As I shared communion tonight, I looked up and saw these words on the screen:
survive & thrive
The words immediately felt ironic and inappropriate because we were focusing on the death of Jesus on the cross. After all:
Jesus didn’t survive and he definitely wasn’t thriving as he died on the cross.
But then it dawned on me that
Jesus died that we might survive and thrive!
Jesus died to open up the way for us to know God now and forever. He died that we might have eternal life!
This gift of salvation isn’t just a ticket to heaven, it is an opportunity for us to thrive as we find fulfillment in and through our relationship with Jesus.
These words that had seemed so ironic became so powerful as God reminded me of his great love for me and the whole world!
The theme of the ministers conference I am attending is ‘surviving and thriving in ministry’ but in that beautiful moment I realized that these things are a gift of God to me and not something I have to attain for myself. 😀
Earlier in the evening, the speaker had shared from Hebrews 12 and v1 says
‘Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles’
God wants to help us to survive and thrive and I hope and pray that all of us who were there and all of you who are reading this will hear his call to throw off the things that hinder us that we might receive this wonderful gift. May we each find the freedom to thrive as the people who he has made us to be.
I love a bit of irony, especially when it is profound!
Honest about my faith 