Pneuma

Apart from the breath of the Spirit, there is no life. My best efforts are tinker toys and sand castles without the breath of God upon my life.

I don't need more activity, because indiscriminate action is laziness. Instead, what I need is the focus to seek out God's Kingdom first in my life.

The Spirit is the motion of God. He empowers our efforts and comforts in our trials. He is a person. He has thoughts, emotions, ideas, and he wants to be engaged in my life. It's as though He is already moving, and I need to catch up and join him on mission where he is. He is with the homeless and oppressed. He's with the international student who doesn't know why he's here. He's with the rape victim looking for hope. He's with the thousands of people in this city who are splintered and scarred. He's inviting me to join Him. He's inviting us to join Him.

What does this look like? I don't know. I can't predict where the wind will blow, and I can't control where God goes. All I know is that I come alive most when I am where He is. To follow Him requires a loss and a gaining. It's a loss of everything that everyone else considers most precious, and it's a gaining of what actually is most valuable.

We are Redeemed for a Purpose

Here's our story, if we call Jesus our only hope.

Our hearts were broken till they were filled with the God that the universe cannot contain, and this filling is now redemption, salvation, and kingdom life. It's perpetual, it's grandiose, it's microcosmic, and it's glorious.

In all this broken seeking, we arrive emptier than we left, till we find rest in God. Then we realize that what is most wonderful, most excellent is not what we might guess at first; Jehovah Sneaky offers far better satisfaction than any other thing. It simply makes sense that only infinite being could satisfy us more than candy. or beer. or sex. or nice words. or achievement. or whatever you chase after.

 Like C.S. Lewis said, 

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

 And so it's true, that our chief purpose is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. All other desires implode on themselves, if they are pursued as ends, rather than used as means.

Yet even when we grasp hold of our all-filling enjoyment, we must realize that what is our greatest good is the greatest good of those that are still seeking. Many of our friends, many of our families are still making mud pies, because they don't have a frame of reference for something that actually satisfies. Their life is one gigantic implosion. In John seven, Jesus offered water that never ran dry to a woman at a well. This water was all-satisfying. Anything less than this water is about as satisfying as taking a life-giving chug of water, only to have it turn to sand in your mouth.

And it breaks my heart.