The Simple Life

Since my last post, God has brought me back to a very simple way of living. Not a life of ease, just simplistic. The other day I spent time talking with my sister and chased other people's blogs and even other people's favorite blogs. Through my conversation with her and reading all these blog excerpts about relationships, changed lives, hurts, growing up, joys, struggles... life, I came face to face with the other people's realities. It was as if I was living the chorus of Brandon Heath's song, Give Me Your Eyes. And that is when the last few chapters I'd been reading in 1 Corinthians began to sink in to somewhere deep inside. It is about a way of living... "But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all." (1 Corinthians 12:31)


"If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2) There is much to be gained in depth and fullness in real relationship with God, but it is worth nothing to us if we do not use it to love others. Not that intimate relationship with Christ should not be sought after. On the contrary, to love as described in the famous verses of 1 Corinthians 13 could only be achieved by dying to ourselves and allowing Christ to love through us. But the focus is not the gifts received from deep communion with Jesus, but how we use our gifting to let Him love others through us.

Just as struck as I was by other people's realities, I was convicted by a quote Beth Moore used in a DVD session of her Esther study that seems to sum it up: "In the eyes of the world, it is not our relationship to Jesus Christ that counts; it is our resemblance to Him." Paul puts it this way, "Let love be your highest goal!" (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Love, love, love... the Christian life simplified.