The be-longing…
This will be short…I think…
Because it’s Friday and I’m tired and there are miles to go before I sleep…
so here is a snippet of introduction to the Finding Your Way Back to God Session 1
The first week of this all-church study centers on the truth that God hard-wired people with longings.
And all of those longings are there to point us to Him.
And it would be lovely if we could just recognize right off the bat that the only thing in the whole of creation that will satisfy the longing is be-longing to Him.
But we don’t.
As I prepared for the discussion for this lesson for our class this coming Sunday, I had to do the extremely painful work of soul-searching my own particular set of issues in this area…
thank you so much for this…
(and yes, sarcasm is one of my default mechanisms)
Since I have been spending several months with Kelly Minter exposing areas of idolatry in my life, it was fairly easy to spot the longing of my heart that is my spiritual Achilles Heel.
Easy to spot….gut-wrenching to face.
It would seem that God wired me to know that I matter.
That my existence has significance to someone more than just me.
That I am deeply known and deeply loved and deeply understood, and that my efforts have made a difference.
That my BE-ing…the fact that I have been present in this life…is connected to something profound and meaningful and lasting.
So for me…
the pull of the Prodigal portions of my life have always been about satisfying that longing with anything or anyone outside of the only ONE…
the One who orchestrated and designed the emptiness that only He can fill.
I have done some big nose-dives and that is between me and the Lord, but I can still find these longing feet wandering off on a given day here in this season.
It can be placing my role as wife or mother or grandmother…or friend…or whatever my connection to others might be….ABOVE…my role as His child.
It raises it’s ugly head when I find myself comparing how I am doing with others in the imaginary polls of popularity…
which is particularly dangerous in this day of social media where acceptance by “likes” can prove as much of an inheritance-waster as a quick trip to Vegas for a bachelor party.
Let me tell you, soul-searching is ugly business…
but when you realize you are craving hog slop…
how awesome it is to lift your head and realize your Dad is home preparing your welcome back party.
Every single time.
No matter if you are making your way back from a far country or a brief side track.
I don’t know what your “thing” is, but I know you have one.
We all do.
If you can relate to mine…hear (typo….meant “here”…but please…HEAR them…)
are some verses that remind us where our ‘matter’ matters….
Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God….John 1:12
Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it….1 Corinthians 12:27
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light….1 Peter 2:9
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, AND WHAT WE WILL BE HAS NOT YET BEEN MADE KNOWN, but we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ….1 John 3:1-2
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…Colossians 3:1-3
So…
welcome Home child…
Dad said dinner’s ready and he’s got a new robe for you <3