One of my family's favorite movies is A Princess Bride, and one of our favorite quotes from the movie is when the antagonist continues to say, "Inconceivable" until finally, on the side of the cliff, he uses it one more time and his cohort, Inigo Montoya, says, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Now and then we'll be driving the family around in our 7-passenger Pathfinder, when someone starts using a word incorrectly, and another will quip ,"You keep using that word ..." The rest of us will laugh, and then someone else will say, "We should watch that movie again!" followed by a few more funny quotes or scene references.
Today (January 6) the quote was thrown into conversation once again, when suddenly it turned sidewise in my brain. Have you ever had that happen? The words shift and then suddenly make sense in a completely different way? Well, this time it came out even stronger, almost like a voice from heaven, and it said,
"This life that you're living -- It doesn't mean what you think it means."
The words came several times in a row. "This life - it doesn't mean what you think it means. It doesn't mean what you think it means." I didn't have time to sit down and think about it - the words had come while I was changing from workout clothes into jeggings and a sweater. It was nearly time for dinner with my grown kids. Our dinner conversation remained pretty typical, mostly lightheartedly recounting our daily routine. Then we cleaned up, spent a few minutes choosing a movie, then watching said movie. Before I knew it, it was time for bed. That's when the words came again: "This life. It doesn't mean what you think it means."
January 11 - It's been a few days ... busy with work, parenting, grandparenting, praying for friends ... and I am listening to a Spotify playlist while stirring my bowl of Greek yogurt. I open up the Bible App and the Verse of the Day is exactly what is playing on my playlist! - Psalm 27:4. It's a verse I know well - all about the one thing - the top thing that King David craved above all else: to be with the Lord, gazing on his glory and beauty, delighting in him, remaining there with Him in his holy temple. Neither the song nor the verse are new to me, of course. But today it is highlighted in a whole new way, as I hear the Lord say,
"This is it!"
I listen to the song on repeat. I was made to be in this moment - right here and right now - to gaze, to be, to love, to respond to love. All the days of my life. This life, not the afterlife. Life is in Him. This is eternal life - to know Him (to know God, to know Jesus). John 17:3.
This is what it means: Every day I live more and more aware of His presence, so close, gazing on this beauty so far beyond me and yet so near. My life is eternal, yesterday, today, and forever - and it has one overarching theme - to know Him more and more, to love Him more and more, and to become more and more what I was created to be - in Him.
