Hey you.

Guess what?

Your God no longer calls you a servant, since servants don’t know their masters business. Instead, he calls you friend.

FRIEND.

Everything he learned from the Father, he shares with you. You did not choose him, but he chose YOU. He took you from the ends of the earth; from the furthest corners he called you.

He has chosen you to go bear fruit that will last forever in his Kingdom. And as you receive him, you are called to continue to live in him. Do not let anyone, including culture, deceive you from living in the fullness of Christ – who is the head of everything.

Do not keep looking back at yesterday and all those mistakes you made and let it fill you with gloom and a self-condemned, saddened heart.  And on the contrary, do not look back at all those "great things" you've done and allow it to puff you up with self-complacency.

Be like Paul: forget what is behind (leave it behind!) and strain toward what is ahead. 

MOVE FORWARD. 

Nothing is wrong with contemplative thoughts and healings of your past life.  That is necessary.  But do not allow your reference with the past interfere with the greatest prize of all.

An incorruptible crown.

Press on.

He has made you alive in his Holy Name. Do you hear that? ALIVE! So this gift – this love – must further stimulate your growth. You must continue to grow; as anything that has ceased growing is no longer living and alive (when plants stop growing, do they not go brown, dehydrated, and die?)

He took away everything that abandoned you to a lost identity and he nailed it to the Cross. Through his hands and his feet. He took it all. No need to try and “find yourself” or “establish your personality.”

He created you.
He established you.
He formed you.
He knows you by name.
He knows all you've been through.

He knows exactly who you are to be! The more you give yourself up to him and who he is, the more of the true you that you become.

You are who loves you– and Jesus Christ loves you. He hovers over you. Following after you, wherever you go. Waiting, patiently waiting, for you to call on him. You are defined by that love – and the ways in which you are compelled by it – and nothing less, nothing more, and nothing further.