Dearest Jesus,

You are inexpressibly lovely. Lord, how rarely I take the time to reflect on the subtle and astounding ways you are working my life. Every day, you love me in so many tangible delightful ways. You are alive on this campus God. Where my skepticism exists, your faithfulness abounds. People I wrote off as too far from the gospel, you are planting seeds in those hearts. God, I was too far and you have moved mountains and continue to do so. Lord, teach me to honor you with my time in real, tangible ways. Teach me the difference between giving a portion of my day to you and learning how to see you in every element of my day. To see you in the beauty, to see you in the mundane, day to day things as well. Jesus, you did it well. You lived perfectly within God's love and depended entirely on His Spirit. You sensed God in your soul at every moment and your face was turned up to be warmed by his light. You died not only on the cross but every day to your entire human-ness. Jesus, my life does not look like yours. James talks about looking intently in a mirror and at once forgetting what you look like. I see that in my life-forgetting again and again what you look like. But I will not dwell on my shortcomings because in my weaknesses your strength abounds. Where I cannot you can. Where I say "no" you remind me that the answer is always yes in Christ because all God's promises find their yes in Christ (2 Corinth 1:19) It is the most beautiful thing I can think of to have a continuous sense of the SPirit dwelling deeply in my soul. To imagine literally living the same life lived by Christ and the first church. To look at people and see only you. To meditate on the scriptures and see it as my spiritual nourishment, real food for the soul. To bring you up in daily conversation, simply because you are what is on my mind. For a prayer to rise within me as I rise in the morning and settle in my heart as I fall asleep at night. God, i do not want to live life of wistful anticipation of things down the road: family, career, rest, home, heaven. I want to be constantly engaged and fighting to make this life more heavenly, to see the heaven packed into the earth, to began now the process of living to soak in You that is promised to us. There is no climax to level of intimacy we can reach with you. The more I pursue you, the more exposed I am to life that goes beyond what I imagined. The more I realize how deep you are and that I have just begun to stick my toes in. Teach us God to live in your rhythms, to become a part of this cosmic dance the universe is engaged in, to know you. All else comes through that. In our love, be lifted high.