Go ahead...move the pieces

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“This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.” (John 6:39-40)

I like it when Jesus boils things down to make them very plain - comprehensible to our finite brains. What was handed over to Jesus by the Father? You and I - mankind. What is his purpose in handing us over to Christ? To see that everyone of us is 'put together' - made upright and whole - not wavering in any regard. Align with him - enter real life!

Does that mean all other forms of 'life' are not real? It means that all life without Christ falls far below the potential we could be living within if we chose to align with him instead. Many live far below their potential because they will not change their allegiance - they choose to align with something other than truth, love, and grace. 

Christ's actions on our behalf are to set us on our feet - alive and whole. Not faltering around, bumbling through life. Set upright, made whole, truly alive with the life that comes when his Spirit inhabits our inner man. I think Jesus may have been referring to more than just saying 'yes' to him, but rather to have every part of our being - body, soul, and spirit - aligned with his purposes and his truth.

Body - soul - spirit --- all three parts, not just one or two of the parts. This might mean it is possible to not be 'fully aligned' with Christ and his purposes. Soul might be in the game, spirit kind of pushing us onward, but body more or less weak and unwilling to truly align. You been there? Struggling to get all three into alignment? Maybe it isn't because you lack the 'want to' - you just aren't supposed to be the one doing the alignment!

Read the passage again - it is Christ's role (the part he plays) to make us whole (aligned). We start with making the commitment to follow him - we even take a few steps in the right direction merely in our own will-power - but he is the one to finish the work he started! We get it all wrong when we think we can finish this work of perfect alignment of all the pieces of our life with his - it is his work to help us attain that perfect alignment. Stop struggling to put the pieces all together - let him move those pieces here and there until you begin to see the perfection of his work within you. Just sayin!

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