Imagine her thankfulness when she sees that there’s someone who loves her enough to sacrifice everything to go find her and bring her home.
Jesus came to love us beyond life and to show us how to love more. Don’t let anyone tell you different. Jesus will not be a cover story for hate, not for mine or yours or anyone’s.
One thing a little time away has made clear to this sinner is that I need you if the old patterns are to be broken in me. I need a community of people trying to listen to Jesus and to live by the light of his love.
“I invite you to see as Jesus sees. Because when you do, when you become the eyes and hands and feet of Jesus, I promise you that in that seeing, the seeing of others, you will see Jesus. And that sight will reorient your entire life.”
It almost doesn’t matter if that fire is going to judge and destroy or illuminate and reveal; it’s going to be hard either way.
What if we admitted we’re all afraid? It takes real courage to do this. It’s a radical move, which is why fear and not hate is the opposite of love.
“Get it straight, before the voice comes to your house and says, ‘you fool, tonight.’”
We pray in order to be, to be in the presence of God, being transformed into the likeness of Christ, and that the miracle we get from prayer is God’s presence and God’s hearing us, not a particular outcome. And though that understanding lives somewhere in my heart and in my soul and a big place in my mind,
The kingdom of God is real. What if we choose this story? What if we tell this story to ourselves and to everyone we meet on the way, and to every house we enter, and at every meal we eat? What could it look like to live inside that story, to imagine a world where the harvest is plentiful,
Real freedom will cost you your illusions. But it will give you your name, your story, your voice, your joy. Your freedom. And it will be loud, and bright, and contagious.