who doesn’t file for a cold divorce or walk away when your mind is broken by the world’s trauma, or your career is cruelly stripped away from your hands. He is the One who meets you right at the perimeter of your deepest isolation, overrides their legalistic matrices, and drops the system’s barriers right out of your lane. The True Bridegroom’s passion doesn’t demand your perfection. His passion simply awakens your soul until the security ropes of the world naturally drop right off your spirit.
What is Finished? This is the ultimate, golden thread I have been searching for across my entire wilderness journey. When the Savior hung on the cross and uttered those final, monumental text lines—“tis Finished”–He wasn’t announcing a new set of rules or printing a heavier corporate checklist. He was declaring an absolute, eternal checkpoint. He was establishing once and for all that the debt is paid down to the absolute last cent, the separation is destroyed, and the true character of the Father is permanently revealed as unconditional love. We don’t have to scramble inside their frantic sandboxes to find ourselves or earn our way past the gatekeepers. We just have to rest in the baseline of His prior love.
This transitional post is the iron wall I am building for my readers and for myself before we unroll the raw, messy, and heavy corporate battlefields of the upcoming Part Two. We can face any open bullpen, any family betrayal, and any historical fire when we realize we are already safely enclosed inside a defended city built by a Sovereign Love that will never let us go!
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