The second-century Christian writer Irenaeus once wrote: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” What a contemporary sounding idea! God is most happy — is in his glory — when we are fully alive. So what does it mean to be fully alive? This thought reminds me of that great question in Psalm 8 (and I paraphrase): Who are we that God pays any attention to us at all?
Irenaeus has a comeback for the Psalmist: I’ll tell you who we are…we are his GLORY — as long as we’ve living lives of abundance, as long as we’re living lives that complete God’s purpose and hope for us. To be fully alive is to live fully in God, for God, of God. It is to seek God with every fiber of our being and in every moment of our lives. Or as a much more contemporary source (songwriter David Crowder) writes: “You make everything glorious. And I am yours. What does that make me?”
Ask yourself in silence: What am I doing when I feel I am most fully alive?
