Givenness

"For God so loved the world the he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  -John 3:16

Today on Discover the Word Ann Voscamp talks about living a cruciform life.  By this she means the vertical beam represents our relationship with God and the horizontal beam is our outreach to people.  Because God gave His only Son, Jesus, for us and because Jesus gave His life in exchange for ours, we are able to live a cruciform life. He now lives in us transforming us to be more like Him.

I was in Mexico last year where the Catholic faith is predominant.  This crucifix, above,  was in a church, but I saw many more in shops and restaurants.  When we were out walking in the city we noticed truck drivers and cab drivers making the sign of the cross whenever they'd pass one of the several cathedrals in central Merida.  I was raised Protestant where the cross was always empty, signifying the resurrection.  In Merida I realized that showing Jesus on the cross was a good reminder of the sacrifice He made for me.  Ann Voskamp says each day she draws a cross in ink on her wrist as a reminder that she wants to live a cruciform life.  She talks about the need to be intentional with our acts of kindness because we can too often focus on our own lives in our busyness.  You can go to her website to down load a Give It Forward calendar with daily suggestions of ways in which to reach out to our broken world.

It is interesting to me that when she used the word "givenness" in referring to the cruciform life I immediately thought of "forgivenness".  It is not an actual word (my spellcheck always underlines it!) but I think it should be because it expresses a state of being that we live in when we give our lives to God.  When I separate the "for" from the word "givenness" that Ann used I realized that when I forgive I am actually doing it for God.  It is what I give to Him for having given me freedom from sin and the guilty conscience that accompanies sin.  When I forgive others I am making myself broken bread through which He can bring healing to the world.

I am grateful to be used by God in this way because it reminds me of my great need for Him and His loving care which He so freely gives.