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| photo by David Dean |
relationship
He brings his relationship with us. He showers us with love like a father for his sons and daughters. What happens when we accept this relationship is that God turns our hearts into a fresh spring water: our emotions are calmed, our identities are found him, we know who we are. Our narcissistic pretense is traded and we are given a picture of the world to love and serve. We are given a heart for the poorest of the poor. We read his bread, eat his word; we're filled with his relationship and we become like lights in the world contrasting the darkness.
injustice
What begins as questions of pain and suffering: why does she need to have another surgery? Why don't they have money? Where’s the redemption for these kids who have no parents? What happens as the unclean water infiltrates the immune system of kids too young, too poor to abandoned to know there's another way of life? What's happening to them is called injustice.
What begins as questions of pain and suffering turn to statements of hope. Our hope is because God is on the move. He is one the move to feed us, birth a spring of life in the hearts of us, and, then, send us out into the world to meet injustice with hope.
hope
Here's how this works: We begin as a narcissist. We think about ourselves. We obsess of our lives. People are in need and we cannot hear them because we're still spending time in front of the mirror figuring out which blouse or button down would make us look better. We cannot hear the cry of the oppressed.
At this moment it is God who feeds us and gives a different picture of the world, a picture that tells us of his movement in the world despite appearances. Then after he feeds us with his words, he reaches into our hearts and gives us his relationship. He speaks to our hearts. He finds a way to let our beings know they've found their home in him. This becomes our identity that out shines all else. Not only does nothing else matter as much as this relationship, it also spills out into other areas of life because we're suddenly full enough to see their needs and want to heal it. And God moves through us just like he's moved through the rock, just like he's moved through out all time seeking to make things right.
identity
My friend's mother is not the only one who needs a new kidney. There are many people hurting as I write these words on a page. The question is are you willing to be filled with his bread from heaven and have your identity's thirst quenched from the rock in a way that also allows him to use your to bring hope to the poor, hurting, underprivileged, and oppressed around the world?
Are you willing to enter this kind of life?
