Crowded Intimacy

I've been nudged to sit back down into a deeper place of intimacy with Jesus. I've been reminded that my individual abiding in Jesus is the best place for my heart and everything else (the stuff I do) to come out of. Like ingredients in an entree, or nutrients in the soil, the more "abided" on is in Jesus, the better what results. If intimacy with Jesus would be categorized as one step in the process of your day, it would have to be set apart as having al together different effect on the day than any other process. Like, there's a number of ways to move your body throughout the day, but there's one movement, that of moving food from your plate to your mouth, that effects all other movements: nourishing all other movements.

So after a crazy construction season in my life, I've been feeling the urge to revisit how "abided" I am, and some interesting thoughts surfaced this go around while studying scripture with some friends over breakfast.

Looking at John 15, when Jesus is talking about abiding in Him, I was caught off guard by what seemed to me to be the "grunt" of HOW abiding was to happen. I was expecting to hear about times of individual intimacy, really pressing in by yourself to seek God's heart and mind, about how to bask in Jesus. Whatever it was, I was expecting it to look like one branch really sinking deep into the vine. Instead, I got a different flavor. What I heard was something like, "Abiding in me looks like you loving people." It was this connected string of abiding in Jesus meaning obeying His commandments, and His commandment is to love on another.

It seems to me like, however being REALLY close to Jesus looks like, DEEPLY abiding in God, you will be doing this through being REALLY loving to people, and DEEPLY connected to others. I think this has to do with Him being Father to all people, so you loving your brother IS loving your Father. Think about how someone best compliments or builds you up. For me this is right in line with how when people seek to encourage my wife or my sons it is as much of a (if not more) effective way of encouraging me. Do you want to love me? Love my wife and kids. Give them gifts; flatter them. No friend of mine who seeks to honor me will do so to the detriment of my family - it's contradictory.

Do you want to love The Father? Love the sons and daughters of The Father. Love The Father's Bride.