Letting Go

It seems like it's been a while since I posted on here. Life goes on, people come and go, days turn into months and here we are, back at school, back at life, back to life at light speed. I tend to be the kind of person with positive things to say and I just haven't had a lot of that recently, not that life has been terrible, but simply vanilla. And that is no one's fault but my own. You see, it seems that the stresses of a menial summer job and the repetition and rigmarole of schedule lulled me into survival mode rather than a desire to grow and thrive. As I sit back in a creaky desk in Virginia, I realize that I let a lot of things fly by me this summer. A lot of things I know I could have fought for, I could have protected: My time, my energy, my friends, but most importantly, my growth in Christ. This morning I sat in a auditorium with a couple thousand of my friends from the School of Divinity and the School of Music. And together we sang five words that, if true, will change a life forever: "Christ is enough for me". These words are a lot of things. The first of which: An understatement. For of course, Christ is more than enough. The beauty of the Gospel of Christ is that not only does it fulfill us, it overflows and spills into those around us. The full breadth of the Gospel isn't really even comprehensible this side of heaven, so of course these words ring true. But these words are much more than a statement of fact, rather they are a decisive. For, although Christ is more than enough, how many of us live that way? We can sing "Hallelujah, all I have is Christ!" but can we truly tell ourselves that we live that truth out? So then, these lyrics must be combined. "All I have is Christ and Christ is enough for me." This is a concept like the tagline of Othello: "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." And that's yet another awe-inducing aspect of the Gospel. A five year old can understand Jesus' love for him, and yet when I am 92 I will have tasted but a small morsel of the full measure of God's goodness. Everything without Jesus is nothing, and Jesus plus nothing is everything. I've gone a little bit all over the place here, but the bottom line is this: The culture is trying to tell me a lot of things matter and my heart so wants to believe it. In fact it often does. But when my heart and head are full of lies, my roots dig down deep into the Truth, the one who was with God and was God, Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah, Yahweh, Mighty God.

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2nd Corinthians 12:9-10