Tag: life

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Faith Life

Z Is For Zoe: Live The End Of The Story

“I don’t think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for. ~Norman Mailer

golden swamp

No greater tragedy can befall us than our own refusal to live.

A dear friend, a wise counselor, used to ask, “How old were you when you died?” At what age, because of what distressing event, or mistaken conclusion, did you shutter your dreams and forget why God made you? When did you choose death?

The Bible uses three Greek words for life:

  • bios–what you have, your age, size, net worth, accomplishments, possessions.
  • psuche–what you are, your personality, choices, ambitions, dreams, what you do with what you have.
  • zoe–what you can be.  The eternal, abundant, joy-filled, ever-renewed life of God we lost when we were D is for Deceived.

“I have come that they may have zoe…” Jesus claimed, and nothing delights him more than one person trusting him enough to live freely, love boldly and follow him eagerly no matter the cost.

We’ve come to the close of our Alphabet Adagio. The last book of the Bible plays the stunning finale of the biblical story, a lingering glimpse of a future with its fingerprints  all over the present. Someday, every broken life will be mended, all injustice upended, evil forgotten, darkness dispelled, creation lovingly made new. No sorrow, no pain, no death, no lies, no loneliness will haunt us. Earth and heaven will embrace forever, as God makes his home among us.

Someday.

But, if we are in Christ, the future is laughing within us. We live the happily ever, even while battered by the now.

How?

This is the power of the resurrected Christ. Indwelled by the zoe of God, we are bridges from the now to the will be. As healers of the broken, as conduits of his joy, as light in dark places, as bearers of compassion, as truth-tellers in the face of lies, we plant hope where nothing else grows.

Unless we forget how to live.

Are you living the end of the story? Say “yes” to Jesus and you will.

 

Thank you for joining me in this long, winding Alphabet Adagio. When you need reminding of how to live what matters, just start all over at A.

Photograph by Melanie Hunt

 

 

 

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Faith Life

V Is For Victory

How terribly mighty that love must be. ~ Walter Wangerin Jr.

_Egret take-off

It’s a long, discouraging losing streak when every player dies. We needed a win, but didn’t expect victory to emerge from the most spectacular of defeats.

The Easter Back Story

From the start, the odds were stacked against us. Sowing outrage, stirring conflict, distracting our attention with shiny objects, evil masks its true intention– to undo creation, to  hasten death.

Death of God’s plan, death of God’s delight, death of relationship, of identity, of meaning and joy. Death of us.

But one quiet morning the tables were turned. Death was swallowed up in victory.

In Victory’s Garden

It’s still dark, the world sleeps, unaware someone is tinkering with the previous day’s sorrows. With silent step, a divine intruder comes and rolls the stone away. The hard rock, once sealed tight against our hope, now  lies useless on its side.

No sword is drawn, but victory is swift and sure, the destruction of chaos by the Prince of Peace. The worst of news ushers in the best of times, new life.

Victory Still Seems Elusive

Resurrection comes softly and at first we don’t perceive it. Did you expect the rise of armies, the slaughter of villains and a golden throne on a hill? Instead, the “terrible, mighty” love of the living Savior is unleashed by his defeat. The pattern of this world is turned inside out for those willing to be turned:

  • In dying we receive life
  • In sorrow joy is fashioned
  • In poverty of spirit we find wealth beyond imagining
  • In giving up our right to self-rule, we find freedom no tyrant can know.

You say, “What of war, disease and disaster? How has anything changed? What good did the cross do?” In its last dying gasp, evil tries to divert our attention, but its final end will come.

Now, everything is different! In one bruised and broken person at a time, in one family knit back together, in one community restored. All over the world, unnoticed by the media, unheralded by those in power, where Jesus has his way, life wins.

Have you run out of hope today? Remember, the victory of the empty tomb:

  • There is life more powerful than any death we face.
  • There is love greater than all the hatred set against us.
  • There is provision beyond all the shortages we fear.
  • There is safe place to stand no matter what dangers we may face.
  • There is healing no disease can destroy.
  • There is hope no hurricane force despair can deny us.

Hope for a better me. Hope for a joy-filled you. Hope for our world beyond any good we can imagine.

Because of an empty tomb, life will get the last word.

Need to be reminded? Listen to, and join in with this song of celebration!

Every Praise Is To Our God

 

In our series, An Alphabet Adagio, we are savoring the story of the Bible, our story, alphabetically. You can subscribe to e-mail at the bottom of this website so you don’t have to miss a letter.

Photograph by Melanie Hunt
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Faith Life

Finding Your Life, Unexpected

An identity grounded in God would mean that when we think of who we are, the first thing that would come to mind is our status as someone who is deeply loved by God. ~ David Benner

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The journey to knowing God and knowing self follows the same, often arduous path. We don’t find one without the other.

But the lie we stumble over on the way is a potent one: Life is a self-design. You are the meaning of your own being.

I am my life. I decide who I am. I work alone.

We craft our image, composing a self, preening in the mirror of our choosing. The dressing room is littered with effort, outfits tried and found wanting. Accessories scatter as we pick through the bin to find something

  • original, yet acceptable,
  • charming, yet purposeful,
  • cute, yet calculating.

We have goals to achieve, worlds to conquer, and crowds to impress…and so little time.

We are gladiators in the cruel arena of validation. Every moment we must justify the air we breath, our place on the planet, our position in the pecking order.

And we count and hoard the treasure of every “like” we can get, every evite to the party, every plaque on the wall. We fortify our defenses against the constant threat of nobody-ness.

I am my life. I thought I knew who I was. Why do I feel so alone?

Ah, but you are not your life. Your life is bound up in another. Crafted, yes, but not by your design. Life is not something to be made, but found in relationship with the Maker.

I fought in the validation arena. I learned to pose and posture so only the parts I was proud of showed. Everyone became a threat to the dazzling image I had in mind. Every failure was a fatal blow. The applause was never loud enough, my accomplishments were always eclipsed by more-talented others. The world orbited around me as I labored to create my own worth out of any material at hand.

Until, one evening I died. Standing in the moonlight on a bike path near my home, I surrendered all and felt no loss, just oddly free.

God is my life. He knows who I am, and he made a way for me to be found.

Galatians 2:20

Are you trying to make, or learning to find your life?

 

You may like: The Ultimate Identity Theft and God Wants To Make You Real.

 

 

 

 

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