Fullness

Yesterday I wrote about feeling empty. Today, I am struck by life in all its fullness. Yes, it is true that my life has its ups and downs. Yet, there is every reason for me to be “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3)

I am feeling so much better physically. I live in a nice home in a beautiful, quiet neighborhood. I have a wonderful, loving husband who cares for me day and night. I live close enough to my extended family that I can truly enjoy them. I lead a full life.

I have written many times about how sick I was through all of 2014. I cannot help but be grateful for my health now. I am feeling like a new person these days, strong, blessed with God’s Spirit, rooted and grounded in love. And I owe it all to God’s grace.

While I do feel strong physically, my deepest desire is to feel just as strong spiritually. I long for my spiritual journey to take me to the place described in Ephesians 3:16-19. It is a scripture passage about receiving the grace of God in covenant with us, and it speaks of a fullness that God is ready to bestow upon us. It promises that God will give us the gifts and graces we need, and in receiving those gifts and graces, we are “filled with the fulness of God.”

Ephesians 3:16-19 is really a prayer:

That according to the riches of his glory, God may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

And finally, an insightful quote by L.R. Knost:

Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.

Embracing that brings fullness.