How do we know what is really real? What if there is more to life than what we can see and feel and taste? What if our every decision will impact the rest of eternity? …and I don’t just mean going to heaven or hell. What if we have the power and the free will to go as far and as deep as we want into this realm we cannot see which is actually MORE REAL than what we do see? And what if we have the freedom to go as fast or as slow as we want?
Sometimes I feel like a broken record…but I see person after person searching for intimacy. I see friend after friend get hurt and discouraged and unhappy.
Am I being too quiet about an ALL-loving God who created us with the need for intimacy because we were made to be intimate with him? Am I not showing that God is a REAL person who speaks and feels and loves?
Have I not said it enough, that you can encounter him and feel whole for the first time in your life? …And I am not talking about going to church and sitting through 30 minutes of songs and an hour long sermon. Have I not been clear that he is not angry or disappointed in you but is only eager to love.
This is what you were made for.
It frustrates me to see the enemy beat down my loved ones again and again…but my voice isn’t always heard. In fact, I feel like I am going crazy sometimes. I don’t know how to convey it or scream it any louder! The reality is GOD. The truth is GOD. All of life and purpose comes back to GOD. There is no other. We search and look for anything other than God to fill us and make us happy because our view of God is this task master who is just waiting for us to screw up so he can punish us. What a messed up view of a loving God. And we think that what we feel and taste and experience right now in the physical is good enough because it satisfies us right now, in the moment.
I’ve learned something about myself. I am quite impulsive. It’s only in the last few days that I would admit to describing myself this way. But I think it’s very much true of my flesh and of my culture. I mean, we were kind of raised to be impulsive, to go with your gut, to live in the moment! The truth that we are not promised tomorrow was twisted and perverted to create a generation who makes unwise decisions and feels no need to take responsibility for it…it is ALWAYS someone else’s fault when the momentary pleasure fades and we are consumed with emptiness. We are mad at those who offered us things that will not last while we are demanding for more of the temporary high.
Why not just figure out what lasts and go after that?
…is it really easier said than done, or is the answer right in front of us?
Even when I think I have learned this, it sneaks up in a different light with a different spin on it. And if I am not careful, I’m easily deceived again. But look, I cannot live in fear of being deceived. I have more faith in my Father to keep me than my ability to be deceived. But that doesn’t mean my enemy won’t try and it doesn’t mean I won’t believe it sometimes.
But oh the beautiful light I live in is quick to expose it and remind me of what is REAL and what LASTS. What truly matters and what is actually worth my time and energy and love.
I have also learned that I cannot muster up enough strength and love and holiness to encounter this GOD. It is only because of him. Only because of his great love and desire for relationship with me. We give him a ‘yes’, a surrender of all we thought we knew and just let him take it from there. I believe he is moved the moment we speak his name. I believe he is watching and waiting for just a glimpse of surrender.
And so my prayer is that I may NEVER stop hungering after the one who satisfies me and gives me life. And that I never stop leaning into him and relying completely on him, because he is faithful and he has never led me astray.
May I never stop searching after what is REAL and LASTS for all eternity…ONLY then will my soul will be able to rest and I will be FULL of joy and peace and completely free.
