I've been running up against this question often the past few months. Others look and wonder and question why...why do I choose to believe in the One who paints the sky with each evening sunset? They want evidence, tangible and immediate, but it would seem I can't conjure up some magical sign. Nor would I if I could. They ask how I can believe in a God who demands I follow Him, give up everything for Him, or face eternity without Him? It doesn't seem like a real choice, nor does it seem fair, they say.
I wish I could convey what has happened in my life because of Him. I wish I could find the words to explain how, when you truly catch a glimpse of His face, when you gaze into His beautiful eyes for the first time, doubts of who He is and if He exists are suddenly meaningless and the fear you may have thought He uses to demand obedience is not that at all. What you see gazing back at you is the most unfathomable love. A love that surpasses all we can imagine or dream of, a love that defies death, that holds us close and cherishes us, a love that does not bind down with shackles, but sets us free while holding us into His heart. It is this love, this God, who has lit my heart on fire, who has made me more than I am...for without Him, I can assure you with every fiber of my being, I. Am. Nothing. He has set me free in Him, to be His child, to be who He has created me to be, to glorify His name...and I can testify that there is no greater joy on this earth than belonging to Him.
There are some things that words catch the mere shadows of. He is one of them. Books have been written, thoughts and opinions given, and you can read all of them until the end of the age...still, unless you truly seek out His heart for your own, all the words written will remain just that...words.
I was talking to someone very dear to me about this very thing a few weeks ago. This person expressed how much they feared what He would ask them to give up......they were afraid, to quote them, "That my life will look like yours! That I will give up everything for what? I don't want to be poor! I want to have nice things!! I can't understand why you have such joy when you have nothing! What has God ever done for you?! What has He ever given you?!" And my heart broke into pieces that felt like they would scatter across the wind. Dear God, am I doing such a poor job of showcasing who You are?! Yet, joy is seen where "nothing" is...where material goods are not possessed. And as I tried so gently to reply back, of course there is joy, for I have truly found that which I can never lose. My possessions will likely never be stored upon this earth, but what joy it is to store them where moth and rust may not touch them. Now, don't get me wrong, compared to most of this world, I'm very rich in possessions. I have never gone hungry, I have clothes to wear, a beautiful place to live, a car to drive, and many, many other things. I am not rich nor am I likely to be, seeing how I feel called to ministry and this is not exactly a lucrative profession;) yet, I am happy beyond words, I am content, and there is joy to overflowing in Him. And I would rather spend the rest of my days with "nothing" here, rather than to lose sight of the One who has given me all I need. Oh, perhaps one day I will have more than I do now, though I'm perfectly satisfied with what I do have, but that's not really the point. The point is, poor or rich, possessing much or little, I want my joy to be in Him, not in what I possess.
The point is, I want those around me to understand that He is everything. When you have Him, when you have an active, daily relationship with your God, it will completely transform your life! It's absolutely impossible to seek Him with all your heart and not find Him. He longs to be found by you! And you will change, the desires you had before will shift, and I can attest to the fact that if you will simply let Him be the author of your days, He will script a story that has far more adventures and which will exceed anything you ever could have scripted for yourself. No, it will not be in your time, it will look nothing like what you thought it might, but it is absolutely worth every single step taken with Him.
How does one describe One who is utterly indescribable? Is there a word that means joy but is beyond incomprehensible joy? A word that encompasses the thunder of every waterfall, the dance of every brook, the laughter of every baby in the nestle of every daddy's arms?
Is there a word that means passion? A word that gathers the roar of every lion, the blast of every volcano, the peal and crash of every wave that ever exploded against a seashore?
Is there a word that means intimacy and warmth? A word that bottles the softness of every sunshine, the promise of every rainbow, the twinkle of every star, the tiptoe of every doe and fawn between every forest's autumn leaves?
Is there a word that means love? A word that means kindness? A word that means power, bigness humility, purity?
I know of only one such word. It is the most awe-inspiring, breath-stealing, unequivocally magnificent word in this language or any other. Ironically it is a mere five letters, yet it carries a truth and meaning so big, so life-changing, so nation and eternity altering if only given the chance.
It is the word of words. The single word that every human life right along with its every human hope and struggle is answered by and resolved in. It is the beginning, and it is the end. It is the fullness of life, the gateway to eternity, the hope of the ages. It is...
Jesus
-Bruce Marchiano
© Jade Valcarcel 2013. All rights reserved
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