BitterSweetLife

Oceanic generosity: Christ the ocean, his gifts the streams.

If you’d like to hear a statement with devastating implications, I’m about to make one. At the same time, I’ll be acknowledging the ability of our culture to trivialize the truly consequential. Ready? Here we go.

I am a friend of God. (Responses of: "Oh, good for you." "How nice." "You've found religion," etc. But this particular phenomenon justifies another post.)

Back to my main point: So, I am a friend of God. Incidentally, this does have some ramifications. One of them being:

As I am a Christ-friend, Jesus himself is my central advantage—my pleasure, my pursuit, my high-dividend investment. But even the “fringe benefits” of this divine relationship are worth dying for. Such gifts, which I don't directly label “Christ,” are nonetheless generated by his friendship. For example, if you felt…

…an inner sense of purpose, of unique mission, of selection. You sense that you’re designed for a distinctive calling in this life, one, in fact, that only you can fulfill. Lacking a relationship to Jesus, you would be forced to struggle, flail, scratch wildly at a bare existential hillside, but instead, your personality finds traction in the rich soil saturated by Christ’s blood…

In other words, human personality (a hot topic here of late) is actuated through a divine relationship—God imparts purpose. (I think this sense of “calling” is rare enough in our cultural climate to be considered atypical, even "miraculous" or "naïve," depending on who you ask.)

A knowledge of your own created purpose is a great gift. But amazingly, it’s only that. Jesus is a generous master—he deluges his followers with such gifts, subsidiaries of oceanic personal wealth. Streams, rivers, rain; they soothe us, amaze us, refresh us. Without fresh water, life would be a dustbowl. But I would be a fool to turn my back on ocean breakers, wildly beautiful storms, the haunting cries of gulls...and splash exclusively in a convenient stream.

The gifts that rise from knowing Christ are sweet indeed. But don't make the archetypal mistake. If you've been fortunate enough to find divine favor, don’t exchange the Giver for the gift.