Myriad Adventures

If what You say is true,

if who You are is real,

all-knowing, untethered by time,

then I have already lived forever

as a thought inside Your mind.

Now I want to live that forever,

as a willing, conscious being,

accepting all You bring

along the flowing stream of life

as I pass through this small channel

where my vision is so short

until I reach the vast, eternal sea

at the end of the river

and embark upon the myriad adventures

for which You’ve been preparing me.

Background:

I am both enthralled by and somewhat terrified of the idea that if:

a) God is eternal and outside of time (Psalm 90:2) and

b) God has always had me in mind (Ephesians 1:4-5)

then (if I’m understanding correctly)

I have always existed.

As a concept, at least.

Always! As in, forever and ever, amen.

*cue the Randy Travis song, but on a cosmic scale - now I am imagining cosmic Randy Travis

Sidenote #1: As someone who has walked though haunting times of being plagued by the idea of just winking out of existence post-death, the thought of always being in the mind of God brought a lot of comfort. If Someone eternal has always had me in mind, I can’t NOT exist in some form or fashion.

Now, as I live out my time on this off-kilter planet, I am morphing from concept to reality. I am literally, every moment, shaping (or allowing myself to be shaped into) the reality of Jess.

In every choice, I am deciding whether I adhere more to the concept of who God intended me to be from before time immemorial or more to whatever concept I choose to make up for myself (and He has always seen that one, too, if that is the one I choose to become). And, should I genuinely desire to achieve His destiny for me and practice love by obeying His definition and commands for what goodness really is, then in Christ, my failings and gaps in attempting to become that reality are filled in by Him, praises be!

Sidenote #2: If you want a beautifully challenging read that involves similar ideas about becoming a real person in the deepest sense of the word "real," I can’t recommend Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis too highly. I need to go back and re-read it myself. I definitely didn’t pick up all of what Clive was putting down - there was so much to glean! The conceptual harvest is nigh and the laborers in my puny mind are so few, and many of them are chasing squirrels!

So, yeah - all of what I’ve said, if accurate, applies to you just as much as to me. (Well, maybe not the squirrels, but, then again, maybe the squirrels.)

Have courage, dear hearts - your existence is grounded in the bedrock of our eternal Father having always cradled thoughts of us in His great heart, and, over and over, in every breath and heartbeat, before you lies the choice to color in the lines of the form He has sovereignly and generously ordained for you. You have such wonderful purposes to fulfill and what an inheritance to enter.

Wishing you goodness without end,

Jess