Knee Jerk Devotional: December 28, 2020
John 1:9-14
Passage:
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn't even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn't want him.But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
He them made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.
Too often we think that to become a Christian is to become something else. It is as thought we believe that the word, “Christian,” demands a change of the very core of our being. But, it doesn’t. What it means is that we get on the path of wholeness, shalom, peace. It means that we begin the process of becoming our true selves, the best version of ourselves.
Pop singers have sung songs about how the right person will make you into the best version of yourself. I think in some ways that’s true. Amy makes me better. My kids make me better. Every person in my community makes me better. They are all helping me become the best version of myself.
In the midst of this, I am finding that the Holy Spirit is the one that is opening me up to being changed by these people. I can’t explain it. It’s ineffable. But there is something that happens when I intentionally listen to God, I become more open to the people in my life, I become more able to listen and learn from them. There is something that happens in me as I make a decision to yield and trust the Spirit.
Christ coming opened the door wide and full for people to become their true selves. Selves that will flourish in this world. This is what Christmas is really all about. It’s not really about celebrating Jesus’ birthday. It’s really about the coming of the true Light that shines in the dark places to make us who we really are.
We try to hide ourselves in the darkness. But, Christ, the Life-light, doesn’t allow us to hide in the dark places. No, Christ enters in, Christ moves into the neighborhood, Christ dwells among us. The Life-light shines truth even on those things in us that we want to hide and reveals them so we can become the true versions of ourselves.
When we unite our lives with Christ there is no more pretending. When we try to pretend and hide those ugly parts it is with disastrous consequences. We end up experiencing hell on earth. When we yield to the Life-light, to Christ, we get the joy of experiencing heaven on earth.
That’s what heaven is. It’s an eternity of us living as our true selves in the creation as its meant to be.
As we prepare to enter into a new year let’s consider this question together: How can we work to bring heaven to earth right now? What do I need to stop trying to hide from the Life-light? In other words, how do we continue to #lovewell moving forward?
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