Known & Loved

Over the past year, Spirit-Driven has birthed three life-giving groups, completed Talking Matters, and invested in developing Kingdom-minded people for the purpose of helping people experience being deeply known and loved by God and by one another.  When you experience the life-altering love of God in Christ, it changes you forever.   And it takes on fresh expressions each day.  But I never expected God to show me this week how much He loves me through the people around me. 

On Monday I spent the day helping people.  When I came home to eat, my favorite foods had been prepared by my family for my birthday.  They know what I love!  At 8 p.m. my favorite friends unexpectedly started showing up at my door.  Homemade pies “showed up” in my kitchen.  Before long, my home turned into a life-giving community of family and friends.  I was blown away!

Thursday was Thurch night.  After a long day of work, I arrived at 8 p.m. and my home became a Spirit-Driven sanctuary of young adults.  As we engaged in life-on-life conversations about how essential our relationship with Jesus is, we reflected on the fruit the Holy Spirit grows from our lives.  Engaging with the next generation in biblical conversations delighted my soul.  But all of a sudden, my kitchen unexpectedly became filled again with homemade cupcakes, homemade blueberry muffins, 3 kinds of ice cream, party mix, and tons of laughter.  I got a second birthday surprise.  What causes young, busy college students to bake goodies and stay for hours sharing stories together?  My first thought was my loving wife who secretly planned both encounters.  My second thought was the experience of being known and loved.  It’s what we’re made for.

As I thanked God this morning for the different ways He displayed His love to me over the past week, surprising me around every corner, I recorded His unexpected response in my journal.  “O, my son, that’s just the mist.  My love for you is deeper than the ocean.  It’s deeper than the deepest roots of your parents’ massive oak tree next door.  It’s higher than the heavens.  Endless.  Measureless.  Wild.  Uncontrollable.  Unpredictable.   Lavished.  Undeserved.  But it’s very evident in the lives of all who closely live from the Vine.  When I’m Lord of your life…you love well.  When I’m not Lord…you’re into something else.”

The triune God uniquely designed us to be known and loved by Him.  He fulfills our deepest longings.  He satisfies our needs.  He loves us amidst all our sin and rebellion and brokenness.  God is love, and He designed and defined us to be relationally known and loved.  The world cannot offer what only God provides.  The “fruit” is the fresh expressions of His love we offer Him and to those around us. 

But when you love people deeply from the heart, why are we surprised when people reciprocate the love of Christ?  People made anew by the blood and love of Christ love.  It’s our new nature to love.  How we love one another deeply from the heart is customized. No one can love the way God made you to love.  It’s a daily, moment-by-moment fresh expression to the world.  God burns away what’s dead in us, and He prunes what’s fruit-bearing for greater fruitfulness and fresh love expressions. 

If we’re not known for our love, how will the world see Jesus is us.  If we’re known for something else, we’re likely being driven and rooted and defined by something else.  So often I encounter people driven by loneliness, anxiety, grief, and greed.  Jesus came to restore us through His love.  We don’t deserve or earn it.  He loves us because He is love.  He loves us because He made us.  Don’t try to fight it or figure it out.  Just take it in and give it away.  Display it in your work and in your play.  In what you do and say.  When you cook.  When you teach.  In your thoughts and in your speech.

You’re known and loved simply for being you.

Jesus loves you, period.

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