Jesus replied, "My Father is still working, and I am working too." John 5:17
God is already at work. He has been working while I have slept. While I rest, God loves. God loves and works in love in order to restore all of creation. God is moving in love to offer love. Today begins with the love of God which has been at work and continues to work.
It does not begin with me.
God's mission flows out of God's being. God does love because God is love. God's actions align with God's being. God's being is love. God's actions are love. And this love looks like Jesus hanging on the cross. God works in the world with cruciform love.
God's mission in the world does not begin with me or with the church. How could anything like cruciform love begin with me? I would never opt for that. I would never have enough wisdom or creativity to love people like that.
God's mission of cruciform love begins, continues and ends with the love and work of God. To fail to see this lowers the mission of God to what I can produce. And since I can save no one or no thing, then what good would it be to root the mission in my efforts. I have nothing to offer the world.
God's mission flows out of God's being. God does love because God is love. God's actions align with God's being. God's being is love. God's actions are love. And this love looks like Jesus hanging on the cross. God works in the world with cruciform love.
God's mission in the world does not begin with me or with the church. How could anything like cruciform love begin with me? I would never opt for that. I would never have enough wisdom or creativity to love people like that.
God's mission of cruciform love begins, continues and ends with the love and work of God. To fail to see this lowers the mission of God to what I can produce. And since I can save no one or no thing, then what good would it be to root the mission in my efforts. I have nothing to offer the world.
At the same time, I have so much to offer the world. I have the meaning of the world within me. It's in me but it's not of me. I'm defined by this meaning, but this meaning is not mine. It's fully in me, but it's far beyond me. I chose what to do with this it, but I don't control it.
The meaning of God, and life and my life, is not a list of facts that I can describe, even though there are facts about this meaning. This meaning is woven into me, remaking me, forming me. It's not about me, but I'm more fully involved in this than anything else. I'm not the center of it, but I a wrapped up in it so much that my center becomes re-centered.
This is the mystery of love.
This is the mystery of the cross.
This is the mystery of God. Beyond me. Beyond the world. But fully in me, fully in the world. And turning everything around.
God is at work in the world, and because I'm in God through Christ by the Spirit then I'm also in the work of God. I do not produce this work. I do not make this work happen. I do not produce the results that God wants. I might be involved in "small acts with great love." I might be working to make a difference. I might be doing something worthy of headlines (most likely not) or I might might be doing a lot of small things that no one will notice (this is almost every day), but either way, the work I do is wrapped up in the life of God.
God loves. God works are love. And I'm in this love and work. Today in my connecting with my wife, Shawna. In my time with the kids. In my "work" activities. In conversations with neighbors, clients, friends, and parents at soccer games. Through our meals, in our dialogue, and as we do what we do. Even in online conversations.
God loves. God works are love. And I'm in this love and work. Today in my connecting with my wife, Shawna. In my time with the kids. In my "work" activities. In conversations with neighbors, clients, friends, and parents at soccer games. Through our meals, in our dialogue, and as we do what we do. Even in online conversations.
Where we are, there God is. God loves. The cross is at work in love.
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