Today I have been challenged with a fact that I have not seen in the same light for many days now. It is a simple yet profound truth which affects every aspect of our lives: how we talk, how we act, what we watch, what we read, what we seek, and how we seek it.
God loves me.
Astounding.
The God of the universe, creation, all that is, will ever be, and ever was, the King sitting on the throne of Heaven, the Lord over all humanity...loves me. The impact of this truth is more then just a simple emotion, it is an action, He pursues me, He wants me, He longs to love and know me. I bring nothing to the table but a broken sinner deserving of hell to the highest degree. I don't offer more glory, more love, more mercy, more grace. He supplies it all and then some. Apart from Him and I nothing more than a man sinking in his own sin. Yet, He chooses to save me.
I find myself most days not even noticing a glimpse of this love. I see the beautiful world around me and shrug it off like it is normal. Like everything that is happening is happening because it is supposed to happen. No cause. No reason. Just happening. Yet, Romans 8:28 states that the world is groaning in anticipation for the coming King to reign again. The world is alive because of its hope for the second coming of the King. That is the best purpose I have ever seen.
So, a question that has been bothering me is, "How can I sit and look at a world that groans for the Father all around me and yet live as though the world exists for my pleasure and my wants?" I know in my head that I am supposed to be groaning for the second coming, however my actions do not seem to point in that direction. As Brennan Manning says in The Ragamuffin Gospel:
"When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games..."
I believe that He is the all-forgiving Savior but my actions show doubt. I hope is His coming and yet I get discouraged by His timing. These are just a few examples of these truths in my life. There are many more. This leads me to think of one of my hopes in college. I wished that at the end of my tenure at Louisiana Tech I would leave and have people only know me as the guy who loved the Lord and loved others. Now it seems that Facebook is what people know me for, or sports, or playing music. I am not saying that these things are bad, but when a professing Christian is known for things over the Lord something is wrong.
Something must change.
My view of this monumentally earth shattering belief that can change an entire world. His love. I wish to consume myself with it, to breath it, to drink and eat of it, to wash in it, to love through it. I want God to blow me away with His love because His love is existence. He exists to be glorified. I glorify Him through His love. Its a beautiful existence and it is an existence He wishes everyone to have, we just have to realize it because in the end this simple statement is where everything began and where everything ends.
God loves me.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteHm... Worldly things like "more time" or "on your time" ... time itself is worldly. Isn't it strange to think that Heaven doesn't even have time? I can't comprehend it. But isn't that the beauty of it? You seem discouraged for doubt, unsatifaction and selfishness but that's okay. We're all in this together. I have the same thoughts and then I remember ... I'm only human. He knows I'm going to mess up but still loves me. He is a pretty good guy.
Miss hanging with y'all already! We'll have to all do it again.