(Continued from yesterday)

Paul realized that his success had come working against God.

Paul realized that God didn’t want his hard work.

Paul realized that God wanted him. Relationship with him. Conversation with him. Reconciliation with him.

God wanted Paul to know him.

To know that the love of God isn’t measured out in scoops the size of our prayers, one act of God for each 100 or 1000 or million words from us.

Paul realized that the love of God was measured out, poured out really, in the resurrection and the death of Christ. That love drew Paul in.

Paul made it his life’s work to abandon his own reputation-seeking. Paul made it his life to live in the middle of God’s love for him, God’s love for us, God’s work for us.

He was devoted to God, like a baby is devoted to her mother.

But unlike a whining, helpless baby. Like a person rescued from death is devoted to the rescuer. Wanting to know how to help, how to serve, how to care. But unlike a rescuer who is called to be a rescuer, like an EMT. A friend and mentor and provider and lover who rescues you at great personal cost, for the sake of having you close, helping you grow, drawing you into the family.

If you understood the graciousness, the opportunity, the gift, to be more than nothing, to be a pauper welcomed as royalty, to be a reject welcomed as family, you might, like Paul, reject what we thought mattered and do everything possible to learn about the new house, the new kingdom, the new relationship, the rescuer.