So today I was a half mile from the repair shop when my car decided it was excellent timing to begin smoking incessantly and shut down at a red light...in the middle of the expressway...during 5 oclock traffic...in the middle lane. Sitting there in traffic, I began to think. Lately I have wrestled with the idea of friendships, relationships, dating, significant others, or whatever else you want to call it. I am convinced there is a void there that only Jesus Christ can fill and the void was left there to know God intimately--two seemingly different reasons that really are the same (thanks Paul Turner for being there to point this out at a key moment). But there is this other void, and I am convinced it is because we are made in the image of God. I believe one of my dearest friends, Patrick May, would refer to this as Imago Dei (and it would sound beautiful as he said it purely because he grasps this aspect of Gods nature far more than myself). But what has amazed me is this deep desire to be known. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, weekly hangouts, catching up over coffee, sporting events, competition--its all a desire to be known. Maybe sometimes its a facade we put up to impress. But maybe...just maybe, we have given into the lie that our identity is not in Christ, but instead in our greatest successes and our ultimate blunders. Maybe...just maybe, its like were floating alone in the ocean with a life vest on: not dying, but surely not living. I would rather be stuck in that ocean without a life jacket, but in good company, than with a life jacket and guaranteed safety. I am not quite sure how love works, though at age 16 I could have told you everything about it. (I must have forgotten how it all works since then.) What I can tell you is that the more time I spend with Jesus, the more I love Him. Consequently, the more time I spend with the Son of the Universe who loved a wretched fraud like myself, the more easy it is to absorb the pain I have been caused by others (Thank you Matt Adair for this explanation of forgiveness that you had to drill into my bitter head and heart for years). So facebook friends who have made it through this long post, I am asking you to pray daily that I would grow in love for Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, was crucified for my sins, and buried to rise again on the third day and pardon me for my sins, all so that I could spend eternity with the God of the Universe who loves me...a wretch like me..and he doesnt merely love the facade I wear, but he knows me intimately, even more than I know myself, and loves me infinitely. Thank you, Jesus for never letting go of me.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 03:26:07 +0000
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