Love Never Fails

Last night, I prayed the most important prayer of my life. I got on my hands and my knees, and with rivers of tears streaming down my face, I begged God to bring restoration into my friend’s life.

I don’t want him to have restoration so that it is easier for me to be his friend, or because I have huge expectations, or because I’m unwilling to love him.

I want God to bless him with restoration because I want him to experience the joy and hope that is found in Christ alone. I want him to be restored so that he will experience how wide and high and deep and long the love of Christ is. I want him to fully realize the truth that he is the love of God’s life…that we are all the love of God’s life.

“Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.” -Isaiah 43:4

In Christ Alone

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” -John Piper

This week I was struck with the revelation that I have never been satisfied in Christ alone….that I have made idols of things and people and dreams my whole life to fill the void. And when I exhaust one idol, then I move to the next.

I don’t want to live this way any longer. I want a quick fix; a band-aid if you will to patch over this revelation and move on with my life. I want an answer.

But I’m pretty sure that God doesn’t want to fix this flaw quickly. He wants to prune and mold me, and it’s going to take time and be uncomfortable.

As scary as that sounds, I’m in. For perhaps the first time in my life, I realize that I love God most of all, and long to know him more. And, I know that he’ll hold my hand through the process. So I’m ready to dive in and discover what it looks like to be satisfied in Christ alone.

Endurance

I’ve been running a lot lately. Now let me preface this and say that I am by no means a “runner.” I run until I either can’t breathe or my side aches too badly to continue, and then I walk until the pain stops, and then I start running again. I figure that to become a runner, you need a starting point. For me, that looks like running as long as I can without stopping.

Anyhow, I realized as I was running tonight that the endurance you need to persevere on a run is identical to the endurance you need in the Christian life.

What I mean, is this: if we get caught up in feeling like a failure because we had to walk at some point in our run, then we’ll be less likely to continue and count it as loss. And, if we get caught up in the overwhelming distance ahead of us, we are likely to become so discouraged that we give up entirely.

The best thing for us is to focus on staying in the present, and take our run one stride at a time.

When we are enslaved by the sin and failure from our past, we are unable to thrive in the present. At the same time, when we focus on getting to the future because it will be “better” than what we’re currently experiencing, then we steal from the present.

It’s far, far better to stay engaged with whatever present God has us in, and trust that he offers grace and forgiveness for our past, and that he holds our future in his hands.

Satisfied

I feel like I’m at a unique place in my faith right now. I’m at the place where what I want most of all is to love God and know him more.

And trust me, the process of getting to this point wasn’t overnight. It’s taken me almost three months to fall into deep valleys and traverse over rocky cliffs to realize that at the end of the day, I want Jesus above all.

Why Jesus? Because he’s real, authentic, and the only one that truly satisfies. Because he doesn’t abandon me or condemn me or decide when it’s convenient for us to talk. Because he’s steady, and he never fades. Because he knows my soul, and all that I’ve done and will do, yet he loves me unconditionally.

Easily Pleased

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” –C.S. Lewis

Why do we settle for less than God’s best in our lives? Is it because we are scared to believe that we deserve better, or that he has better? Or is it because we want to control every aspect of our lives, and are unwilling to trust that God knows us better than we know ourselves?

I’m convinced that the only way to truly discover who we are is by discovering who God is. When we know who God is, who he’s made us to be, and how he wants to work through us, then we can begin to see and reach our full potential, and ultimately, his best for us.

When I look at the stars, I feel like myself

Tonight was the perfect night for a run. The air was a balmy 72 degrees, and as the temperature continued to fall, the sweet smell of flowers filled the air.

As I ran into the shadows, I couldn’t help but look up at the blanket of a sky, studded with stars.

I realized in that moment how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of life. But then I was reminded of a more important truth: that the God of the universe, who put each star in its exact place, and reveals himself through creation daily, loves me.

Compared to the universe, I’m a mere speck of a being. And yet God loves me, he wants to know me fully and completely, and he has a plan for my life.

This revelation isn’t new, or even all that profound. But it’s real, and what I’m looking for these days is authentic and genuine joy and contentment in Christ.

I Believe…

That the sound of waves crashing on the beach is the purest sound there is.

That worshiping God in a room full of believers is as close to heaven as we can get while we are on earth.

That forgiveness is a choice that has the power and potential to change our hearts.

That love always wins.

That God is better than all of our priorities, desires and needs.

That God knows the plans he has for us, and that they are plans to give us hope and a future.