Day 28 – The Bride of Christ
Scripture focus: "I'm telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self." John 5:47-51 The Message
"You can't hear God speak to someone else, you can hear him only if you are being addressed." Ludwig Wittgenstein
As we continue to devote ourselves to the recovery of our life – there's one final thing I need to share with you.
No one can chew our food for us.
I often receive lots of feedback and suggestions – all of which I love and appreciate – eventually. Once in a while, someone in our community will urge me to help us dig deeper into the word of God. This is a great suggestion and I'd love to follow it. But a weird thing happens in my brain anytime that word of encouragement is offered. The voice of Jack Nicolson comes blaring through my head, and a scene out of the movie A Few Good Men resonates through my brainwaves.
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH" – he hollers to Tom Cruise. Of course, we soon discover that indeed, yes, Tom Cruise can handle the truth. I believe we, too, can handle the truth. But I do not think it is possible for anyone to spoon feed it to us. Here's what I'm thinking. I believe with all my heart that we must learn how to "eat this book" by digging deeper into God's word. But no one can handle this truth for us. This isn't something we will find in a Sunday sermon, or even a small group bible study. This kind of growling and chewing, gnawing and digesting is in many ways is a very private act – between God and the man or woman willing to approach the throne of grace with confidence. My most intimate conversations with my husband don't happen around the dinner table or at parties. They happen in the dark of night, as we end our day, or begin our morning – just the two of us.
So it is with God and each of us.
No one can chew our food for us. Once we have a tasty meal, we might discuss the cuisine with those we live in community with for further clarification, or simply to share the new thing we've heard. But true intimacy with God is not a team sport. It's a marriage. It's personal. However, it will not remain private. As we deepen our commitment to God, this internal connection will leak out into our outside world. And it will be by our fruits that the world will recognize our disciples. May our private meditations leak out in lovely ways as we grow together in our true, God-created identities….
Recommended reading: Psalm 39-41
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