What Lives In Me? … Good morning Hump Day readers. I hope your week started off on a ‘good foot’, as they say. Al and I are off this week so we’ll get out into nature and discover, which leads me to this devotion—what lives in us? Well—things like parasites, cancers, gall/kidney stones (ugh) and lots more. If you could see a complete scan of your entire body—including your brain—you’d be pretty amazed and/or disgusted at what lives in there. However, there is one scan that will not give you the most important thing that lives in you…ah—now to the devotion!

When I read the book of Galatians all kinds of scenarios started bumping around in my brain. The Apostle Paul had so much to say and he knew his time was limited. He wanted the people to know that in Christ they have freedom and when you put your faith in the Messiah he actually lives in you…found in 2:20 (NLT) “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” And to the people of Colossae he also said (1:27) “The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you!” The Apostle John also chimed in on this indwelling topic (1 John 4:15 NLT) “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.”

Like me, you probably haven’t thought about this very much. When I think of what lives in me it’s usually something like, heart, stomach, brain (hopefully?), bones, stubborn belly-fat, you get my drift. But what if we would start our day with the reminder that Christ lives truly in us, 24/7, every single day until we die and go home to heaven. Do you think it may change our daily perspective, our attitudes, maybe even how we treat one another?

Christ in us means he has moved in, taken up residence, commandeers our footsteps, and yes, rearranges things for us to live the faith-walk he has set out for us. In fact, Christ wants us to daily be more like him, become more filled with grace, love, mercy and forgiveness. He isn’t sitting idly by checking out our organs to make sure they work, he is listening to the beat of our hearts—is our heart willing to share him with others who need healing, guidance, and love? He is taking the temperature of our souls—are they kicking and alive with the Gospel, or have they run cold with todays’ cynicism and anger. He is listening to our minds, feeding them with all that is perfect, good, and filled with encouragement for the day. What would he hear from your mind, my mind? I shudder to think of it!!

This in-dwelling of Christ in us is so far-fetched to the human-mind it’s no wonder we don’t think about it. Yet Christ IS in us. Think of him as that stranger you let in who never leaves but, believe me, you don’t want him to go! Think of where you’d be without his direction, leading, those “whispers in your ear” when you want to wander somewhere you shouldn’t go. Or the loving touch of healing, friendship, and belonging.

One of my dad’s favorite sayings was “you can’t change a pig’s ear into a silk purse.” He would say that when we would whine about stuff we didn’t get, or the crabby people at the resort, or the bully at school. For the longest time I really didn’t realize what he was saying. When the “light-bulb” went on I realized he was reminding me that we can’t change who we are but Jesus can—he can take our filthy, muddy messes and turn them into a dazzling beautiful silk ‘purse.’ He changes us because he lives in us—his work is from the “inside out.”

If we took a look in our mirror today would we see Christ in us? The smile on our face, or the joy in our heart, the healing that we never thought would happen, a perspective that life is good in his hands–we can let go of our tether to anxiety. I could go on with so many other scenarios—there is so much about each of us—it would fill a novel—oh, but that’s already been done, too, because your name has already been written in his book of life!

St. Patrick said it best: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”

No matter how your day starts or ends, make sure to stop a moment, smile at yourself in the mirror and then, like my friend Lysa TerKeurst says, “wave and say, ‘Hi Jesus, I’m so glad you live in me. I’m gonna’ need you today and I know you’ll be there.’” AMEN.