While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life.
~ Brennan Manning
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the universe, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
~paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Philippians 2
Oh beloved, it is true.
There is this moment, for each of us who have, where we come to trust Him. And this moment is really something that sets everything else in motion. But, without the abiding and restful motion of His work in our lives – and our cooperation with it – we are still doomed to failure in so many ways.
Our lives can drumbeat on in repetitious failure and fear and anger. We’ve trusted Him for salvation, but it feels like that salvation is somewhere well into the future.
And beyond the inner rhythms of failure, come the waves that beat through into our lives. As we begin to grow, we find that others who have not – or who never will – call out to us, and try to distract us. They scream their hatred and anger towards us.
If we are not careful, we can believe the lie the distraction is trying to present. All lies do this. Lies are not so much total falsehoods, as they are a downgrading of the truth. And, in doing what they do, they try to drag us away from who we really are.
Beyond these things, so many things call for our attention. But, should we be listening?
Can we see it?
There does come a moment where we can.
In us, has begun to grow SomeOne Who is already full beyond time and measure and space and even eternity. The Same One is Love Himself. And, while He has finally captured our heart, the astounding thing is that we have already captured His.
Read those last two sentences again, beloved. The real us, is something completely other than what we expected our Christianity to be when it began. We looked forward to some sort of Heaven, and this was great.
What we never expected is that we would begin to taste both its pleasure – and its power – right now. And, we never, ever really expected the Package in which both these things would come. They have come from The very Love of G_d.
So, are you feeling like you want your faith to go to the next level? Maybe you are trying to climb a mountain that is not even there. Maybe you need some really powerful motivation. Have you ever considered that you may be missing the point of this whole thing?
You, and this fool of a writer, are amazingly Loved. His Word is Life. He has set us free from darkness already, and made us shine like stars.
Tonight is your night, beloved. Time to believe you are beloved.
Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.
~Brennan Manning
