Tasting and Seeing

I'm gushing this morning.  I just can't contain how high, how deep, how rich, how personal the Father's love is for me... for you... for us.  I feel like I took a deep breath and then swam the length of the pool twice and am now internally gasping.  I can't fit in any more air, but I know I need more.

Francis Chan in Crazy Love writes, If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can.

Foolish indeed.

For my can is full and I am brimming not just from feeding on the Word, but brimming from the fragments of his light that seem to pour into my life through the presence of his people.  It's been everything this week.  It's in opportunities bigger and greater than I could imagine.  It's found in the kindness of strangers, and the love of friends.

I received the call from the theatre this week with at least ten co-workers leaning in to hear the results of my auditions.  (Holy moly was not expecting to end up with a role, much less a good one.)  My joy was overflowing simply because of their joy for me.  The woman on the phone could have told me that I didn't get cast and I would have still walked away from yesterday absolutely and delightfully in love with this, whatever this is.  I saw in that moment how God has skillfully and perfectly woven together my desire for community and his plan for fellowship.  It works when we desire good things, heck,  greatness for those around us, and we relinquish our needs and trust his design.

As I learn to check fear at the door I find that there is nothing, nothing that can keep us from realizing and seizing those works that he prepared in advance for us to do.  (Eph. 2:10)  That power, that freedom, that belief is energizing to every aspect of life.  As I drink my coffee and read a book, or speak to my grandmother on the phone, or sit in quietness as someone waits to hear about their mother in the hospital - there is seasoning to be found in it all.

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:13-16, The Message)

I can't even put in words all that is stirring within me, but I know that he has gifted you.  He has called and is calling to you.  Shine on church.  Let them taste and see.  Open up.  

I have tasted and I am satisfied.