love expansion.

I had a good day. Not just a good day--a fabulous day. The kind of day that makes you smile for hours.

What made it great? I don't know-- a good friend, a fantastic pear cider, a fun restaurant, and sweet, sweet sunshine, and a neuroscience talk. Without doubt, it will get better in dinner and coffee with a person who shows love like few people I've ever met.

So...is God good? Or are those things good?

If you're a Christian down here, that sounds like a silly question. If you're a non-Christian, it also sounds silly. There must be some tension.

This post is not a part of What the what?!? Week. Just a short rambling about something interesting happening in my life.

Good things are afoot. Some of them I've worked for. Some of them seem to be falling into my lap. But all of them have me grateful. Intensely grateful. It's more than joy. I stop what I'm doing, and I lift my face to God, and I think, "Father, You are so good. Thank you. Thank you." In His love, all good things are distilled to their simplest reality. Pear cider, and classmates, and neuroscience become means through which we are delighted, and He is glorified (to steal an idea from Piper).

I feel gratitude to God, and I believe that that pleases Him, but I also think He is giving me something to give. His love is endless. And He speaks to me that from that store, so should my own love be endless. Amen?

Just kidding about that amen, but how amazing is that? How exciting.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but when I read back into previous posts, I find an odd pattern (one I hadn't really caught on to in real time). When I've ended a post in sadness, or confusion, or prayer--there soon follows another post in which God has clearly addressed some lack of wisdom or understanding.

And so earlier this week, I asked for God to be God. And slowly, I am realizing that He is in fact God. He is being God. He has been God. All the time, actually. And as I allow Him to be God in praise, my heart expands with Love.

Amen.