Uncommon Wealth

Yesterday was my 38th birthday. I must admit, it was one of the best birthdays I have ever had in my life. The day started waking up to a beautiful 70 degree morning with a perfectly blue sky and a view of desert blooms and cacti growing over the hills surrounding us. We then discovered an amazing breakfast nook, enjoyed a spring training game of the Cubs and then ate dinner outdoors (again with that perfect 70 degree weather and slight breeze) with the view of the desert during dusk and the "world famous" fountain of fountain hills. Driving through the townships surrounding Phoenix, you can see amazing wealth of palatial homes and poverty of crowded trailer parks with barely the space to breathe between one mobile home to the next. Between the people struggling to find work and those who have retired into a life of luxury, David and I enjoyed a day that is probably one of the most perfect days of my life.

Over the past few months, I have become more and more aware of my incredible wealth in this life. Between studying about deep intimacy with the Holy Spirit and diving ever more deeply into the love of God described in 1 Corinthians 13, I have experienced a type of awakening to the reality of my life. In the normal day to day habits of work and chores and disciplining kids, it can be easy to overlook the blessings that infuse each day. At the beginning of January, I very intentionally pursued seeing God move in the every day of life. I wanted a better understanding of what it meant to experience the "life to the full" that Jesus intends for His people. I knew the indwelling of the Spirit was supposed to be more than the few moments of peace and reflection during my daily quiet time. God promised His continual presence and I wanted to know what that tangibly looked like in an overfilled schedule of modern day America. 

In Ephesians 3, Paul writes : For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14-19)

This amazing passage has been described by Tim Keller as a passage to instruct us on how to meditate on the richness of God's love. That we would examine God's love to try to explore its breadth, and length and height and depth. The picture I always imagine comes from sitting on the balcony of a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, when you can't see any other land. How could one possible measure the depths and breath of such vastness? How could one ever fully comprehend all that it holds and the depths beyond where we can see? Like that ocean, God's love is endless - it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor 13:7). 

This uncommon wealth comes from the riches of His glory - an endowment from God Almighty to His beloved children. His desire is to strengthen our inner selves to better be filled with the fullness of His love. We are incapable of experiencing the fullness of His love without first being strengthened in our inner selves. And that is the journey I have enjoyed over the past few months that led me to this moment of extraordinary gratitude and contentment. In pursuing strength and discipline and self control (through the Holy Spirit - certainly not in my own effort) God has prepared in my heart a fertile soil in which He can grow my comprehension of His love. 

This isn't that God loves me any more - for His love is always perfect and boundless. But now, He is preparing in me the ability to better receive His love. He is opening my eyes to see His graciousness in the everyday. He is softening my heart to experience His presence in the ordinary and underwhelming nature of life. He is opening my ears to hear the sweet love song He sings over me, instead of being caught up in the noise of our culture. He is stripping away the walls that have held Him at arms distance, to better experience His embrace.

We must first be strengthened or we would collapse under the substantial weightiness of His perfect love. Like Moses in the cleft of the rock, we must be shielded from the glory of God, until the day comes where we are made like Him and can see Him face to face. This world is filled with things and stuff that distract us, entertain us, please us, fill us, disappoint us, hurt us and always, whether seemingly good or bad, leave us empty and wanting more. But God has a richness that cannot be measured on a balance sheet or bank account. The supernatural glory of His love is beyond what anything made with human hands can contain. Even our own spirits, made in the nature of God Himself, cannot fully experience all He wants to give...yet. But as we more and more open ourselves to Him, we can know His riches, no matter where life has you now.

May you know God's rich love even more deeply today....