It is terrifying to be caught in our brokenness. But more terrifying than being caught is being alone and in the dark with all of our pride intact. Healing and wholeness are found only when we step into the rushing stream of forgiveness, of intimacy, of connection. Step into the water.

The living water that eternally quenches our souls is filling us up. In fact, Jesus says it’s not just filling you; it’s welling up in you and pouring out of you. The living water floods in when we embrace our identity as children of God.

I am learning there is a difference between vulnerability and transparency. Vulnerability is the edited disclosure of personal feelings or parts of ourselves. Transparency is exposing the unedited, unfiltered, unflattering parts of our souls.

Community is meant to point us to Jesus, not replace Him.

So, in our pursuit of deep connection, we have to recognize that we can often look to good things like community, authenticity, confession to take the place of connecting with Jesus.

If you’re truly honest with yourself, do you really believe that Jesus is better than anything else in the world? I think I want to believe that. I know I’m supposed to believe that. But on a daily basis I do not believe it, or at least I do not act like I believe this.

I had a lot of the things of God but not God Himself. The heaviness of my life began to cause me to miss the moments and people that are the best parts of my life. True fulfillment means we have the ability to live present in both positive and negative experiences and not miss either, yet I was bitterly aware that all of it seemed to be slipping

God knew we would never be enough. So He became enough for us. Jesus is our enough. Now before you glaze over like you are in sixth-grade Bible class, stop. If memorizing that truth was enough to change us, we could end this thing right here. The problem with all of our souls is we think we know a truth, but we don’t live like it.

Our identity must shift from helpless, striving, surviving, insignificant small humans to eternally loved, secure, confident, dangerous, empowered people on a clear, noble, eternal mission, who also happen to accomplish that as they are teachers, clerks, executives, janitors, mothers, and friends.