[ to You - less is more ]

My pastor here at home in Huron has a knack for communicating big and important ideas in clear and meaningful ways. It is definitely one of his gifts -- one that he has recognized, practiced and developed. I think that is cool and really respectable.

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Today, our church (as part of the ELCA) celebrated "Trinitarian Sunday." Honestly, I had no idea there was such a thing, or that our church and pastor were going to take such an active role in dialoguing about the importance of "Trinitarian Sunday."

Apparently, the day is simply this: a time for the pastors and congregations to reflect on the nature of God. How cool!

Talking and learning about the nature of God is really powerful for me. I'm not sure why that approach resonates with me so much, but it always has.

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During a typical Young Life season, the first six or so Club talks center around the "Person of Jesus," which basically are short talks intended to give the students a good idea of what Jesus was like in flesh -- short but moving glimpses of His interactions, relationships and claims to help set up the following "Big Four" talks -- Need, Work of Christ, Appropriation (Why? and What does it mean to be committed to Christ?) and The Christian Life (basically a leader or student testimony).

This semester's new weekly meeting for Campus Crusade for Christ also took this approach: first, "Characteristics of Jesus," and then a four-part presentation of the gospel.

Though it was definitely a challenge working through this progression, I think it helped us -- Evan and me, our team and others who were able to 'catch the vision' -- better understand that we have a huge, urgent responsibility to clearly communicate both God's nature and His work in Jesus Christ.

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Today's sermon, then, was pretty compelling. It got me seriously thinking about a few things:

• God's perspective. Pastor talked quite a bit about time -- God created time but lives in eternity, God's timeline is not ours, etc. He also talked for awhile about God-understanding versus human comprehension. Big stuff!

• We can't make sense of God's nature, but we can trust that it makes sense for redemption. The way he expressed this idea was good and so, so honest. I wish I had more notes on this one. I'll stop by the church sometime soon with my digital voice recorder in hand (okay, not really) and get some more scoop on this one. :)

• Exploring the Godhead may muddy up the waters a bit, but we know one thing: the nature of God is good. The big, lingering questions seem to be, "Is God really good?" and "Does He really desire the best for my life?" We need to earnestly "take God up" on this, I think. God working for the good of those who seek Him is real. We need to dig deep on this one. (God-is-good at face value barely skims the surface, it seems.)
  

• His love is surreal and incomprehensible, yet it's relevant, reachable and vital for our lives. This is so important, and honestly pretty scary because I don't deserve this and am in no way adequate or prepared enough for this kind of love.

-Jessie