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Excerpt from The Deeply Formed Life, written by Rich Villodas: “God’s abundant life and love, it’s all available to us… God is committed to our transformation. He is not in the business of simply improving our lives; he wants to infuse them with his life. Every day, he moves toward us in love, reaching, seeking, and pleading with us to pay attention… We have to open ourselves to God’s way of being; that is, we have to leave but enter back in through another way. Like the apostle Paul said, we are invited to ‘live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit (Gal 5:16).’ ”
Infused.
I have tried to describe how I understand the difference to be between having a deep spiritual life in Christ and not. The quote above from The Deeply Formed Life, by Rich Villodas (thanks to an earlier article by Andy) gave me a new sense of how to describe the difference. “God is not in the business of simply improving our lives; he wants to infuse them with his life.” That makes so much sense to me. I’ve tried phrases like “a big part of my life” or “what I base my life on” or “is my life”. But all of those phrases fell short at best and sounded trite at worst.
Then I thought of that sentence by Villodas and immediately imagined my cup of tea. Without the infusion of the leaves, my water is hot, good for me, quenching, satisfying in many ways, and is indeed my life as I am 70% water. But it is the infusion that makes everything different.
The infusion of the right tea leaves makes my water and my life so much more.
Different – but still my water, still me, only better, and more.
More effective
More interesting
More fulfilling
More satisfying
With a different flavour/perspective than when it was just hot water.
A different behaviour, a different approach to the world.
Obviously, there are some leaves that should never be part of my water. There are toxic leaves that should go straight to the compost so that they can be reabsorbed into soil to be reborn into something else.
Some leaves are not as rich in the end – disappointing, not satisfying.
Some are not enough without something else (like milk, cream, lemon, honey…)
Some leaves can quickly become over steeped – pretty good at the beginning, but distasteful the longer they are there.
Steeping takes time. There is no quick infusion that has lasting value. It is appealing for the instant, but never as deep and satisfying as the one that comes after a long steep. I have one tea that does not get over steeped. The longer it stays in my hot water, the more flavour it has, and the flavour changes with the amount of time it steeps. But it has never tasted less than rich and satisfying.
The water matters as well. It must be hot. Receptive to the infusion of the right leaves. Cold water can bring out some nice characteristics, but a long hot steep gives the greatest depth of flavour with the most nuances. My brother told me once about Sun Tea. Cold water and tea bags that are left in the hot Southern sun. But even that water doesn’t stay cold. Its surroundings turn the water warmer, so it still becomes receptive and hot. A slightly different infusion process, but infusion just the same.
I am infused. I continue to be infused more and more. I sometimes don’t like my water being messed with, but the right leaves change me, and change me for the better.
Iced tea. Perhaps this is my legacy. When I become cold, perhaps I can be made into a new example of just what infusion can accomplish. I hope that my infusion has come to that place by then.
This odd musing is important to me as I reach my third season in life. I think about my family and friends, my communities, my world. I think about where faith will matter and to whom. When I am feeling weak, I worry. But when I am strong, I feel excited about how God will make his presence known in the lives of those around me and will develop a faith in them that has been tested and found to be sound. Other lives that have been infused by God.
