Healing Is in His Hands

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I mentioned last week that my prayer times with Jesus lately have evidenced his deep intent to come to where you are — that he is praying over you and cares for you with a great compassion and a fierce urgency. 

As I continue to spend time with Jesus each day, I see him continuing to pray with great intent over the place you live. As he prays and prepares to enter in and find you, I am looking upon a great city and know that he will come to each and every place inside of it to find you. He will enter buildings and walk on streets and sit inside taxi cabs to encounter you and have you know him and be known by him. 

He will even come to the lost and forgotten places in the dark where you may hide.

He will not overlook a single nook and cranny. He will not give up his search for you. He will enter your dark places with the light of his love and truth. He will encounter you on the sidewalk and offer you new life. He seeks to enliven and redeem and restore all of who you are.

The song above is his promise. No matter where you are or what you have encountered, no matter what you feel or what you believe, his love for you is strong and wide and deep and high and never-ending. All the healing you need and seek is found in his capable and redemptive hands. 

Will you allow him to find you?

What Jesus Is Here to Offer You

Jesus did not begin his work of ministry on the earth until he was 30 years old.

For the first 30 years of his life, he grew up in his family home with brothers and sisters, learned the family trade to become a carpenter, honored his father and mother, and engaged the leaders in the synagogue regularly concerning the teachings of the Scriptures.

The book of Luke says that as Jesus grew up, he “grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him” (Luke 2:38). It also says that “Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people” (v. 52).

But it wasn’t until Jesus was 30 years old that he came into the public eye as the proclaimed Messiah that Israel had been waiting for.

At that time, he went down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. Then he received the Holy Spirit and went straight into the desert for 40 days to fast. While he was in the desert, the devil tempted him several times to give up his position as the Son of God and the work of ministry he was about to set out to do.

But he emerged from those temptations victorious, and when he came out of the wilderness after 40 days of wandering around inside of it, he went straight to the temple in Nazareth to begin his life of ministry among the people.

Do you know what Jesus said to the people to officially mark the beginning of his purposed work? He told everyone seated in the temple that day what he, the Messiah, had come to do. He opened the scroll to the book of Isaiah and read these words: 

“The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me

   because God anointed me.

He sent me to preach good news to the poor,

   heal the heartbroken,

Announce freedom to all captives,

   pardon all prisoners.

God sent me to announce the year of his grace —

   a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies —

   and to comfort all who mourn,

To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,

   give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,

Messages of joy instead of news of doom,

   a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.” 

— Isaiah 61:1-3 

Here is what Jesus has to offer you.

He comes to bring you welcome news. He comes to heal you. He wants to set you free from bondage. He comes to pardon you. He is here to bring you comfort. He comes to destroy your enemies. He’s here to care for your needs. He brings you beauty instead of ashes. He brings you joy instead of gloom. He is here to fully restore your languishing heart.

Do you want to receive this gift from Jesus? 

How Do You Receive Love?

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the intention Jesus has toward you and the way he is coming for you and wants to know you and be known by you.

This is motivated by his deep love and care for you. 

I’m curious to know what that notion of love means to you. Do you have an idea in mind of what it means to be loved by someone? Do you know what it feels like to receive love? How comfortable are you with being open to the experience of receiving love? 

I know that for me, when I began to receive love from Jesus, the thing that changed everything was the way I felt seen and heard by him. There was a moment in time — a distinct experience in prayer (which I look forward to sharing in full detail with those enrolled in the Gospel immersion course this fall!) — where, for the first time, I got to know the way Jesus looks at me and listens to me.

It was completely unexpected. Never before had I realized he looked at me that way or listened to me so intently. And never before had I realized my need to be seen and heard in such an intent, loving, accepting, and safe way in order to experience and receive love. 

I can say with confidence that my experience of Jesus in that moment changed the way I began to receive and experience love from that point on. It not only changed the way I experienced my belovedness before God, but it also began to filter into my daily life and the way I experienced myself in the world and in relation to other people. 

When you think of the notion of receiving love, what does that look like and feel like to you? What would it take for you to feel completely safe and vulnerable before another person, in order to receive the experience of being loved?

It's Just Jesus

I’ve been quite taken by surprise over these last couple weeks as Jesus has shown to me his deep intention regarding you. The surprise has come from noticing the way everything else has fallen away. 

All that matters is Jesus. 

I’m not someone who has been particularly bold about Jesus in my life’s journey. There came a point where he inserted himself much more prominently into my life and experience of God than I’d ever experienced him before, and that was a deeply personal encounter of God for me. I shared it with those closest to me as it unfolded over time, and those who know me best know that I have a particular love and special connection to Jesus. 

But that wasn’t something I boldly invited others to experience. It was simply my own experience. 

It’s very clear to me now that Jesus wants me to share him with you.

He wants me to invite you to notice him, to consider him, to get to know who he is, and to hold and consider the invitations he offers you. 

He wants me to invite you to turn and look at him and then discover what you see in looking at him. Here is what the apostle Paul says we will discover: 

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels — everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

— Colossians 1:15-16

What matters most to me now is this idea that Jesus is the central truth. In the end, it’s all about Jesus. 

This is why I’m creating the Gospel immersion course, to be offered here in the fall. I am also in the process of creating a video that shares more of my heart toward you concerning this course and will give you a sense of what the course will be like as you consider joining us for that journey. (And I certainly hope you will!)

I cannot fathom a more important journey than the one of getting to know Jesus, the one who holds everything together and is the visible image of the invisible God and who teaches us who we really are. 

What are your impressions of Jesus? Do you have any desire to get to know more of who he really is?

He Is Praying Over You

One thing I’ll say is that Jesus and I communicate through images a lot. If you’ve ever followed along on my personal blog for any length of time, you’ll know what I mean when I say that. In that space, over the last several years, I have occasionally shared stories of how God has shown up in images to me and used them to teach me about himself and his heart toward me, and also to teach me about myself. 

The same is true in this space.

For the last couple months, ever since I began the commitment of writing these week-daily reflective posts for you, I have sat in prayer with Jesus every morning and talked with him about what he wants to say to you here each day. In those times of prayer, he and I are often walking and talking together about you. Sometimes we stop and sit on a bench for the conversation. Other times he has led me to surprising places, such as the large and sturdy rock he wanted me to show you. 

Each of those daily conversations inform what I write in this space for you each day.

Yesterday, I shared with you that a sense of urgency has evidenced itself in my prayer times with Jesus of late. I told you that he has set his face toward you and is very intentionally walking faster toward the places where you are. 

That sense of urgency began to crop up in these morning prayer times in the last week or two. On the very first morning it happened, we went from walking and talking together at a slow and even pace to suddenly walking much more quickly up a hill. Rather than walking side by side, Jesus was leading me somewhere. I followed, wondering what was on his mind and in his intent.

He led me to the top of a hill, and together we looked down upon a city in the distance. It was the city where you live and move each day. He showed me we were going there. And then he drew my attention to this passage of Scripture:

Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd.

— Matthew 9:35-37

Jesus has come upon the place where you live, and his heart has broken for you. As we stood atop that hill, he looked down at that city where you live and prayed over you out of the fullness of his heart and the compassion that moves him to care for and come after you. 

He is coming to where you are, and he wants to give you life. 

Will you let him enter the place where you live? 

He Is Passionate for You

Every morning, I sit at my desk in a small, windowed corner of my home and talk to Jesus about you. Every day, the questions are the same: “What do you want to say today, Jesus? What do they need to hear?”

In the early days of writing these week-daily posts for you, there was a real sense of slowness, of care, and of gentleness and sometimes stillness in God’s heart toward you in this place. The posts, therefore, took on a similarly reflective and gentle pace.

But more recently, Jesus is revealing to me his heart of real passion and intentionality toward you. 

He wants you to know him. 

And the truth is, he is coming for you. In my prayer times with Jesus, I see him walking faster toward the places where you are. His face is set toward you. He wants to be with you. 

What is it like for you to hear of Christ’s passion for you and his intent to reach you? What is it like to imagine being reached by him?

Where Does Your Belief in God Come From?

Yesterday I invited you to consider the question, “What do you believe about God?” This had to do with considering the beliefs you hold about God’s character, way of being, and approximation of us.

Today I want to invite you into a bit of your life history with a more basic question: “Where does your belief in God come from?”

What stories, people, and experiences influenced your belief (or lack of belief) in God?

What Do You Believe About God?

We’ve talked quite a bit about the process of formation this week — about how formation happens in two different ways, that what we’re trying to secure on the first level of formation is ultimately meant to be given to us by God, and that such relief from the heavy burden of our ego is found when we’re able to place our cares in the hands of God.

But doing so doesn’t happen automatically. How do we know God is worthy of that trust? 

So much of this has to do with what we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves. For instance, if we don’t believe in God, that second level of formation won’t exist for us. In that case, the first level — how we interact with the world and what we come to believe about ourselves and other people in it — is all we’ll have. 

But if we do believe in God, that shifts things around a bit. What do we believe about God? What does God have to do with us? What kind of entity is God? 

Our beliefs about God inform our beliefs about ourselves. These are the existential questions. 

When I write reflections for you to consider in this space, I come from an orientation of belief in God. Specifically, I am a follower of Jesus. This means that the person of Jesus — his life and teachings — do much to inform my understanding of who God is and who I am. 

I believe that the more we get to know Jesus, the more we come to know God and ourselves. (This is one reason I’m creating the Gospel immersion course, to be offered here in the fall: so that we can better get to know the person of Jesus, and therefore better get to know God and ourselves. Can’t wait to share this with all of you!)

But what about you? What do you believe about God? How does that belief inform your understanding of yourself? 

Trusting God with Our Ego

Yesterday and today, I woke with a feeling of heaviness that seemed to show up out of nowhere. As I have carried the feeling around with me and tried to understand it, the only word that has resounded again and again is the word sad. 

For some reason I didn’t fully understand, I felt sad. 

This morning, as I came before Jesus in prayer with these feelings, I hardly knew what to say and barely had the energy to stay with him in prayer. I just kept coming back to that same word: sad. 

So I told him I was feeling sad.

And even though our prayer times lately have included a lot of walking and talking together, this morning I just wanted to stop and have him look at these feelings of sadness I felt. I didn’t understand them, but perhaps he would help me see what was there and why it was there.

I stood before him and looked into his eyes and just told him, “I’m feeling sad.” I told him I didn’tunderstand where it was coming from, but there it was nonetheless. And slowly, slowly, I heard him speaking to me. 

My grace is sufficient for you. My yoke is easy. 

Jesus helped me see that my sadness stemmed from getting twisted up inside the first level of formation these last few days. Without realizing it, my ego has gotten mired in the things I have been given to do. When the stakes seem high or the way unclear, when the plans have gone awry and I have needed to keep moving forward, I have feared failure. I have feared my intentions won’t matter and my efforts won’t be enough. 

And then the world seems like a huge and scary place. 

But Jesus looked at me this morning and said, “My grace is sufficient for you. Cast your cares upon me and let me care for you. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. This is my work through you. I will see it through to completion in the way I intend it to be done.”

There is something immensely relieving about not having to hold all the pieces of our worlds together. It really does create a lightness of being that’s a bit inexplicable, a sense of participating in something larger than us for which we are given an easy role to play. As it turns out, our worth and performance is not on the line as we’d imagined they were. 

This is what comes from trusting our ego into God’s hands instead of holding on to it ourselves. 

Can you relate to this struggle with the ego? Does it ever feel like a huge and unbearable burden to bear and maintain? What is it like for you to consider trusting God with your ego instead? 

How Do the Two Levels of Formation Interact?

Yesterday we explored the concept that formation happens on two levels — one level concerned with self-protection and one level concerned with discovering and recovering the truth of ourselves in God’s eyes. 

In the comments section, Katy asked a great question: 

How do you think those two types of formation interact with and inform each other? 

I think there are probably many layers to the answer. I suspect in our times of reflection together in this space, we will continue to revisit these two levels of formation to consider concrete ways that either level is or has been at work in our lives and to discover ways in which the two interact. 

But today, as I considered this question, I did land on one way that I believe these two levels speak to one another and teach us something about who we are and the quest each of us are taking toward wholeness and ultimate security in God. That way is this: 

The first level of formation that is concerned with protecting and promoting the self — when examined — teaches us much about the identity and security we ultimately will find in God. 

The thing about the first level of formation is that it is wholly devoted to acts of self-preservation. All that we believe and choose and seek on that level has to do with our ongoing longing and hope for security, acceptance, and love. On that level, our greatest fears are being alone and lacking significance. Everything we choose to believe about the world and how we then interact with it is geared toward self-preservation and a hope that we truly matter. 

The recovery work on the second level of formation — the level where we continually discover who we are to God and begin to abide in relationship with God — eventually teaches us that everything we sought so valiantly to attain and keep on that first level of formation already exists in our relationship with God. 

With God, we eventually discover the reality of full acceptance and love that never ends and can never be taken from us or lost. With God, we discover the reality of always being wanted and sought out. We’re never left alone, and are our value is immense and esteemed and unchanging. Our existence carries intention and meaning to God.

These are, paradoxically, hard truths to grasp.

Although in God we ultimately find all that we sought with all our might on the first level of formation, such reality is not readily apparent. It takes time to discover. We must get to know God and get to know ourselves. Eventually, those two entities — God and ourselves — must begin to interact and form relationship in order for us to eventually receive and settle into these gifts of security, acceptance, and love God has to give us.

And again, discovering and settling into the truth of ourselves in God is a process that lasts our lifetime. 

What is your response to this idea? Where are you in your process of understanding yourself on either level of formation? 

Formation Happens on Two Levels

I’ve been reading a little book by David Benner called The Gift of Being Yourself — a very profound and rich little book, I might add — and it has me thinking a lot these days about the self and how it is formed. 

This morning, for instance, I got to thinking about that moment when I was 19 that I’ve mentioned here before when it felt like scales fell from my eyes and I realized everything about myself, my life, and my faith was quite different than I’d always thought it was. In that moment, I began a more conscious understanding of and participation in my formation as a person on two distinct levels. 

The first part of that process was learning how I’d been formed over the course of my life in conscious and unconscious ways. Who had I become, and why? 

This level of formation is happening all throughout our lives whether we know it or not. We’ve talked about this previously, too, but in each moment of our lives, depending on what we choose to do, how we choose to respond, how we spend our time, and even the feelings and thoughts we have in response to different situations, our personhood is being formed. 

Ultimately, this first level of formation has to do with beliefs we form around the experiences we have.

It’s a kind of formation we dictate and control — whether we’re aware we’re doing it or not — based on the kind of person we want to be or the quality of life we want to have. It is most often concerned with self-preservation and self-advancement.

But there’s a second level of formation, and our awareness of this second level emerges like a process of recovery. 

Think of it like cleaning a window that has been coated with thick paint that’s been there for years. We take a rag and pail of solution to it, and slowly, slowly the window becomes clear. We eventually can see the window as it was originally created to be seen, rather than the years of paint coated over it. 

This second level of formation is like that. It is a process of discovering the person we really are that was determined about us by God before we were born. It is the person God intends for us to be and knows us to be at our core, and it is the person God is steadily desiring to bring more and more to the surface. 

I say it is like a process of recovery because who we are at our deepest core level, as created and determined by God, already exists in the fullness of God’s awareness but not the fullness of our own. Our lifetime with God in Christ is meant to be an ongoing process of recovery of the person God made us to be.

In reading this, do you have any sense of connection to either level of formation at work in your life? What has been your understanding of the process of formation that happens in us over a lifetime? What is your response to knowing these two types of formation exist?

Trust in the Messiah

I’ve recently been reading through a number of Paul’s letters to the churches that he wrote throughout his life and have found them to be an interesting complement to the Gospels. The Gospels allow us to learn who Jesus is by following him along in the narratives of his life. Paul’s letters expound on those narratives by telling us what it all means. 

So in Paul’s letters, we’re helped along in our understanding of what those of us in the Christian faith believe. 

This morning, as I spent time in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, I was brought to a moment of noticing what has been happening here on this site in the last week and a half and how it relates to what we believe in the Christian faith.

In this space for the last week and a half, we’ve been talking pretty consistently about the notion of rest. We spent several days with a meditation that began with the image of a large and sturdy rock. We were invited to sit down and rest a while on that rock, then to notice the flowers at our feet, and then to notice the presence of Christ sitting with us in that scene. 

We also talked about Jesus being the salt in our lives — of his saltiness being the flavor we taste and the density that buoys us as we experience the ocean. We considered what it would be like to have encountered Jesus on earth during the days he lived here, and we held inside ourselves the idea that he comes to where we are — no matter where we are — and is present to us there. We also considered his role as the Good Shepherd and his intent to lead us beside still waters and feed us on lush green grasses. 

All of this, to me, seemed like an ongoing invitation to rest and to allow Jesus to be the one who is with us and does the “work” of being what we need and providing for us.

So as I read through a section of Paul’s letter to the Galatians this morning, I noticed a convergence between these meditations we’ve considered over the last week and a half and the foremost premise of the Christian faith.

The bedrock of the Christian faith is our trust in Jesus as the Messiah. Paul says: 

Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good. 

— Galatians 2:16

There is something foundational about our belief and faith in Jesus. Who he is matters. And our ongoing relationship with him is the essence of our formation process.

Today, I invite you to consider the question: who is Jesus to you? Is he — or could at some point be — the Messiah in whom you place your trust?

He Will Lead You Beside Still Waters

I think a lot about Jesus. Over the last ten years, he has become the most prominent figure in my spiritual life and connection to God. I love what Paul says about him: that Christ “gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get” (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

Isn’t that amazing? In looking at Jesus, we get to see God. 

Jesus used many metaphors to describe himself, and we could probably occupy ourselves for an entire lifetime just thinking deeply on each of those metaphors.

For today, I want us to consider the metaphor of shepherd. 

We have explored previously the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and what it is like for us, as sheep, to be a part of his fold. There is gentleness there, and kindness. There is provision and being seen. Jesus knows each of our names. 

Today, I want us to consider a couple lines from the very familiar Good Shepherd psalm, which says: 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

—Psalm 23:1-3

The Message version of this passage says it this way:

God, my shepherd!

I don’t need a thing.

You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

you find me quiet pools to drink from.

True to your word,

you let me catch my breath

and send me in the right direction. 

I love that image of being “bedded down in lush meadows,” don’t you? There’s such a feeling of rest and comfort, like sinking into a huge, billowy, soft bed with luxurious goose-down pillows and comforters. And the image of having quiet pools from which to drink and a chance to catch our breath — what a relief!

Life with Jesus does not mean life without danger or distress. Sheep herds get attacked by wolves. Every year, they must be sheared. They have to travel each day somewhere to get exercise and food and drink. Sometimes sheep get lost. 

But walking as a sheep in the fold that’s led by Jesus means always being cared for by him in each situation. He knows the soft meadows and still waters you need. He will lead you there. He companions with you there and stays with you as you drink and eat and rest. If you get lost, he comes after you. He knows if you are missing. 

What is it like for you to receive Jesus’ presence in your life in this way? Can you allow yourself to rest in the lush meadow and drink from the still waters he offers you today?

He Will Meet You Where You Are

In the late summer of 1998, my life and faith and self-perception went through a major upheaval. It was like I had been walking along with every expectation that I knew myself and God very well, but then, in one unexpected revelatory moment, saw everything that I thought had been right-side-up turn suddenly upside-down. 

Working through the aftermath of that revelation felt a bit like picking up all kinds of tiny pieces of my life and looking at each one intently, then slowly but surely and steadily putting the pieces back together in a more true, real way.

The following years were messy. Everything I thought made sense did not make sense anymore. I learned things about myself I’d never known before. 

I learned things about God that were new too. 

Many years later, reflecting on that difficult, long, yet redemptive season of my life, I came to realize what it actually means to be loved by God.

It means being met where we are. 

Paul talks about this in his letter to the Philippians. He talks about Jesus, saying: 

Jesus had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human.

— Philippians 2:5-7

I remember coming across these verses years after that upheaval happened and having an image in my mind of what had happened during that long and difficult season. Jesus left heaven and came to meet me there in my confusion and distress. I didn’t know who I was anymore, and he was with me through my struggle to understand. 

He didn’t expect me to get it together and figure it out before I could be with him. Instead, he came to where I was in all my messiness and stayed with me there. I didn’t need to work my way to heaven to gain his presence and attention. Instead, he came to me.

Can you allow God to meet you where you are today? What would it be like to simply have the presence of another in the truth of your life? Can you allow that other presence to be God? 

What If You Had Encountered Jesus Back Then?

I grew up with a very strong awareness of Jesus’ presence in my daily life. It was normal for me to go about my days as a young girl with an awareness of him near me, and I can’t remember a time I didn’t know he was there.

But something shifted when I read the Gospels “at a run” (as N. T. Wright would put it) about ten years ago. 

When I immersed myself in the Gospels over the course of several intense weeks in the spring of 2001, Jesus became real in a very new and different way to me than he ever had before.

I’d always known he lived and died on the earth. I grew up reading the Bible and was familiar with all the stories of things he’d said and done. But for perhaps the first time in that spring of 2001, it began to sink in, in a much more real way, that Jesus had walked on actual roads and talked to actual people. He had shared actual meals with people, drank wine and ate bread, laughed and cried, prayed and felt distress. His actual fingers had touched actual eyes and caused real people to see. People had actually seen and felt the texture of his robe.

All of this was real. As a person who had actually existed in history, these things had happened in real time and space. 

It’s so strange how something you know can become something you know in a new and deeper way, isn’t it? 

Today I want to invite you to consider the actual time and place of the life of Jesus. What if you were there? How might you have encountered him?

Allow yourself to consider what that might have been like for you. Would you have been a person in the crowd who heard him teach or watched him heal? Would you have dined with him and his inner circle of friends? How might you have come in contact with him? What might you have wanted to say or do in his presence, if you could?

Jesus Is the Salt

This morning I’ve been thinking a lot about sea salt. It sounds strange to say that, since I can’t say that I normally spend time thinking on such a subject, but when I asked Jesus what he wanted to talk about in this space today, those are the two words that kept coming out of his mouth. 

Sea salt. 

Every time he said those words, I thought of two related passages in Scripture. First, there is the excerpt in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about our lives being salty: 

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”

— Matthew 5:13

And then there is the passage where Peter gets out of the boat on a dark night and walks on water to meet Jesus in the ocean: 

“Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, ‘Master, save me!’ Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, ‘Faint-heart, what got into you?’”

— Matthew 14:30-31

As I got to thinking more about sea salt this morning — and doing a little research! — I learned that it’s the salt in the ocean water that gives us our buoyancy when swimming or floating. Anything floating in saltwater is being held up by the density of salt inside that water. 

I think what Jesus wants to tell you this morning is that he is the source of saltiness inside you. He’s also what holds you up in ocean waters, when otherwise you would sink.

Consider these words Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians: 

“Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you… We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.”

— 2 Corinthians 4:5, 7

If we didn’t have Jesus, we would be ordinary clay pots — nothing special to look at, with no power of our own in this world. We would be, in the eyes of this world, simply ordinary. But with Jesus inside of us, we become salt. We carry flavor that isn’t run of the mill. And when immersed in deep and choppy waters, he, as the salt, holds us up. 

Perhaps today you feel the pressure to be more than ordinary. Perhaps you feel like you are drowning. In truth, all you need to cling to is Jesus. It is Jesus who holds you up. It is Jesus who makes you extraordinary.

Will you let him carry you today? Will you hold his flavor on your lips?

Imagine Jesus with You

As you sit upon that large and sturdy rock and consider the flowers growing at your feet, begin to imagine Jesus sitting with you in that scene. He may be sitting on a bench across from you or kneeling at your feet.

Can you see him? 

Don’t feel any expectation or pressure to say anything to him or to hear him say anything to you. Just get used to his presence being with you in the scene.

Sit there quietly with him for a few moments. 

And as you sit in the quiet with Jesus, consider these words he used to describe himself: 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

— Matthew 11:28-30

When we think of Jesus, many beliefs and images may come to mind. We may remember different scenes from the Gospel accounts that have taught us certain things about him. We may have a particular image in mind when we simply think his name. 

In this moment, simply consider these few words he spoke about himself. Notice the invitation to come to him and rest. Notice that he calls himself gentle and humble in heart. Notice that he says his offering to you is easy and light. 

What is it like for you to be in the presence of Jesus in this quiet moment? What is it like for you to hold these words he speaks about himself?

Consider the Flowers

As you are sitting on that large and sturdy rock from yesterday’s meditation, I want to invite you to notice the small flowers springing up from the ground at the base of the rock. 

Can you see them?

Take a moment to really look at those flowers. What colors are they? Are there different kinds? What are their petals like? What about their centers? What are their stems like? What do you notice about the soil they grow from?

Sit with the image for a few moments and really notice the flowers growing below you. Then consider Jesus’ words: 

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.

— Matthew 6:28

The flowers are quite beautiful, aren’t they? And they are beautiful simply doing what they do: growing from the ground, being gorgeous and worthy of our care and admiration without even trying. 

You are beautiful that way too. 

Can you allow yourself to receive that same care and admiration from God as you sit upon that rock, simply for existing and being who you are? 

A Place to Rest

This morning, as I was talking to Jesus about this space and asking him what you most needed to receive today, I kept seeing in my mind’s eye a large rock resting off to the side of the path where Jesus and I were walking. It was the perfect rock for sitting down and taking a rest. 

Jesus kept directing my attention to the rock. He wanted me to invite you to sit down upon the rock and rest a while. 

It brought to mind a simple song of worship that I grew up singing in church. Perhaps you have heard it before. One of the lines in the song asks God to place our feet upon a rock. To me, that line has always been a request for God’s protection from harm. A rock is sturdy and cannot move. If our feet are placed upon it, then we are safe in its sturdiness, too.

Whatever may come alongside the way of the rock won’t be able to sweep us underfoot. 

Place my feet upon a rock, God.

About a year ago, I recorded that simple little worship song as a meditation for another website I maintain. I am embedding the video here so that perhaps you will find it helpful as an invitation to prayer for your own heart. Perhaps it will become a form of prayer for you as sit upon that large and sturdy rock on the side of the path where Jesus is inviting you to rest. 

Approximate run time: 2 minutes

If you’re unable to see the video, click here.

Can you imagine that large and sturdy rock on the side of the path? Will you let yourself sit down upon it? What is it like for you to receive the invitation to sit and rest here for a while?

He Wants to Know You

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from walking with Jesus these last many years, it’s that he wants to know each one of us in a deep and true way. 

It seems a little funny to say that because he already does know us — even better than we know ourselves, even. He doesn’t require us to tell him about ourselves in order to know the truth of who we are and what’s inside of us. 

However, there’s a difference between knowing God knows the depths of our hearts and choosing to be known in the depths of our hearts. Isn’t there? 

It’s like the difference between saying, “Why should I pray? God already knows what I’m going to say or ask anyway,” and consciously choosing to speak to God about the things that lay bare the thoughts and questions and requests we have. The first one accepts that God is God and knows everything. The second one involves us in the process and creates a connection. It creates a relationship between us and God. 

I have learned over and over that walking with Jesus is a process of becoming known in this second way: of opening our hearts to him and choosing to be known. 

And the amazing, beautiful thing about it is that he wants to know you in this way more than anything. He listens. He waits. He pays attention. He cares to hear what you have to say. He takes it seriously. He is fully present to you.

Do you choose to let yourself be known by Jesus in this way? Do you want to? Why or why not?