Seven Principles for a Flourishing Life - Soul Hunger

Nathan: 00:00

Hey, I'm Nathan, and I want to welcome you back to the love shaped life podcast where we talk about our big dream of seeing, experiencing and living in the wonder of God's radical love. We are in season five. Episode Four this season, we've entitled seven principles for for a flourishing life. I'm here with my good friend Bob.

Bob: 00:21

Hey, it's exciting to be here again Nathan, as we continue to journey on Jesus's really his first inaugural speech, as we would call it, as he began his ministry. And most known by a lot of people is the Sermon on the Mount. Yeah, and we're just going through those first principles. Blessed? Are they right?

Nathan: 00:42

That's right and and that blessing we've talked about as the idea of flourishing. So before we recap our last episode, we want to invite you as our listener or as watching us on YouTube. We want to invite you to comment, to share, to like, subscribe, to engage in the journey, and every time you do that, you help expand the reach of what we're trying to do, of inviting folks like you into this flourishing life that God has for us, what we're creating in season five is actually going to become a book or booklet. We don't know how long it's going to be, but we're going to put these teachings of Jesus that we're expounding on that are central to the flourishing life. We're actually going to put them in a booklet, yeah, as well as a course. Yeah,

Bob: 01:33

I think it's important, yeah, the book that leads to a course, yeah. You know, like Solomon said to the writing of books, there is no end, right? So, hey, there's just so many books, and so we want to make sure that it's something that's useful for people, right? I know books are very useful for you people, but Jane, we want to turn it into more of a learning experience, so it becomes part of their life,

Nathan: 01:55

right? Because here at Love shaped life, our big idea is not really the spreading of ideas as much as it is experiencing those ideas in everyday life. Yeah, we

Bob: 02:09

want to see the beauty of God. We want to experience that, and then we want to live it in everyday life. So experience is huge, because the Christian walk is not just a theory, it's experiential, right? God is inviting us into a relationship with him to experience what that's like, and what an honor and what a privilege.

Nathan: 02:26

Yes, So principle number three, our previous episode was blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You had a thought you wanted to bring in as basically a recap, or at least part of a recap from our previous episode. Yeah,

Bob: 02:44

we had mentioned the scripture verse in Matthew chapter 11, where Jesus invites people come unto me, all you that labor are heavy laden, he said, and I will give you rest. And then he said, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you should find rest unto your souls. I just wanted to mention that he said, to learn of me, right? He is meek, right? If you look at his life and you want to see what the definition of meekness is in the heart and the character of God, it's the life of Christ, completely unselfish, just humble, ministering and caring for just everyone. But then he invites us to come to him, and then he says, learn of me. So learning meekness and growing in meekness, I just want to bring out that it's growing in meekness, right? Just like the Christian journey, wherever growing God is continually to transform our hearts, to make us more and more like him. So meekness is a process, just like the Christian walk, it's a process.

Nathan: 03:42

So I love that reminder that this is an ongoing we use the language journey. You use the language process, but this is an ongoing thing. So let the process do its work, or let God do his work through the process, and

Bob: 04:01

again, on a daily basis, as we learn to to walk with God as as because God wants to open our eyes to see more of him, just like in Scripture. As we've been looking at scripture, we're seeing the beauty of God's character, and the more we see of it, the promises that God will transform us into that same image, right from glory to glory, as the Bible says, from character to character. It's that journey.

Nathan: 04:26

Yes, Jesus used the picture of the growing of a crop that starts as a seed in the soil and then, in a sense, miraculously, becomes a shoot and then a young plant, and then bears a harvest. And in that parable, Jesus comments that the farmer doesn't know how it happens. Now today, we may we definitely have kind of a more robust grasp through microscopic imagery. Through studies of the plant kingdom than his audience had, and yet, fundamentally, there's still a kind of mystery there. How does an apparently dry seed put in the soil, rained on, shined on by the sun, ultimately bear a crop?

Bob: 05:18

We see many miracles in our lives, every day, in creation and nature itself. This is what, the way God created, you know, that there's a seed, and a seed becomes a seedling and then grows up and eventually becomes full full grown and bears fruit. And so it's a miracle, really, to watch the whole process. You know? It's just like our children, you know? Yep, my daughter just turned 16. My son just turned 12. I sometimes I blink my eye, it seems like they just grow every day, right? Yes, it's just growing. Before your eyes. They're just eating and sleeping and living life, exercising, breathing fresh air, and they just grow. Yes, it's really a miracle,

Nathan: 05:56

and that is an illustration of what God wants to do in growing us forming a spiritual that it is a process when we lean into the process, though God does something supernatural in our lives, and that's what we're talking about in the seven principles for a flourishing life. Yeah.

Bob: 06:14

And again, I want to mention that back to you mentioned this is those are examples, right? Nature, watching our children grow of same thing with our relationship with God. Yes, right? So in spiritually speaking, we're feeding on the Word of God. We're learning to pray to God, communicate with God, we're learning to to walk with Him, and the result is that we just grow, right? Yes, Jesus said that He was the vine, and we're the branch, and as we abide or connect with him, that we just bear fruit, a branch doesn't struggle to bear fruit. It just bears fruit. So we just need to concentrate on the relationship and let God do what He has promised to do, and that is change us from the inside out.

Nathan: 06:57

That's I appreciate it, because this morning, I was thinking about this very idea of encouraging our listeners to to keep in mind this exact thing that Bob has mentioned, that when your life is is not what you want it to be, don't try to fix the problem. Lean into the process. The process works because God is at work. So sometimes, as human beings, we try to fix ourselves. Always we or other people try to fix us. And the key in the Jesus way is that we simply lean into the process. And just like a growing plant, or that branch loaded with grapes, the process works, yes, so don't worry about the results. Don't worry about the speed. Just lean in

Bob: 07:52

correct and remember that text in Matthew chapter 11, Come unto me, Jesus said, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest that labor and that heavy laden is also is usually us getting exhausted trying to fix herself, right? And he's like, stop trying to fix yourself. Stop trying to live up to perhaps wrong ideas about God, that religion may have communicated to you. And just come to me

Nathan: 08:19

that's so good. So we've got to move into our teaching, but I think we've made it very clear, don't stress. Don't be anxious. Lean in, yeah, you'll be fine. It will be okay, because the process

Bob: 08:33

works. Yeah, and remember, he's offering us this meekness. He's saying, this is part of citizens of my kingdom are going to be humble, right? They're going to be meek, right? The creator of the universe is the most humble being in all the universe, right? But the most powerful. So meekness is not a weakness. Meekness is strength, yes, but oftentimes, we're the opposite of meekness. But what God is promising us is, in the process, is to make us and offer us that meekness.

Nathan: 09:04

Yes, so here's the incredible thing that I was just really on a new level, saw this morning, the Beatitudes, or the these principles of flourishing that we're talking about. There's seven core principles that define the flourishing life. The first three are preparatory principles, preparing the heart, opening the heart for God to do something miraculous. We have the first principle, which was that acknowledgement that we can't do this, or we're at we come to the end of our trying and realize and admit to ourselves that we can't make ourselves the people we want to be, the lovers we're meant to be. We give up, we recognize we're bankrupt. The second principle was the grieving of the pain we've the injury or pain we've caused others, the pain we've experienced the again, it's the open. Of the heart to start feeling and sensing again who we really are. The third was the meekness that results as a gift from God, but also in this process of coming to terms with our moral bankruptcy that we're we just don't have what it takes that we're at this place of openness and acknowledging our brokenness, and these are preparatory steps to the fourth principle of flourishing, and that principle is, as Jesus stated it in our English translation, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled so the first three of these flourishing steps are the acknowledging of our desperate hunger for something more than we have

Bob: 10:55

beautiful Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. I mean, we all get hungry, right? We all, most of us, like to eat, right? We like to eat so we get hungry and We're thirsty and we're so we're going after food, right? So the but the problem is, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, right? So let's talk about righteousness. Yeah, I just want to mention that, you know, and just in a few verses, and we're in the we're in Matthew chapter five, and we're looking at, I believe it is verse. What verse is it? Listen to those verse six, right? So just a few verses after that, when you pass through that, Jesus makes this statement, and he says to the people, this is the crowd that he's talking to, he said, but I tell you that unless your righteousness surpassed that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Hmm, isn't that this is I'm going to read it again. I tell you that unless your righteousness surpassed that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. So now he's inviting people to come into the kingdom. Now he's saying you're not going to enter the kingdom if you have the righteousness of the Pharisees and the teachers, which were the religious leaders, right? So he wasn't saying that you need more of what they had. He said you need a different type, a different quality. So, good. So, so, so they had this righteousness that was concentrating on outward forms of behavior, right? They were very strict about ceremonies and forms and following. But so Jesus comes along and he says, The Kingdom starts in you Yes. Can

Nathan: 12:32

we talk a little bit about some of what that was? Because I actually thinking the same thing. I've got a couple of verses, but, but we're talking about meticulous concern for external performance or religious appearance, right? You read the story. Seems like, in part of this sermon, Jesus talks about how they would pray on the street corners, or maybe that's later in the Gospel of Matthew, but they would literally pray in the middle of the street, these long, loud prayers, dressed in religious garb to demonstrate their religious dedication. They would these religious leaders would when they harvested their herbs. We're talking about like thyme, basil, rosemary, etc, whatever. They were growing herbs. They would, they would set aside a 10th. Can you imagine, I mean, taking the spices in your cupboard and being so religiously particular as to as to give a 10th of it to the service of God. So we're talking about very meticulous attention to religious performance. Yeah,

Bob: 13:46

sorry. I was no go for it, because I wanted us to actually go there. And that's Matthew chapter 23 exactly, what? Where you're referring Yes, 23 because there's another verse that I want to read that in Matthew chapter 23 Jesus was talking to them again, these religious leaders, the Pharisees. And this is what he says in verse 23 he said, Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. What's a Hypo

Nathan: 14:13

a player, a performer, a performer,

Bob: 14:15

somebody who's looking something on the outside but is not on the inside. That's what he's calling the these the religious people. And he's saying, Look, your righteousness needs to be better than that. Yes, right? So, so let me read on, because you read our text. He said, You give a 10th of your spices, your mint, your dill and your cumin, that's the herbs, right? They're paying tithe on it, 10% of it, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides. You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Wow. So they were straining at gnats, which were like we would call mosquitoes, whatever. To filter their water because they thought they would become impure, right? If they if, if the gnat got into their water, that was that outward form that they focused on, just like the tithing of their herbs. And here Jesus is saying, Look, you know, I commend you for your diligence in being faithful at paying a tithe, but you're forgetting something that's more important, the weightier matters, which he mentions here was justice, mercy and faithfulness. These are inward, inward, that's beautiful, right? And Luke, in the Gospel of Luke, the same situation, what Luke was describing, he just says, You neglected the love of God. Wow, that's

Nathan: 15:40

powerful. Yeah, it's powerful. So I gotta add one more piece on this. This is, this is from the book of Isaiah, chapter one. The message, this is Eugene Peterson's paraphrase. Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games. Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings, I can't stand one more meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them. You've worn me out. I'm sick of your religion. Religion, religion. While you go right on sinning, when you put on your next prayer performance, I'll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I'll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you've been tearing people to pieces and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up, clean up your act. Wow. So God is not, you know? Sometimes, sometimes religion is done for the sake of religion. Sometimes we read Scripture and we think that what God is after is religious people. God is not interested in religious people. God is about making beautiful people. All of the religious practices that are talked about in Scripture had that singular objective in mind, forming people who love like God loves. So when religion is portrayed as a collection of rituals, as the highest realization of religion, then religion is a mockery and a waste of time. All of the ritual and religion that is legitimate has one single objective, making beautiful people who love like God loves.

Bob: 17:19

I mean, that's beautiful. So again, back to Matthew where Jesus said to them, accept your righteousness. Exceed that of these scribes and Pharisees. You're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Or is he saying this is, this is really radical, because he's saying the religious people that are teaching you don't follow it,

Nathan: 17:39

because it's not righteousness, right? It's

Bob: 17:40

not righteousness, right? So he's saying, this is not the quality that will meet up to the kingdom of heaven. This is outwardness, this is hypocrisy, and what you need is an internal righteousness, right? So Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And we're talking about what righteousness is, and we're going to in its simplicity, really, it's, it's loving like God, yes, right? It's, it's being like him, loving like him from the inside out, yes, right, yeah. So, so this was powerful. This is, you know, again, you'll read the gospels, the religious leaders, telling people about God and everything we're always plotting to kill Jesus. I mean, he hated and so I want to continue reading in Matthew here, he says to them, he continues. And he says, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees and hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside there are full of greed and self but inside they're full of greed and self indulgence. See, they're cleaning the outside, right? They look good on the outside. They're praying on the street corners. But he said, inside, you're full of greed and self indulgence. And he goes on to say, Pharisees, sorry, blind. Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to be people as righteous, but on the inside you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness. So their righteousness, they appeared to be righteous. And this is what Jesus is saying, you can't have this quality of righteousness that they have. In order to be part of my kingdom. You need something totally different. And he and he was saying, You're they're cleaning the outside, but the insides dirty, right, full of hypocrisy. It's really interesting. Jesus is so simple. I love the simplicity of Jesus. He basically says, human beings consist of two parts, inside and outside. And if you allow the inside to get cleansed first and allow Christ to live in, you, the outside will take care of itself. But if you focus on the outside, the. Inside will be left unchanged. And this is what happens oftentimes in religious experiences, is we focus so much on outward behaviors that the inside is left unchanged. Yeah, and that's what crushes us. That's what crushes people. So Jesus is saying there's a different quality of righteousness that's

Nathan: 20:19

beautiful. So our guess is, if you haven't picked up on this, that if you are in the middle of what we've come to term deconstructing, if you're a recovering religious person, whatever your religious tradition growing up was, if you're in the process of recovering from that, our guess is that what you saw was a charade, a moral charade, a moral performance. But when you got to know the people in the performance, you found out they were full of double standards. They mistreated you. In spite of all the nice language they might have they might have spoken. They abused you. And we want to let you know that what Jesus is offering has nothing to do with that. Jesus himself called it out for what it was, as Bob just laid out for us, yeah, and

Bob: 21:13

I want to say that some of those people that you're referring to, as far as religious leaders, may be doing it intentionally, but others are just blinded true by a misunderstanding of God and a misunderstanding of his ways so sincere in their heart. But you know, like the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? You can be sincere about something and be in a wrong direction. What we need is God's pathway, seeing what God is saying and follow that Jesus is talking about is, let me live inside of you. Yeah, right. So Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, right? God is love. The standard for of character is loving, like God loves. That's it. The more you taste of the goodness of God in your life, the more you're going to hunger and thirst for more. The more you experience being loved by this amazing God who just wants to wrap his arms around you and heal you and restore you. The more you long for, more you're hungering and thirsting for, and the promise is you'll be filled. Yeah,

Nathan: 22:19

beautiful, it is God says. I

Bob: 22:22

want to fill you up exactly.

Nathan: 22:23

And a little theological side note for our listeners, this may be new to you. You may not be familiar with this, but there's a term in Scripture and in theological circles called the New Covenant. And all I'm going to say is in these seven flourishing principles, Jesus is laying out the experience of the new covenant, which basically is God's promise to us to shape us into lovers who love light God loves and so what Jesus is doing, without Using kind of that theological language, is laying out to everyday people like us what it means to experience the flourishing life that God has in mind for human beings. Yeah,

Bob: 23:13

that's beautiful. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and they shall be filled. You know, Paul in the book of Ephesians, he has this prayer. He's praying for the people, and he's telling them that he's praying for this people, and he talks about how that that they might discern or see, right? We're talking about seeing now, seeing God, the height and depth and breadth of God's love. Mm, hmm, right. So he's saying that's his prayer for them, and that's really should be our prayer, and prayer for everyone that we might see the height and breadth, depth and breadth of God's love, right? Because it's so broad and so deep and just to see more of it. But then he said, as a result of that, you'll be filled with all the fullness of God. So the more we see God and His beauty, the more we hunger and thirst of it after it, the more God fills us with, more of him, more of the capacity to love like him. Yes, it's a beautiful experience, a beautiful journey. That's why, when we get up in the morning, when our hearts will throb to be able to sit in the very presence of

Nathan: 24:19

God, right?

Bob: 24:21

That the King of the universe is inviting us to come into His presence and to live in that presence and to fill us that's right with his love. You know, the Bible tells us that God is the fountain of life,

Nathan: 24:35

and in His presence is pleasure forevermore.

Bob: 24:38

I love that thought David in Psalm 16, verse 11, in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore, fullness of joy. Pleasures forevermore. In the very presence of the creator, you will hunger and thirst for more. When you're tasting of the true God, you'll only want more. That's right. Religion often, and I'm not saying all religion is bad, because there's a lot of good in religious circles, but oftentimes religion will leave you not hungering and thirsting for more of the Creator Himself. So back to lest are those who hunger and thirst at the righteousness and Jesus saying your righteousness needs to be different quality than the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees was an outward quality based upon their performances. And the Bible considers that self righteousness, it's something they are producing. And Jesus is saying, righteousness is not produced by self yourself. It can only be produced by me, in you,

Nathan: 25:44

that's right, right?

Bob: 25:45

So it's a righteousness that's produced by God. And when we're talking about righteousness, we're talking about being able to love like God, that's

Nathan: 25:52

right, right? And just noting, I was looking at my notes here, and one of the things I think it's worth highlighting is that the first three Beatitudes, which can be a painful experience, the first three principles of the flourishing life, God's intent is not to leave us sort of disappointed and grieving the person that we are, the the failures that that we've had in our lives, but rather to open us up to being filled up and more deeply satisfied than we have ever been, amen. So it's it's exposing our hunger, so that we can be filled up and satisfied and satisfy, not leaving us hungry and disappointed and kind of down on ourselves, but rather opened up to receive something that before we could not receive. Jesus

Bob: 26:51

talked about John chapter 15, that our joy would be made full Yes, right? So he wants to fill us up. But you see what was happening with, you know the experience of the people in the day as the Pharisees and the teachers were pushing on them all these ceremonies and things they needed to do and all these laws and everything needed to be kept it left them empty. It left them empty. It left them oftentimes feeling hopeless because they couldn't live up to what appeared to be these standards. So Jesus is now speaking into them, saying, You gotta be filled. You're not gonna be left empty. You're gonna be filled so you're gonna have a peace and a joy in a contentment that you've never experienced before. Because this is, this is what it means to be part of the kingdom

Nathan: 27:41

of heaven. That's it. That's it. Not

Bob: 27:43

beautiful. It is.

Nathan: 27:44

So I want to take us back to a story that we looked at in a previous I think season three, and I think we touched on in season one too, but it's here are the words of this story. Jesus met a woman who was rejected by her townspeople. He met her in the middle of the day at a well. And here's part of that interchange, and it illustrates well this fourth principle. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water, sir. The woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty, talking about the water from the well, the physical, literal water in that well. And I just

Bob: 28:44

want to add to that, there's this back to we all have this need in our heart. There's an empty spot in our heart that, like God, can fill, and we've tried to fill it with everything that the world offers. And we we're always left thirsty, yes, right? We're always left hungry, because the pleasures of the world, whether it's relationships and then broken relationships, or whatever, whatever our goals are, even when we meet our financial goals, whatever we still there's still we want more and more, because we're never satisfied, right? It's always short term, always short term. So now Jesus is saying

Nathan: 29:22

something deeper, something deeper. Here's the next line, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. In other words, something that is continually fresh and refreshing. That's the life that Jesus is offering us in these himself, in these principles of flourishing. It's not the principles that he's offering us, it's himself he's offering us, and the principles simply lay out the process of leaning in. Opening up to this deep flourishing.

Bob: 30:03

Yeah, it's beautiful. And if I might add to that, you know, all thy commandments are righteousness. So all the teachings of God are what righteousness are. So as we spend time with God and His Word, and we're learning his ways, and we're practicing those ways, right? Being kind, being, you know, forgiving, you know, lending our time and energy to help people. As we're practicing the ways of God, we find ourselves being filled up, right? That's right on a practical scale, in the sense of being filled God wants to impart his love inside of us, and then as we see what he's teaching in His Word, and we're practicing it and putting into our life, we're finding satisfaction, we're finding joy, we're finding peace, that's right, that will never thirst again, because with God's ways, you don't need to thirsty, right?

Nathan: 30:55

Right? So it's interesting, and then we'll wrap up here, that Jesus, after offering the woman the water of life, he says, Go call your husband. She was not ready to receive the water until she came to terms with how hungry she was for it. So it's reversed in the conversation, but the process Jesus uses it's exactly the same. He's inviting the woman to open her heart and recognize that deep down she's really thirsty, so then she can receive of this deep, flowing well of God's radical filling presence and love. Beautiful. Yeah. So, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Well. And

Bob: 31:43

again, she was somebody that was pretty well rejected by her society. And here Jesus comes along and God speaking to her. Again, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God, you know, she, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven. Sorry. So she sensed her need of God. She responded to Jesus, and He healed her, filled her up, same thing he'll do for each and every one of us and for those who are listening, that you know God wants to fill you up. You know he wants to give you a flourishing life. So Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Yes.

Nathan: 32:25

And here's what I want you to know, the thing we're highlighting from the teachings of Jesus is a kind of deep satisfaction and being filled up that no other religion or non religion, can offer you that hunger deep in your heart that you have consistently found unfilled unsatisfied is the hunger Jesus promises to fill. The thing offered by Jesus is a life of unimaginable flourishing that is only found in leaning in to a God who loves radically.

Bob: 33:14

That's the thing. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful. So

Nathan: 33:17

wrapping up, C, what do we see today's episode, what's the C takeaway

Bob: 33:24

for me? I see that God wants to fill us up, right? That the creator of the universe is concerned about us individually, and every one of us that we have a need, right? And a need that needs to be satisfied, and he can only satisfy that need. And so if you look at it, that we're empty, and he wants to fill us, fill us up with his presence. And so that's what I see. I see a God who wants to take human beings wherever they are and their journey of life, whatever the level of brokenness or or wherever they are in that journey he wants to fill us up. Yeah,

Nathan: 34:03

and I would say experience would be God's longing is for us to experience a flourishing life. This is not about God taking away your happiness, not about God limiting your freedom, but rather leading you into an experience that is the most deeply satisfied and flourishing life you can imagine, beautiful.

Bob: 34:28

So he's, he's, he's changing our characters, right? So it's not just about outside, it's now inside. As a result of that, we're having a peace that the Bible would call passes all understanding. Yeah, right. And then we're now, we're the same people on the outside the house, right as we are on the inside of the house. We don't have to worry about putting out a different cover and looking like something when we step out the door, because it's who we are. God has made us to be. And what a great place to be, yes, as a human being,

Nathan: 34:57

and the experience of that being that. Know, will we be people who love well, but we will love loving well. We'll love being with God and experience a satisfaction that's durable, that doesn't fluctuate with the day, doesn't disappear, but is deepening and growing over time. Yeah, and

Bob: 35:19

again, once you see how God and more of his beauty, and you're talking about experiencing that and then living it, you can help but live right and seek to as the Bible say, imitate him, yeah. And so that's the other people, yeah. And you're experiencing happiness and doing

Nathan: 35:36

it, yes, yes,

Bob: 35:39

like Jesus said, far better to give than to receive, right? Yep, as we give, we receive, right? We're giving and we're receiving joy and satisfaction, exactly.

Nathan: 35:48

So we invite you to remember to share with a friend like subscribe. We'd also like you to join us at loveshape dot life. We've got a bunch of resources. You can connect with Bob and I. You can connect with others on our love shaped life platform. We want to experience this flourishing together. So we want you to join the journey until Next time, lean in to The Love shaped life.