LIFE Overflowing!

Today my dear grandson Carter turned 10.

10!

Double digits, a full decade! Oh how time passes too quickly, and here we are.

As I thought of this precious life, I had been been asking the Lord to give me a verse to pass on to Carter from HIM. First I went one way in my thoughts, and then I went another. But nothing felt totally right, totally it. I was trying too hard instead of letting my heart receive it from the Spirit.

Then it came ... and it was totally perfect! Of course ... 

10:10!

John 10:10, that is!

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 

So my prayers for my Carter are centering around Christ who is his Life, who lives in him. I pray that Jesus would live, love, and serve through his special, unique, God-created life -- full of love for people, creativity, and humor. Oh and a bit of basketball thrown in.

It's curious how my thoughts and prayers went this direction for Carter. I had just finished reading a book** on the true Christian life -- Christ in you and through you as you (basically). In one of the final chapters, the author shows how there is no dichotomy between sacred and secular for a believer. He closed with a quote I had heard before, but that struck me personally this time because of a situation in my own life.   

Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Howard Washington Thurman, an African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. Wikipedia

Reading the quote this time caused me to examine my life and realize that what I'm dreading and hating is what is coming not from the full life of Christ in and through my God-given gifting and passions, but rather from from trying to do what others say is necessary to be successful in doing my calling, my passion.  And when I follow through with those dreaded "suggestions," it's like death to my soul. In other words, it's living from "the flesh," the "thief," rather than living from the Living Christ within.

So now my focus is fine-tuned again on the full life that Christ has given me, His very Life, which is Christ manifesting Himself in me through my interests, my loves, and my gifts which HE Himself has given. That's my continued prayer for myself, and that's my continued prayer for Carter and for all my children and grandchildren.

How about you? Why not live while you are alive (Patch Adams) -- LIVE, that is, with the life of Christ in and through you as YOU?

Amen.

**God's Best-Kept Secret: Christianity is Easier Than You Think by Mark Maulding