The Wide-Open, Spacious Life

2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (The Message)

11-13Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

How much do I limit what God wants to do by thinking too small? God is on the move doing bigger things among us that I ever imagined...my prayer continues to be that Jesus increase while I decrease.

Finding Direction

The story is told of a hermit in the early church who always paused to look toward the heavens before he did anything. Asked why, the hermit said, "The better to make sure of my aim."

Psalm 121 says "I lift up my eyes to the hills- from where will my help come?"

Look up...help is there.

From Wounds to Jewels

In her Hymn to the Holy Spirit Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) writes:

"...all creatures which have their life from you praise you,

for you are the most precious ointment

for broken and stinking wounds

when you convert them into most precious jewels."

...a moving reminder that God is in the transformation business and who and what we shall be has not yet been revealed.

On earth as it is in heaven...

When Yuri Gagarin returned to the USSR from his space flight some years ago, and reported that he had not seen God, a Russian Orthodox priest remarked, "If you haven't seen him on earth, you will never see him in heaven."

Our opening question in our Transformation Journal Bible study groups is "what is a God moment that you experienced this week?" When the groups started in the fall people often struggled to identify such moments...but last night at the Monday evening group I had trouble getting people to move from the opening question to the Transformation Journal discussion time because they had so many God-moments to share with one another. On earth as it is in heaven indeed.

Seized by the power

"Seized by the power of a great affection" is, according to Brennan Manning, a way of talking about conversion in the old South...it is a phrase that has stuck with me because it evokes the image of a passionate God who goes to incredible lengths to connect with us, and while God will never impose himself on us, his great pursuing love provokes a response- it is my choice if I allow myself to be seized by the relentless love of God, or turn away.