Jesus Loves You

Today, I learned that one of my coworkers is a strong Christian. We should have put it together after we talked about love languages, but I always forget that not everyone in the world knows the gist of the five love languages, so it doesn't make my #stuffchristianslike radar go off.

Anyway, we were walking out to our cars and talking about work problems and then she said, "Have a great rest of your day. Jesus loves you"

I said, "Jesus loves you too, Cassie" and got into my car. I melted at the simplicity of that exchange. I'm at a church where we habitually preach the gospel to each other. It's amazing to watch hear my brothers and sisters point each other to Jesus in every conversation.

But we weren't at church. We weren't doing church things. We were being gymnastics coaches at a center for children and we were standing in the parking lot.

Jesus loves you.

I prayed for T today that she would have these parking lot moments with Cassies in her life. I prayed that the declarations of Christ's love would make her day.

And then I thought about that for a second.

Does the simple truth that Jesus loves me make my day? Are my affections so stirred for Jesus that His affection for me is most important to me?

Jared Wilson writes about the idea of what he calls "gospel wakefulness". Gospel wakefulness is exactly what it sounds like - being so awake to or perhaps wakened by the gospel that nothing else can possibly compare. He writes in the book of the same title,

"Gospel wakefulness means tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. It means losing the taste of worship for anything else" 

In other words, gospel wakefulness means that you can be loved by anyone, you can gain any amount of approval from anyone else, you can earn any amount of money, get any job title, and count it all as rubbish compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ.

And on my best day, it means that when a sister tells me Jesus loves me, it totally makes my day.