Diamonds in the Mud

Last week I had spent a few hours over a couple of days talking with a "for life and grace" friend.  She is the sort of friend who has over the years listened to my thoughts (like confetti scattered and blown across the landscape of past and present) and says to my confusion, “Here, it’s like this.”  And, so, a picture begins to emerge, a pattern amidst the mess and rubble, and what we behold is a pattern that looks like Grace and the presence of the Father – who has become my Lord; who is my Shepherd.  

She had called the previous weekend to chat (it had been a while), and she realized as we shared back and forth that it would be helpful to walk with me through the materials of her seminar talk recently given to a group of university women, wives of spiritual leaders; and so we talked through a piece of it one afternoon and then again later, a bit more.  We have one more portion to discuss.   The topic of the seminar was the process of transformation in a Christian's life – how it happens.  (That is, how we walk out the deep and beautiful truths of being "in Christ" in literal experience; how to identify “old life” experiences that wrongly have informed our life before coming to Jesus Christ and being made new in "all things.")  It's about how we are renewed in the spirit of our minds now as God’s dear children - how we are being continually transformed into LIFE.  

Or not.  In other words, it's not a passive, static life; not for the faint-of-heart.  There are choices to be made and Truth to be embodied.

Of this Life:  Think, abundance of grace, the never-runs-dry variety.  Significance, no matter your place in life.  Security, like the love and acceptance that so often eludes relationships in a fallen, messy world.  Yes, all the stuff we seek in this world of impermanence – it is that life, oh my, yes!!  Haha :)  It does exist!

It helps to write it out.   But, it’s much better to live it, walk it out, to breathe it – to stay with the Father.   She said something recently that has been sticking to me like a burr – only a good burr.  How the Word of God is filled with the Spirit of God.  Literally, God’s Spirit inhabits His Word, and He transforms us as we yield ourselves to it, by obeying.    And as we do, we begin to incarnate His very life, indwelling us - hands and feet doing Life.  Jesus’ blood washes us clean, His word cleanses us (John 15), and the more we soak in His presence and bathe in it (through contemplation, choice and obedience), the more it fills our pores, splashing over into newness - into life-giving joy.  (Oh, the power of His Spirit.) 

Parakletos.  It’s the Greek word for the Holy Spirit and it defines His role in our lives.  He is “helper,” “advocate,” “intercessor,” not to mention one who is "succourer."   He is Spirit, yes, but He functions like the physical presence of Jesus to the disciples – only better, because He is not limited by His humanity – as Jesus bore.  It is why Jesus told the disciples it was better for them that He go away so the Comforter could come to them.  And, so, now in the Spirit, Christ dwells in us, unhindered by flesh and bones, and we walk in Him, and not in our flesh ... not dominated by sin.

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20)

So, like an old pair of clothes, we put off those old patterns - thoughts and beliefs and sentiments and sins - that we adorned ourselves with in our old man; having learned, as my friend said, by less-than-helpful experiences and trained by sin; but now - now we embrace the life He meant for us all along.

Redeemed.  Yes.  That is the word. It is what is most real of the Jesus follower.

Over time, as we "experience" renewal by walking in such grace and Truth, we may even begin to comprehend that (YES!) this IS the life we were made to live.  :)

Oh, to God’s glory and our joy – and it’s the holiest of things, to live like this.  It's filled with beauty.  I mean, how can LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, GENTLENESS, KINDNESS, and SELF-Control NOT be beautiful?  I mean, seriously.  They shine like diamonds upon the mud of life. 

I want to BE a diamond.  I want to BE what He has made me to be as a woman, a wife, a mother, a friend, daughter -- a human being.  Made in His image.  Filled with His glory, emanating.  I can't imagine that anything in life can be more exquisite than just this thing.  

Like diamonds in mud, we begin to reflect Life and Light, prisms of grace, pouring life-sustaining truth and comfort and healing out to those near us.  And like a bubbling fountain inside of us, His life overflows, splashing others nearby.  Quenching their thirst; and they come back for more, desiring.   Until He makes His home in them, as well; and so from the fountain grows a Vine and its branches.  Rooted and built up in Christ, we are.  

Overflowing like a river its banks in spring.  And we are new.