Fully Alive 3

“The glory of God is a human fully alive,” so said Irenaeus, and this line is both quoted and a theme for Trevor Hudson’s new book, Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God’s Beloved.

The book is made up of 16 Signposts, or points along the way of a journey that will help us find our way toward becoming fully alive. Trevor Hudson’s book would be a great book for a Group Study. I would urge pastors and group leaders to work through this book over a month or so and only then venture to go through it with a class.

Signpost #2: Discovering who we are. As Jesus’ identity was formed by the Father, so our identity is formed in relation with Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son.

Trevor confesses that he has had a hard time accepting God’s love for him. So his point: “at the heart of the universe, there is a divine Lover who longs for every one of us to wake up to the amazing truth of our belovedness.”

There are two lies: one that we are no good, the other that we sketch images of ourselves in public so people think we are good. The good news is that our good God loves us and that makes us God’s Beloved.

The quest for identity has three paths: the inward journey, which leads to the psychological self; the journey of looking toward others, which leads to a life shaped by trying to please others; and the journey of achievement, which does not lead to satisfying joy but to the desire for more and more.

Jesus, the crucified and risen one, meets us where we are. Jesus listened to the Father for his identity. He was the Beloved Son — baptism and transfiguration.And that leads Trevor to this conviction: Jesus tells us time and time again that we are God’s Beloved. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you” (John 15:9). In Jesus we catch the streams of God’s radiating love.

Trevor has written up a “Personal Beloved Charter” and I recommend you find it and read it. (Too long to post here.) He suggests reading this aloud to ourselves to relearn our belovedness and to drill it deep into our bones.

He also recommends that we learn to love ourselves as God loves us. This is not selfish or narcissistic. It is gospel truth: God loves us and we need to embrace his love for us as our love. Jesus taught us to love others as we love ourselves. He counsels us to care for ourselves.

Then he recommends we learn to relate to others as God’s Beloved. We are in this together. We help others claim their belovedness by loving them.