What did you underline in your life this week?

 

What was underscored? What movie were you watching and you said to yourself, “I need to remember that line”? Did you listen to a podcast or a speaker and say – “That was a good point”? Did you say to yourself, “I have to remember what this feels like” when you lost the first 5 pounds on a diet? What was the YouTube video that you shared?

 

Maybe you simply saw something that gave you an idea of what you’d like to do.

 

These are all important things to pay attention to. They got your attention and ‘made you look!’ or it made you stop and consider or reconsider. Or it simply enlightened you.

 

God uses all these instances, and may well be in them.

 

How would you know? One of the passages in the Bible that I underlined as a teenager (yes, I still have that Bible with the cobalt explosive stain someone thought would be fun to explode in it when I wasn’t watching!) is from Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia (modern central Turkey). In the 5th chapter, verses 22-23 it says,

 

 

The more I consider these things and how they intersect with my life (positively and negatively!) I do believe that wherever these qualities show up, Jesus is in the mix! I don’t believe it is the exclusive territory of Christians.

 

I do believe that God is active in the whole world, that our division of things into sacred and secular is a false division. I do believe that if you have experienced a tiny fragment of the “fruit of the Spirit” that you not only have experienced the God who made all things, but you have something of the good news of Jesus to share with others and that you have it in common with others.

 

So where are these qualities showing up in your life?

 

Where is there joy in your everyday walking around life? When you identify it, explore it. A friend of mine would suggest that I marinade in it. Let that joy completely surround and envelop me. That way it can have a deepening effect on my life and perspective. I don’t need to recreate that joyous moment – that is a futile exercise. But once I recognize it in my life I can savor it and receive it and give thanks for it. It can lift me up out of a bad day or week or life.

 

Peace, patience, love, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control along with joy are not the litmus test of a life lived well. These characteristics happen to us not just through us. We are receiving these acts all day long. It is as though God is constantly peppering us with the Spirit, hoping something of his Spirit will stick in our hearts and minds.

 

Take a moment and ask: “Where am I experiencing ________________ (fill in the blank with any of the fruit of the Spirit words)?”

 

When you see it, name it, underline it, and say “Let’s have more of that!” And you do, really, get Jesus.