Who Do You Say I Am?

When I was contemplating what I might write here at Soul Musings, I came across this image and it struck me as profound. I'm not looking for the cliché answers, savior, messiah, Son of God, which while quite correct, fall easily from one's lips without a lot of thought.  I've ponder this before in an earlier post: Who is Jesus?  Yet I feel drawn to muse about it some more, perhaps in a different way. What I mean I suppose is summed up in

Matthew 16: 15     “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

So that, I suppose, is my question to you (and to myself) Who do I say Jesus is? How would you fill in the blank? While all the "correct answers" are full of meaning and importance, it is the personal answer that will enhance your connection to Christ. 

Let's face it, the world today is not in many, many ways the same world that Christ walked in. Often people struggle to understand the Bible because of just this fact. How are we to translate the messages of the Bible into daily living in a world that seems to ensnare us in situations that are so different than in biblical times. Not only that but even some of the common customs and ways of life during Jesus's time no longer even exist.

That makes it even more important to have your own personal answer to "Who is Jesus?"
Let's take "messiah" for example. Even that word has a more mundane and humanly definition. "A leader or savior of a particular group or cause."

I remember in my study of the Gospel of John, in one or two of the verses John, was referred to as the disciple Jesus loved. When I think..."who do you say I am?" I think I'd answer "the one who loves me."  After all isn't that right?  That lovely phrase was not just reserved for John but for each and everyone of us.

Regardless of how times have changed, no matter the customs and ways of life that exist today, that one aspect...Jesus is the one who loves me... never changes.

Hugs to each of you and may you have a blessed Thanksgiving week (for those here in the U.S.).

Walking the Road to Christmas

Every year around this time I get this overwhelming feeling that I'm walking a road, walked by many before me. Not the hectic major highway of the holiday season but a simple road, a road traveled in solitude. It is only in the absence of voices that the road to Christmas is revealed.

Oh I love the sounds of the holiday season, I love the bells and the music and the laughter but yet it is in the silence of the season that I find myself reflecting on the road to Christmas. Imagining a distant time when the birth of a child changed the course of mankind.

I've often wondered if I would have had the courage of the shepherds, leaving their flocks and wandering, guided only by the distant star. Trusting that a marvelous sight, full of wonder awaited them.

God beckons us even today. It might not be with a brilliant star that appears in the sky. It may be through soft whisperings. Yet he asks us indeed, to leave what we know and venture into the unknown, with the simple faith of the shepherds.

I hope as we move into the hectic weeks of the holiday season, that we carve out times of silence to walk the road to Christmas. In the stillness of these times may you hear God's voice and may he fill your heart with a love of Christmas that is more meaningful than anything we can create here in our humanly existence.

Hugs to all of you, fellow travelers on the road to Christmas.

Living a Thankful Life

It's November so, of course, thoughts turn to being thankful. I firmly believe people would live a more joyous life if we could train ourselves to see what we have instead of what we don't. For years I wished I lived in a bigger house, could afford nicer clothes, and take fancy trips until I realized just how much that "envy" was coloring the life I was living.

Instead, I began to focus on just what I do have and realized I have been blessed, and blessed, and blessed over and over again. It's not just the appreciation of the things I have but a different frame of mind. It's not just realizing how much I have in comparison to so many in this world. It's actually a deeper spiritual relationship with God and those around me .After all we all say "things don't matter" but in many of our hearts we still allow them to. I used to be stuck in this warp between pretending to care nothing for the things of this life to yearning to have more and better things.

Now, instead, I love and appreciate the things I do have. As long as these things do not rule our hearts God wants us to rejoice in the beauty of this life.  When I get the temptation to want more or bigger or better I remind myself of all that I do have. I appreciate small things. I also count among my blessings the people in my life, our memories, our laughter, our silly adventures. Those truly are way more important than the house I live in or the shoes I wear.

Sometimes, when times are very, very hard it is difficult to find things to be thankful for. It's sad but true. That's when I turn to God for some direction and without fail things seem to improve, or my heart feels a little lighter. It is not ours to know why things unfold they do here on earth but we must be secure in the knowledge that God has a plan for us.

 

Hugs to each and everyone of you. I hope you have many things to be thankful for and know that God's love is one of them!

Proving Your Love

As I was typing the title for this post I realized that it's sort of one of those titles that "mislead." Oh not intentionally but it does all the same.  I chose it and the image above to talk about loving God but in my heart I don't believe you have to "prove" your love of God. I mean why should you?  God knows everything that is in your heart so there's no need to prove anything.

God doesn't ask us to "prove" our love but He does ask us to LIVE that love. There's a difference. If we get caught up in proving: we will struggle, we will feel anguish, we will think, perhaps that we are never good enough, that we can never prove it. What a stressful life. God would never torment us in such a way.

 

Instead when you let go of "proving" anything and simply live your love you will experience a profound joy. God wants us to find joy in this life and by allowing our love for Him to flow throughout our daily choices (words and deeds) than we honor Him and deepen our relationship with Him.

 

 

"All things bright and beautiful, all things great and small...."  Show kindness, show compassion, show love and God will know your great love for Him.

 

BUT and I repeat BUT.....don't get hung up on being perfect...we will all be grouchy, we will all say a sharp word, we will all make mistakes and handle something poorly, it's not those individual slip ups that I'm talking about....it is an overall life of kindness and love that is the focus of this post. It's a motto for living God's love, a mission statement, or a vision statement for life.

 

Hugs to all of you and may you live your love of God in small ways everyday.