Today’s meditation is from Theodyssey, an organization for spiritual seekers who long for something more.
“Making our home in Christ” [John 15:5-8] can feel like a crazy concept in our hi-tech world. But it didn’t during most of history. Our culture is biased against anything that cannot be measured. Mystery, beauty, truth, and belonging cannot be calibrated. In Google’s world of everything binary, “ambiguity is not an opening for insight, but a bug to be fixed.” Don’t be intimidated: mystery and technology can share the same playground. Give yourself a lifetime to ponder, wrestle with, and embrace the mystery of Christ. When we receive Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us [John 14:15-17]. Question: What part of us? How we answer has significant implications for the way we conceive of and experience our relationship with Jesus. The Bible suggests that the Holy Spirit resides at the center of a self-shaped by our entire life development process. This includes every dimension of our inner being: thinking, self-esteem, sexuality, disabilities, emotions, perceptions, longings, virtues, family dynamics, motivation, intelligence, lies we believe, fears, affections, hopes, dysfunctions, conscience, addictions, failures, self-concept, memories, personality, habits, will, strengths, co-dependencies, how we value things, weaknesses, boundaries, etc. Jesus’ invitation to make our home in him involves the whole person. This can feel very uncomfortable for those whose faith is primarily a cognitive affair. The Bible provides practical insight into the dynamics of the inner person, regularly referred to as the “heart.” The most frequent Old Testament word for “heart” (leb) occurs at least 850 times. The heart was considered the location of every interior activity. The Greek word kardia, “heart,” appears at least 210 times in the New Testament and refers to the center of our emotional and spiritual life. This inner life is the core of who we are and becomes the domain of the Holy Spirit. In what ways has your life development process shaped how you relate to Jesus today?
Prayer:
Written by Matthew Dickerson, a contemporary Christian author and professor of Computer Science at Middlebury College in Vermont.
You have clothed us with skin and flesh, you have fenced us with bones and sinews, you have granted us life and favor, and your presence preserves our spirits. You are the Father of our spirits, for you formed our spirits within us, and made us these souls. The spirit of God has made us, and the breath of the almighty has given us life. You put wisdom in the inward parts and give our hearts understanding. Amen.
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