Meeting God in Everyday Life

Jesus vividly taught the reality of life and how we live in response to that reality. “Everyday life” is not in contrast with spiritual life. It’s life that knows that everything we experience from ravens & lilies to our most disturbing anxieties & fears and our highest aspirations are always within the active, creative presence of God. It’s distorted when our sense of the “everyday” gets cramped. God is pushed into a “religious” portion of life – special, limited. Jesus wants to elevate our sense of “everyday,” of ourselves, to know unified reality of God.

Jesus teaches how to live not by a set of ethical rules, but by helping us see the deep reality & beauty of everything in God (Truth) and by calling us to live in accord with that great Truth.

We want to compress our ‘reality’ to things we control, including our gods. We get smaller! He challenges us beyond our own vision of the possible – to see and live in God’s reality.

Mt 28:16-20 opens our eyes to God’s reality in Jesus and the Spirit. We share in God’s quest. Yes, it’s a challenge. We all become learners of Jesus. We’re given a plunge, participation in God’s identity, depth, community, unity – learning reality from the inside. We hold on to Jesus’ instructions in live into them. Father, Son, & Spirit are with us every step of the way.

God’s Invitation for Us to Share in God’s Life

In the history of Christianity, so much emphasis has been placed on guilt and the threat of punishment, that we miss the heart of Jesus’ invitation. Sin carries its own destructive power by distorting our lives and making us petty, cut off from reality of God. The very nature of God welcomes us into a new vision of ourselves, even in our limitations.

John 14:15-23. Jesus calls disciples to take his instructions as a challenge. God will give an Advocate/Paraclete/the Spirit of True Reality. He’s with you, in you. Jesus comes to you. “You share my life.” I’m in the Father. You’re in me. I’m in you. All woven in love. We love God as God, creator of all life, center of reality/truth. Jesus is the face of God. He defines God’s nature, instructions, love. Holding on to his message is the transforming adventure of free devotion. Father, Jesus, & Spirit all make their dwelling in disciples. True life.

Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul in prison has learned this great vision and lifts believers up to see it. Jesus gives an open door to the eternal, universal in God. This world is powerful, and it takes strength to enter. That strength is from God’s Spirit within us. We respond by trust in God’s faithfulness in Jesus. That faithfulness is God’s powerful, solid reality of Love. That love is the life-give soil that nourishes the roots of our life, the bedrock foundation that makes our very vulnerable lives unshakable.

As we’re opened to this reality of love, we begin to see its vast dimensions and its delight. It’s always beyond us but calling us always further into new experiences. This is the pearl of great price that Jesus tells of. We hang on to Jesus’ extravagant teaching that calls us into this world of love. We explore and learn, always as disciples. This is how God fills us up.

It’s not by mastering rules or good advice for doing things right in our closed-in world of our control. It’s realizing reality is so much bigger and living into that Truth. You are so much bigger! Our life is now alive with God’s life/Spirit, living every day in our everyday life.