Hi Friends!
It’s been a while since I’ve written in this space…I’ve been momming (that’s a real word, you know), and working (I started a part-time job at my big girls' school), and just doing this crazy little thing called life—it is a little crazy sometimes, isn’t it?
I have been writing in small bits and pieces in other places, but I’ve missed connecting with you all here. This is where I do my heart writing, my real life writing. Sure, I enjoy writing articles about concussions because I get to interview real life neurosurgeons, which is so cool, or about how coffee is brewed, because there is actually a whole science behind it. But, what I really love to write about is life, and Jesus, and motherhood, and womanhood, and how all of those things intersect. And boy do they ever intersect in the most complicated ways sometimes (um…every day of my life. Am I the only one?).
I’m heading up to Ellicottville this weekend to stay in a big chalet with 20 other women from our church. Some of them I know pretty well, and some of them I only know by name. In both cases I look forward to getting to know all of them on a deeper level, which is what the weekend is all about.
Sometimes, the reality is, we live in community, but we don’t really know our communities because we’re so busy buzzing about, feeding our families (which is important, don’t get me wrong), and doing all of the other things we need to do to keep life moving forward. So, I’m looking forward to the pause: The chance to get to know, on a deeper level, some of my sisters in Christ.
On Saturday I'll have the opportunity to do some teaching from the book of Ephesians, which I'm both excited about and also a wee bit nervous about. I’m excited because I actually do love teaching, but I’m nervous because…well…I hope it all comes out ok.
Here is the irony and the beauty about what we’ll be talking about this weekend—in the book of Ephesians Paul is writing to remind the church to remember what they already have. To remember their identity in Christ and what that means—what that really means in their day-to-day lives. To remember that we are LOVED deeply, that we have strength beyond measure through the Holy Spirit, and that we have this spiritual inheritance that far surpasses the riches of the wealthiest people in the world! And that if we live loved, out of a place of believing ALL of this, that we can have total peace no matter what we're doing, where we are, or what our circumstances are.
In preparation for the weekend I’ve been asking myself two questions in my prayer time every day for the last few weeks. The two questions I’ve been asking, and expecting in faith that God will provide answers on, are:
1. Who am I in Christ?
2. Am I living, really living, out of that knowledge?
I would pose those same questions to you. Who are you in Christ? And are you living, really living, out of that knowledge?
I have to tell you, as I’ve posed those questions to God in my quiet time, He has revealed so much to me, which is exactly what He promises to do ("I keep asking that our glorious Father may give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation so that you may know him better" Eph. 1:17 )
In an effort to remind myself, and my sweet sisters in Christ, about some of the promises of who are we IN Christ I put together a reminder sheet that I’m posting here (see below "In Christ We Are...).
I hope you are blessed by these promises, encouraged, and reminded that—no matter how tired, empty, overwhelmed and insufficient you feel today, that you are deeply loved, and have everything you need to get through this day, to even thrive in this day, in Christ!
To use Paul’s words I pray the following for you today:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19)
