Life on a whole other level

The past month has been one I can't simply let fall behind me like so many others in my life, it's been full of feelings I've never felt before, thoughts I've never thought before, responsibilities I've never realized existed in the way that they do. I've been truly learning to care for someone other than myself and have had to begin thinking about my future with my right hand holding on to her left rather than dangling at my side. It's been a crazy and beautiful thing, realizing the role of Christ's love not only in the midst of fellow believers but also in the building of a relationship that is meant to reflect His love for the church in a way that only it can. Recognizing my feelings and thoughts towards her and thinking how those feelings are the very same that Jesus feels for every one of His beloved, except in Him they are infinitely better, stronger, and purer.

What a motivation in my walk with Him! I thank God that He has used this to point to Himself in such a powerful way, for revealing more of who He is and showing just what He meant when we read of being created in His image.

I'm excited for the future, for continuing in my relationship with the woman of my dreams and for growing in my relationship with the Creator and Saviour of this world, after each day being able to look back and see His grace so evident with each breath I take and every step in my walk.

Inside this bubble.

I feel like I've been fooled for so long now. I had my eyes on the heavens but in a way I can only describe as selfish. For years I've been told to focus my eyes on eternity, which is something I do not discount and in fact now take even ore seriously than I have before. However, what caused me to see it as selfish in myself was the fact that it was not a true reality to me, that it made me focus on things in a way that completely disregarded the world around me. I have been living in a bubble.

Jesus, the man, God, lived a perfect life on this earth, perfectly focused on the eternal, in fact, He IS the eternal, He IS the reality. How did He live his life then? Did He focus on His own relationship with the Father to a place of complete ignorance of the world? Not in the slightest!!! He was the perfect example of living in the world yet not being of the world. He walked in such perfection that His own well being proved to be of absolutely no concern to Him. He knew His place in heaven and due to that was able to have the utmost care for the world. There was no conformity in Him to the things of earth, rather He went and made the world confused, amazed, and even angry at His actions and attitudes. What a man, what a God!

As a Christian I have been seeking more to be like Christ than seeking Christ Himself. That's where the selfishness comes from. It is of no benefit for me to be like Christ if I don't know Christ, for am I brought to salvation because I am a good imitation? Do people see Jesus in me simply because I act like Him? We're fools for believing that. We are saved by Him! By knowing Him! By believing in Him! People see Him in us not because we act like Him but rather because His love is in us! Because we cannot love if we don't know Him and we cannot know Him if He did not first love us.

In the end of all of this, there is only one true conclusion for me to have drawn: That is that I am in this world, exactly where God wants me to be. Some say we are meant to be with God and thus are truly only meant for heaven. To this I partially disagree. I find that we are meant to be with God and are meant to be wherever He has us right now, with the end of it all being face to face with Him. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places right now! Do we know this?! This world may not be my home but it is where I am right now and is thus the place God has me to be, the place where I am to seek Him now, to share Him with everyone right now, to worship Him now, to praise Him now, to do all the things now that I am going to be doing for eternity. Finding and living for Him now is not a head-start on heaven, it's simply the start of a life we are already living and going to live forever.

I pray this all makes sense.