Being Known

Everyone has heard the famous phrase: "I think therefore I am".  If you are familiar with the philosopher Rene Descartes, you will know this phrase came through a lot of hard work and thought on his part.  This short sentence has impacted western civilization more than most people know, however, there is another, much lesser known phrase, that I believe is significantly more important for us.  I can't remember off the top of my head which Jewish thinker said this but it resonates as true.  It goes like this:  "I am because I am loved."

This incredible statement tells us clearly that the reason I exist is because of God's great love for me.

I was praying this morning and the words that came out of my mouth were: "Father, thank you that you know me."  What was so amazing about this prayer was what God spoke to me: "Brian, I know you, but not in the way that you usually think.  I don't just know you as the one who falls short, who sins and struggles with that.  I know that you have a hard time seeing past all that stuff.  Today, I want you to know that I know who you are meant to be!  I see past your sin; I see past your shortcomings; I see your smile and thoughts and desires and actions that are born out of the man I intended you to be!  And I love you!!"

I'm not quite sure why this hit me so hard, except to say that it was an incredible feeling to know that God loves me, and that He is able to love me through the sin and shortcomings and that He confidently holds onto His ideas of who I am meant to be!  He is not a 'pie-in-the-sky' thinker, holding to some ridiculous notion of who I should be but can never get there.  He is not what most skeptics would call a 'realist', which really means someone who refuses to imagine a better existence in something that is not yet seen and is perceived as impossible to attain.  No!  My God really sees me--He really knows me--the real me!

Isn't that an incredible thing?  I felt such a deep sense of thankfulness and hope knowing that my Father sees me this way: I had a sense of gratitude that I am not stuck in 'what is'--but that with Him nothing is impossible.

I am because I am known.  Incredible.

Ephesians 5:1-2 says "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

As children of God were are not only known, but we are loved.  We may not always feel that, we may not always even believe that, but it's true nonetheless.  We are known.  You are known--and loved, with a love that goes beyond your comprehension.

Maybe you needed to hear that today--that God doesn't just know you as the one who always falls short, or doesn't live up to the standards you think are good.  God doesn't see you as the one who is mired in self-pity, or as the one who can't seem to imagine yourself as anything but second-rate.

Not a chance!  God knows you as the very-best-you!  The noble You, the selfless You, the loving You, the courageous You, and on and on and on.  Why?  Because He made you and knows exactly how excellently well put together you are.

Does this mean that He doesn't see your struggle?  Absolutely not.  And thankfully so, as that would mean that He really isn't able to address reality.  Does this mean that He isn't aware of your sinfulness and your need for help to overcome that?  Most certainly no.  And that's good news, because He is offering a very powerful and practical means to come out from underneath those chains and be truly free.

No, God knows you- the real you, the one who He is inviting you to become.  What incredible hope there is in knowing that God loves His children in such a way that He never gets bogged down in our struggles, but is always drawing us to a place where we can accept His help to bring us into the ongoing reality of being known by Him.

Today, remember that you are known by a God who loves you more than imagineable and that by being known, you may rest.

BT