Our everyday and every night labor is to stay.
Feeding our desire to stay turns that labor into play, into delight. It takes time and planning and intention.
To stay—in Christ. In our time, as others did in theirs.
The saints of time stayed. My grandmother stayed. My grandfather stayed. I want to stay.
The pull away will always, always be strong. If we don’t feel it, it may mean we’re unknowingly giving in to the easier way (in the short term) of acquiescence and a lack of self-leadership. I’d rather my social feed lead me. It’s easier. And I laugh on occasion.
A wise woman of God would always remind me as a young Christian that we live in a very big Story; peace in heart, mind, and body comes in holding fast and true to its inimitable Protagonist and re-humanizing Gospel plot—the guiding chronicle of Christ that culminates, through Holy Love (sola sancta caritas), in union with our Lord (John 15:5).
“I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him,
he it is that bears much fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
The Greek word for “abide” is meno, and it means to stay in a relationship, in a relational locus or place—in Christ.
Stay in Christ. Stay in Christ. This is the way. Stay in Christ.
The Scriptures are truly, as The Bible Project puts it, a “unified story that leads to Jesus.” And that story is more than a Christian’s story; it is the human story, or it is no story at all. Love is the power that makes the human story go round; not power itself. The Scriptures are a Love story.
We must be led by Love before we can lead with love. You are beloved.
I encourage you to stay in Christ, by staying in His presence, staying in habits that lead you to His love rather than away, staying in the living wisdom of the Scriptures, staying with healthy devotional and time habits, and staying with worship habits that help you shake and wake from the confusing stupors we can get caught up in unaware.
I want to cross the line of this life into the next with all saying,
“This one stayed in Christ.
Christ was his Beloved, and he was the beloved of Christ.
Love led this one, and this one led by love.“
I want to stay in Christ—and I’ll do whatever it takes to do it, however hard or misunderstood I may be.
Stay. That’s the word I’m standing on today, and—if it’s your time, your season of holy reclamation—let it be your word as well.
This reminder that you are beloved originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
