I’ve been reading through some of the stories in Luke’s gospel lately, and there’s this phrase that keeps sticking out at me… extravagant living. Jesus lived extravagently. To be extravagant means to lack restraint… what a comment to have said about how you life, how you love, how you give… That kind of love and giving always returns in greater measure – Jesus said we never give anything that isn’t given back to us a hunderd-fold. I want to practice extravagant living…
"Waiting is our destiny as creatures who cannot
by themselves bring about what they hope for.
We wait in the darkness for a flame we cannot light.
We wait in fear for a happy ending we cannot write.
We wait for a not yet that feels like a not ever.
Waiting is the hardest part of hope."
We do violence to the Biblical revelation when we “use” it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide colour and spice in our otherwise bland lives. That always results in a kind of “decorator spirituality” – God as enhancement. Christians are not interested in that; we are after something far bigger. When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.
[Eat This Book – Eugene Peterson]
Can you picture God telling someone (maybe an angel in heaven or something) and including us in His story? Just a thought. I love that God is much bigger than I could ever figure out! Long may I continue to be woven into His story. What are we after? Simply… God. More of Him, less of me.
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