Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 34. You Have Lived So Much Life I Know Nothing About (let’s write life’s song together)

(click here to listen now)

Hello human.

Well, I just said it. You have lived so much life I know nothing about. How do I know this with such certainty? Because it is true with everyone.

I want to share with you a text string between my middle son and me that continues to prompt my heart as I interact with people in my life. Some I know well, others hardly at all.

A Song of the Spirit

As I remember it, he was telling me about an experience he had with one of his buddies on a fishing trip, I believe. He is my nature boy. God’s creation is tethered to his soul. When he told me about what had happened, I had one of those moments when my lens on who he is, changed.

Here’s how it went:

It was no surprise that my son fell into the rhythm of that moment. He is no stranger to writing songs. And books about nature and what that kind of physical exposure teaches you about human nature.

That moment for me cast such a strong spirit-filled light on the truly epic work of God. Creating a human with such intricacies, such capacity, and an inborn, spirit-filled compass for navigating deep waters. That whatever part of someone we know, the time we spend with each other, is only a small portion of what and who we actually are, that even the people we are closest to are being selective about what they share about their experiences—sometimes intentional, sometimes because it’s just a time thing.

The quality of our relationships is in how we invest and nurture the connection—what we share with each other.

My text exchange with my son started in the spirit of Ephesians 5:19

19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,

We were talking about nature, the creation, the lessons nature teaches us, and what striving in the elements teaches us, and our conversation united into a lyric about life, one that we were mentally singing together, and didn’t even know it.  That’s the power of knowing. That’s a song from the Spirit.

No One But the Spirit of God Knows

1 Corinthians 2:11

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

 

Consider the relationship between Saul and David, and between David and Saul’s son, Jonathan.

1 Samuel 18:  1-4

18 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

 

So, Saul was jealous of David, yet his son, Jonathan stood apart, and as the story unfolded, David and Jonathan showed what a covenant looked like in life. That Jonathan stood up for what was right and true, and pledged his loyalty to their relationship. He armed David with his love, devotion, and a robe, tunic, a sword, bow and belt. That for David, a covenant that when he became king, he would protect Jonathan’s family, in spite of the tradition for the newly reigning King to wipe out the previous monarch’s family to avoid all threats to the current monarchy.

This makes me want to gain more clarity about how to deepen a covenant love with someone.

Deuteronomy 7:9

9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

 

Volumes have been written and debated about God’s covenant of love, but my best witness is to hear what God is saying and immediately begin doing it as best I can.

I want to be more mindful about the covenant I have with others.

I am considering five actions to start going this road with someone I have a covenant with.

Build a Covenant Love with Each Other

1. Choose devotion. Stick to that person. Choose honor. Elevate that person above yourself.

Romans 12:10

10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

2. Submit to that person because you are honoring Christ.

Ephesians 5:21

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

3. Love is the indicator of where God is, and what He is up to. Make God’s love whole and complete through your covenant with that person.

1 John 4:12

12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

4. Invest time and intent on inspiring someone to love and good works. Show, not tell. Be an example.

Hebrews 10:24

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,

5. Pray over shared confessions.

James 5:16

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We are Sourced by Our Creator

Paul prayed that love would increase, that the source of love comes from the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

 

God’s Word tells us to love others as He first loved us. Making a covenant as Jonathan did with David, is sourced by our Creator, who created the ability to know another human out of His supreme being. This power of “knowing” is the twine that secures our relationships, makes our witness to others more sensitive, relatable, and relevant to another person in a way that only God can ignite. It is about understanding that we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us into that relationship, lead us into that conversation every time.  

Pick someone that you want to deepen your covenant with. Mentally mark where you are right now, and set a path to devote, honor, complete, inspire, confess, and pray with that person.

So I leave this BUOY where I started, with how with David’s conviction about how His God knows Him. David had the power to build a covenant—to “become one in the spirit” with Jonathan—because of the covenant God made with him. We are inspired through God’s love for each of us, to deepen our covenant love with others. 

The Hebrew word hesed (also spelled chesed) has no English or Greek equivalent. It is born from a root word that means to bow one’s head toward another and stems from a covenant relationship. I bookmarked this for another day, but for now to take inspiration from how our love means a covenant has been made between two humans that only happens through God’s nature within us.

And it starts with how well God knows you.

Psalm 139: 1-12

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,

    and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

    you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

    you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

    you, Lord, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

    and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

    and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

    the night will shine like the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.