Dear Friends in God,
I grew up a “glass half-empty” kind of guy. I was raised in a loving home in middle class southern comfort with no need unmet, yet I felt something important was missing in me. This sense of lack became the lens through which I viewed everything in my life. The half-empty glass was my emotional starting point.
I’ve spent most of my life trying to get my glass filled up: by others, through self-help books, and most of all through religion. I latched onto groups who said they knew the secret thing necessary to get God to finally fix me some time in the future.
But here’s the deal: what if my perception itself is the problem? What if my glass isn’t half-empty, or even half-full, but overflowing?
What if, in Jesus Christ, the Triune God has already filled the whole human race, as well as the creation, with the abundance of Divine Presence? What if God in Christ has not only brought God to humanity, but also brought humanity into God?
If the true starting point is not my lack, but overflowing union with Father, Son, and Spirit I would have to rethink everything.
This would mean prayer is no longer a duty to be performed, but a gift to be opened, because Christ is already in the room interceding for me before I turn to him.
Mission is no longer just going with a church group to help the poor, but also raising my children and doing my job, knowing Father, Son, and Spirit is working through my dull routines, as well as my joyful passions.
Listen to St Paul:
“Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, God embraced us. God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. God did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then God picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.” Ephesians 2:4-7 (The Message)
What if, with faithful imagination, you engaged every person knowing that they share with you the union of Father, Son, and Spirit, even if they aren’t aware of it?
What would you have to rethink?
I, for one, need to rethink everything.
I will be using my blog to do just that. (If you did not receive this in my Constant Contact email please let me or the office know so we can add you to the address list.)
Peace in Christ,
Bill