For Sunday, May 17, 2015 – John 17:6-19
What if we were to begin to believe, as Jesus believed, that everything is given to us from God? Nothing is a mistake. Everything has purpose and meaning uniquely suited for our lives. The person who adores me, along with the one who does not like me so much—given. The tasks that weary me, the dreams that never find fulfilment, all my failures and successes—specially designed and given for my continued growth and blessing. What would change? Would I begin to see more clearly? Would I accept the ‘what is’ more easily? Would I leave the land of complaint and dwell more often in gratitude?
What we believe about what is being given to us depends, of course, upon our basic beliefs about God. Do we believe in a loving and divine presence actively weaving in and through our days? Is there an ultimate order and beauty beyond our little perspectives? Does this presence intervene, interact, inter-relate, and if so, how so? Is God a nurturing mentor, a loving protector, or a harsh and demanding judge? Does God remain aloof, or rush in to do whatever we ask? Does the Holy One trick us into being and doing what we would not choose, or woo us from our hiding places of fear and regret? What we believe about the nature of God changes everything.
When we start to trust the God that Jesus knew, we find the ultimate reality is Love. We learn that everything is being given from an endless source of love. The God that Jesus knew was a God big enough for all his need, a God who could be trusted and deepened into, fathomless yet personal. It makes sense to trust such a God as this, to lean back into the grace being provided through all things, to see it all as good. This kind of God is able to capture our imagination in ways that continually unfold, slowly are revealed. In and through all that comes to us, God becomes more and more known, more and more our own.
