“What’s It All About, Alfie?”

Tonight as I write, I have one goal. I’d like to be the ‘Alfie’ in your life for as many minutes as it takes to read this blog post.

In the 70’s a black singer named Dionne Warwick asked this most poignant question in lyrical form with her throaty alto voice. Though the song never revealed who the heck ‘Alfie’ was, it sounds like she could have been asking the local bartender about the meaning of life while he polished glasses and served up another frosty round. I, on the other hand, was content this afternoon to indulge in a homemade peanut butter cookie and decaf while the same pondering was going on in my heart and mind. So, in the spirit of retro ‘Alfie,’ I have an ancient answer for you…

Christlikeness. Plain and simple. Deep and mysterious. Easy to read as black letters on white paper, but containing substance the depths of which will take all eternity to plumb, let alone understand.

Clear back in Genesis 1:27 the Word declares we were created by God in His image. Then, Sin happened, mankind was separated from his ‘reason for being created’ close relationship with God, and up popped Dionne again, lost and asking if anyone knew the way to San Jose. (Boy, she was one inquisitive woman!). But she’s no different than the rest of us when you get right down to it. We’ve been searching for restoration to the heart of God since shortly after the Beginning.

Whether we’ve forgotten what it’s all about, or we’ve not forgotten but our way has become obscured, the fact remains that Christ is waiting to be united with His Bride. She will be pure and spotless (purity of heart and cleansed from defilement), whole and perfect (nothing missing and lacking nothing), and prepared for the eternal destiny that awaits those who have made themselves ready to be filled with the fullness of God instead of full of themselves.

Before you determine this is too high and lofty a goal, would you permit tonight’s Alfie to say ‘that’s bunk?’ This Alfie knows what it’s like to have forgotten what it’s all about. This Alfie wandered for a season, courtesy of the enemy’s fog machines that obscured truth and replaced it with lies and illusions. And this Alfie has discovered what God has always known…

There is a purpose for our lives that transcends our earthly reality. And it looks suspiciously like Christ.

Though we don’t yet know what we will be (1 John 3:2), as we set our eye singly toward becoming retro-fitted to God’s original intention – seeing His own image when He looks at us – Holy Spirit himself will lead us into all truth: Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. John 16:13

As for that high and lofty goal of becoming the Bride? There are no limits on God’s side. We are the ones who place limits which stay firmly in place until we admit we’ve been living life ‘by the lies’ instead of ‘by the Book’. The Spirit of Truth is just waiting for our invitation to come and guide us into all truth. He not only knows what it’s REALLY all about…(he knows the way to San Jose, too)!

Removing the limits,

Alfie

I John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

©2010 Nancy C. Bentz – Author’s permission granted to forward this devotional piece in its entirety, including this copyright line.  For more devotionals, to leave a comment, or to subscribe to this blog, visit https://shammahsfield.com