The Real Deal

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
- 1 John 3:16a
 
Jesus Christ is real.
 
We feel funny saying that. But we need to mention it. Jesus isn’t just some grand idea. He isn’t our inspiring imaginary friend. He’s more than the modern myth of a moral man. He’s really real.
 
If you follow him and place your faith in him, you’ll have moments when this all seems too good to be true, when it doesn’t seem really real. You’ll blink your eyes and pinch yourself. But you’re not dreaming. You’re fully awake. 
 
When you’re aware of Jesus, you’re as awake as you can possibly be. All kinds of things will become more and more clear to you. Love makes up one facet of this growing consciousness – you’ll swim in the sea of love rather than trying to bridge its waves – but there’s more.
 
Love comes with faith and hope. Hope is pretty wonderful. And a longing for justice starts to stir inside you, a desire to see the world ordered according to God’s peace and, well, love. Jesus inspires that. And he moves us toward holiness … not because we feel guilty or obligated or ashamed, but because we feel inspired (that word again). 
 
Jesus breathes new life into us as his love invites us to live with him in a larger, clearer, brighter world. Our real God invites us into a real reality that we never realized even existed. He is the realest person in the cosmos … the pioneer and perfecter of all of it.
 
Don’t let anyone tell you you’re abandoning your rationality to pursue him. Don’t let them convince you that your hope is a delusion. Don’t let those voices whisper that your bright-eyed faith is blind. Don’t let your love grow cold when the white-hot fire of the love of Christ burns in your heart.
 
We aren’t afraid of doubt. We don’t run or hide from it. We don’t ignore our questions. Instead, we can step and step and step forward confidently into the fog because the true light is already shining.
 
More tomorrow …

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