o my word.

Has a word ever captivated your imagination? Have you ever come across a concept that when you take the time to really think about it, you cannot be the same? A few years ago I was mulling around the idea of the Lord being sufficient for me. It was a pondering that began in my Spiritual Formation class with Mark Carter. It was a very important season of my formation in the Lord. I learned a lot about myself and about God and His heart for me. Such a sweet time, but more importantly out of that time, I found myself a word. A word so captivating that it has continued to change me throughout my life journey. I’ve probably written about it in my journal 396 times.

Beloved. I am the beloved. I rest secure in Him who calls me the beloved. My lover is mine and I am his beloved. He gives to his beloved even in her sleep. I bear the same name as The Beloved of the Most High. I am her who was not beloved, now beloved! I obey as one loved, I persevere as one loved, the beloved.

It’s a lofty concept. A big grandiose picture of who I am in Christ. Thinking about it makes my heart glad and draws me deeper into relationship with my King. Knowing that I am the beloved, considered lovely, loved deeply; belonging to love itself makes me different. Changes the way I go about my business. Changes the way I think, the way I act, and the way I live.
This lofty idea would come to my mind every so often and I would have to respond. I would have to look at the scriptures and think about what it means. Whenever the word would enter my mind, I would have to pause (usually a big pause, rather than a small thinking pause) and consider its truth, in the deepest parts of me.

Then one day (after years of consideration) I decided to transform this lofty concept into daily truth; remembered with my every step. It had to be big and elaborate and it had to mean all of the things it has ever meant to me. It had to be extra fancy and beautiful and big and lofty like the concept has been to me for the last few years of my life.

The day this permanent reminder came to be, I didn’t think it through too much. I was worried that if I had thought about it too much I wouldn’t follow through. So in not thinking about it, I decided that instead of big and elaborate, the truth of my belovedness had to be simple. Well, really, I didn’t think about it, I just pulled up the word (in its original Greek) on my friends iphone and let Sammy take over from there. He created something beautiful something so simple and perfect that I cannot help but love every inch of it! Now, every day, with each step, I am reminded of my belovedness. I’m reminded of the security found only in my Savior. It might be the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.

Before, the pausing that took place for me to remember my belovedness was big and elaborate. Requiring extra time spent; I would have to stop my day and think. Now, it’s still big and elaborate, it just happens everyday, even multiple times a day. I stop and think. I look at my right foot and read a word that means beloved: dearly loved, worthy of love, dear, lovable…
It’s simple. It’s elaborate. It’s true. O my word.