On Being Known

There's a moment in the Gospel of John I keep returning to. Jesus and Nathanael have never met. Jesus sees him approaching and says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit." Nathanael, baffled, asks how Jesus knows him. Jesus answers, simply: "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Before you were called. Before you knew you were being looked at. Before you cleaned yourself up.

That's the Gospel.

A different center of gravity

Most of us live with our eyes turned toward our own performance. We want to be impressive. We want to be respectable. We want our lives to add up. There is nothing inherently wrong with these desires; the problem is when they become the gravity our soul orbits around. When they do, we end up exhausted and never quite arriving.

Jesus offers a different center of gravity. He sees you under the fig tree. He sees you in the chair. He sees you when no one is looking and there is nothing to perform.

What this changes

When you are seen and loved before you have proven anything, you are free to do the work without anxiety. You can fail without crisis. You can risk love without losing yourself. You can rest.

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me." — Psalm 139:1

A practice

Try this sometime today. Before you start your work, before you open the email, before you walk into the meeting — pause for ten seconds. Whisper, "I am seen. I am known. I am loved." Not because you've earned it. Because, in Christ, it is true.

The Christian doesn't strive in order to become beloved. The Christian works from the rest of belovedness. Big difference. All the difference.