Walking with God Honestly

Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

One of the implications of this verse is that, because He is truth, we will experience the presence of God on a consistent basis only as we live in truth. In this case, truth means far more than simple honesty. It speaks to being genuine and truly yourself. This is difficult to do in a world that expects each of us to be and to behave certain ways. In addition, we live in a church culture that places its own burdens of performance on us.

In response to these pressures, and out of a desire to be a good Christian, we learn early on how to behave properly - often at the cost of being ourselves. We no longer feel safe in church being ourselves, so we hide ourselves and put on a show of acceptability to those around us.

I have decided that one of the most precious gifts I have in my life are the people who are safe enough that I am able to be myself with them. They help reconcile me to myself and draw me closer to God. I wonder what would happen if we decided to leave behind the dysfunctional rules of how we ought to behave and decided to be genuine, to walk in truth.

Maybe we would find that sense of community and belonging that we long for.

Maybe we would come to terms with our struggles instead of hiding from them.

Maybe we would find God in a deeper way.

Lessons of the Trinity

I have been spending some time in the past few weeks pondering the Trinity.

From all eternity, there has been one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are distinct, yet inseparable.

What does that have to do with life today? Here are a few thoughts:

1. Because the Trinity has existed since the beginning, this means that the very nature of God is one of relationship. Before He did anything, the members of the Trinity were in relationship with each other. Relationship existed before task. It is at the very core of the nature of God.

2. The Trinity functions based on a relationship of love. In other words, the Son does not obey the Father because the Father has a higher place in the hierarchy. The Son obeys the Father because the Son loves the Father and the Father loves the Son.

3. It is our calling to enter into this same relationship of love. The Lord is the majestic, awesome God of all creation, before Whom we are nothing at all. He could rightfully demand our service and obedience. Yet, He lays all that aside and seeks a people who will:

- follow and obey Him purely out of love for Him and for no other reason.
- lay aside all tasks as secondary and take the more difficult and perilous journey of intimacy with the Holy One.

These are people who have fallen so deeply in love with the Lord that they have abandoned all else to have Him.

The Trinity lives continually in a relationship of love and intimacy. When Jesus says to abide in Him and He in us, He is calling us to dare to seek that same level of communion that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy with one another. It is a much more difficult journey than mere outward obedience, but it is in this journey of the heart that we truly find God. And when we do, nothing else matters anymore.