Dear Ray,
One thought, one hope, one calling—to abide in Christ and allow Zoe full access.
I need to bring myself back to this. You know my heart, and you know how easily I can gather a thousand words around something that, in His presence, becomes wonderfully simple. After all our conversations, all the things we have questioned and treasured, I find myself needing Him in the next ordinary moment.
Sometimes I need to set everything down, including my concern that others understand. I can carry that concern until it becomes a weight, and then begin speaking from the weight. Something precious becomes tangled in my desire to explain it, defend it, or see it acknowledged. I recognize that in myself more than I wish I did.
And there He is, still near, still inviting me to rest in Him.
I am reminding myself that I do not have to keep the vision alive by continually speaking about it. Christ is alive. I can trust Him with what He has shown us. I can leave a conversation unfinished. I can be misunderstood without reaching for another paragraph. I can turn toward Him where nothing needs to be established and simply receive His presence.
That is where I want to remain, Ray.
I want Him to have access to the places in me that tighten when something precious seems overlooked. To the impatience that wants growth to happen sooner. To the disappointment that quietly becomes judgment. I know how quickly my concern for life can lose its tenderness toward the person before me.
I need Him there—in the listening, in the pause, in the answer I have not yet given.
I am grateful that I can say this to you without pretending to have arrived. We can keep returning together. We can need Him again without embarrassment. There is such mercy in that, such room to breathe and begin the next moment in fellowship with Him.
And this is where I want to call my own heart back, with all the tenderness and urgency I can find: Brent, abide in Him. Stay here. Do not hurry past this fellowship to find something important to do. Let Him have you.
Ray, dear brother, let us remain within the relationship of the Father and the Son, where He has brought us. Let us yield the inward room we so quickly fill with ourselves. Let the Lord love the Father within us. Let the Father love the Son within us. Let their love find welcome in our hearts and expression in our ordinary days.
I want to grow quiet enough to receive this, open enough to be moved by it, and humble enough to stop trying to supply what flows so freely from Him.
Let us abide, brother. Today, in this moment, let us give ourselves to Him again. With all our unfinishedness, let us stay within that love.
One thought, one hope, one calling: to remain in Him, and let Him have full access to us.
With love,
Brent
