The Scandalous Secret

Young boy we met in Santa Ana, El Salvador

Have you ever lost sight of something in its closeness to you? Like searching for the sunglasses that are atop your head? (Yep, me too).  When you finally discover them, there usually comes a sensation of disbelief at the extent of your own inability to acknowledge that which is now obvious.  The masterful disguise of your glasses to hide amongst your hairs may bring about feelings of distancing and loss before they are revealed; but no matter how absent or detached those glasses appear before their unveiling, you soon discover that these shades were right where you wanted them all along.         

“I did not find Divinity because of my eager seeking. I found him when I acknowledged that he had already discovered me, and remained closer than my breath.” – Me

Self-quotes are accepted here. 

The creative eloquence that you read above is a Facebook status that I wrote and soon after decided deserved more attention and explanation than can be shown in a two-lined Sunday status.  My relationship with God is not cored around the idea that His love, passion towards me, and pursuit of my life were provoked by actions I have taken in an attempt to appease or satisfy Him.  His intimacy did not wait for me to invite it, but rested patiently in expectation that I will one day discover its closeness to my heart.  We are no longer waiting for God to show his favor towards us: Jesus' crucifixion did not occur in response to some amount of care mankind showed in an attempt to muster up a sympathetic move from God; his intimacy was woven in and through humanity long before any recognition for it was given or known.  We were loved despite our ignorance of it, but become enlightened when we see his closeness.

God is not a pair of glasses waiting atop your head, He is much closer.  We stand already loved, favored, and pleasing to him.  His intimacy began long ago, our enjoyment of it grows as we see our interwoven God for the nearness he has in our lives.

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (MSG)

The invitation is to walk out a life empowered by God; the scandalous secret is that He is already here.