The Real part 1
More and more lately I've been shifting my focus away from frivilous things and onto important things. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I feel like I just don't have as much time to waste as I used to. I don't want to do things just to do them. Just because society expects me to do them. I don't want to go through the motions. I want to live. I don't want surface stuff. I want deep stuff. I don't want fake. I want real. And the only thing that's real to me... is love. Real life, true life, eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life IS love. It's relationships that go further than just being someone's aquantance. Rather than just knowing ABOUT somebody... the real is KNOWING somebody. Not head knowledge, but heart knowledge. This can be tricky though, and that's why I'm going to explore it for the next couple of days. And I want to start with 2 Corinthians 4:18, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Temporal. Fake. Eternal. Real. That's the difference. Let me say it another way: We're always told to "face the facts." But truth is HIGHER than facts. Because the fact of the matter may be that something LOOKS bad. But the truth of the matter is that ALL things (no matter what they look like) are working together for the good. So if it's working toward the good, no matter what it looks like, can it really be "bad"? When we step out of the appearance realm, the real of duality, the realm of good and evil, and step into the realm of LIFE then things get real. And isn't it interesting that Paul tells us to LOOK at the things which are not seen? That means we're not using our natural eyes. We're using our Spiritual eyes. The dove's eyes of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of grace. The eyes that see clearly because the light is shining to reveal things as they truly are. Not bad and getting worse, but perfect and complete. "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10). So what's the real? WE are! We have this idea of, "Well, I'm not perfect." YES YOU ARE! Because the perfect One lives inside you. Lives through you. Lives AS you. What we need to do is redefine "perfect." Perfect doesn't mean, "Never make a mistake." If you never make a mistake you can never learn from your mistakes. Perfect means mature, complete. And while that may FEEL like a process of God maturing us or completing us--that idea that, "I'm a work in progress"--really all it is is an unveiling of our maturity and completeness. We ARE complete in Him. That's a done deal. It is finished. And as He reveals Himself TO us, He reveals Himself THROUGH us. That's where our love for one another comes from. And, as I said, that's what's real. Love. Something you can't always see, in the natural (until it becomes charity, love in action), but something that you CAN always be! SomeONE that you can always be as you let HIM be Himself in you and through you and as you.