It's about you...

In the worship message Sunday, I said:

“One thing I have come to better understand over the past few years is that my faith journey is not about me. My faith journey is about others. … Now, yes, it is also about me. But if I live believing that what the Gospel message, the Good News of God understood through Jesus – if I believe that what Jesus has shared is only about my relationship with God, then I’ve missed the most important part of Jesus’ message. Once we have faith, God calls us to share it – once I have faith God asks that I help plant the seeds in the lives of others so that they might come to know God, to experience God’s love. When I learn more about God, when I experience God’s grace at a deeper level in my life, when my connectedness to God deepens in tangible ways – then I am able to see you more clearly. I am able to see you as the child of God that you are; to see you through God’s eyes; and, I hope, to love you with greater compassion than I ever could I my own. You see, my faith is not about me; it is about God’s love for you and how our connection to one another can help each of us become whole.”

Jesus didn’t come to show us God, to reveal to us what God is like, so that we could be safe, happy, and content. He came, in part, so that we could become response-able to God. Not “responsible” as in owing God something, or duty-bound to serve. No, Jesus came so that you and I could see more clearly who God is and then respond to God and to others from that understanding.

How has Jesus revealed God to you? And, how is God calling you to respond?