You are God's Beloved

"4 For we know, brothers and sisters[a] beloved by God, that he has chosen you,5 because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia."- 1 Thessalonians 1:4-7 (NRSV)

(Written for High School youth at Camp Asbury Summer 2015)

 As I went to write this little talk here, I went to sit down at my desk, with my study bible in hand, hoping that something intelligent would show up on my computer screen.  After some frustration and many mumbled grunts, I slumped back into my chair, defeated, and then a picture on my bookshelf caught my eye.

This picture is of me, on retreat two years ago, at an evening healing service. The man laying hands on my head is a good friend of mine, Father Lance.  This picture was taken moments after he anointed my forehead with a cross of oil. Those around me that are laying hands on my back and shoulders are some of the retreatants. I was simply there as a kind of counselor, not unlike what I do here at Camp Asbury. I keep this powerful picture on my shelf because what happened in that particular moment when this picture was snapped, has drastically changed my life.

The Holy Spirit was present at that moment in an extremely powerful way.

This picture shows the moment I finally saw myself as God’s beloved child. Not just in my head, but in the deepest parts of my heart. The six inch journey from my head to my heart was made for the first time. Something clicked. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget, but what I didn’t realize was that when Holy Spirit peaks into our life, she likes to shake things up. See, once I was able to see my own self as God’s beloved, I started to see everyone else as God’s beloved child too. Once I got up off my knees from that anointing, I saw others in a totally different light. I also saw the Holy Spirit coming in “full conviction” by seeing God use our brokenness as a whole offering. God’s strength is perfected in human weakness*. I saw emotional and spiritual walls brought down in those around me, so love could pour in. I saw forgiveness and healing. I saw restoration and grace. All because the Holy Spirit was present.

Now, I don’t mean to tell you this story in order to make it seem like I had some almost biblical encounter with the divine, but to let you know that God is with us in our faults and weakness. That he is with us even when we don’t like to think we deserve it. God uses our hurt for healing.

The God of universe has scars too. We may have physical or emotional scars, we all do, but so does God. The broken body of Christ on the hard wood of the cross is God on his throne. Not a golden throne sitting idly in the sky somewhere, but in love, on the cross and in the giving of oneself, in perfect self-offering. Christ is the wounded healer, who has always magnetized imperfect people to himself to bring the good news of love breaking into our world.

Don’t be afraid of your identity as God’s beloved. Because you exist, you are loved more than you can possibly imagine. You are loved exactly as God made you, with all the imperfections and flaws, with all that dirt and darkness you might feel you have inside you, AND with all your gifts, talents, abilities, light and goodness you hold.

You are loved, you are loved, you are so loved. You are loved as your true natural self. The Celtics would say; To be natural is to be holy. As John O’Donohue said “If you are outside yourself, always reaching beyond yourself, you avoid the call of your own mystery.” …Don’t avoid the call of your own unique mystery, that at the root, is your identity as God’s beloved child. 

*Paraphrased from Nadia Bolz-Weber