A while back, one of my friends told me that my blog is "very tightly focused." She meant that in a good way, I think, but it struck me strangely because I feel like I'm all over the place, honestly.
I wander here, I wander there, and the last three years especially have been a season of deconstruction and then new growth, spiritually speaking.
But the more I think about what my friend said, the more it seems true. For all my meandering and blundering around, Love is the north star of my life.
That has been true for years. And the more I walk on, the more true it becomes.
San Antonio Mission Trail, photo: Andy Bruner
The transformative truth of Love works itself out in so many practical ways, when I let it.
Love is my identity, so I can let go of what other people think of me.
Love is Enough for everyone, so I don't have to worry about being everybody's supply. I can have healthy boundaries. I can let other people do their work with Love, just like I do mine.
Love holds me safe, so no matter what happens, I can let go of control and Rest.
Nothing separates me from Love, so I don't have to worry about perfection, performance, people-pleasing.
Love is the anchor for my soul, the hope I have, the truth that lets me change and grow.
When my mind is full of anxiety and what-if's, Love is the still, quiet center, and every episode of monkey-mind becomes an opportunity to return to Love.
When evil, injustice and oppression rise up, Love is the way of resistance and rescue.
When my clients are upset and afraid, depressed and discouraged, Love speaks truth and life, comfort and care.
When Pharisees want to pile on burdens and blame, Love offers rest for my soul.
Whatever the question, Love always turns out to be the answer.
Recently at church, we've been singing "Speak, O Lord" each week as a prayer before the sermon.
Week after week, singing "Speak, O Lord, til your church is built, and the earth is filled with your glory" I started to wonder: what if the prayer of this song is being answered in my life?
What if Love is speaking and moving and building the church and filling the earth with glory, way outside of the rules I grew up in?
What if I'm getting to be part of that work of Love?
What if the goal is this: to be so full of Love that there is no space for anything else.
And then, maybe each of us being so full of Love fills the earth with God's glory.