A Couple of years ago, I set up a photography business for women and I named it Belovèd Portraits, because I wanted all my clients to know, that they are beloved and beautiful regardless of their age, the color of their skin, or the size of their jeans.
Things around us are changing with an incredible speed, and we are constantly changing too…. There is only one thing that we can fully trust and rely on at all times and in all circumstances and that is God’s love for us. This one thing never changes. In Jesus Christ we are always beloved, adored, chosen and wanted.
More Than Beloved means to build on this solid and unchanging foundation. We are beloved by grace and through faith, it is freely given to us. But there is something we can do. We can up our game, take responsibility for our Christian discipleship and maturity, and step into this amazing partnership with God and do what we are created to do.
I don’t know if you have noticed but Jesus has this amazing way to wake up the potential in people that no one else would see, and call them and inspire them for more.
Think about Mary at the feet of Jesus, learning from him, hanging out in a space where there was no place for women in her culture. And Jesus embraced her, defended her, because he wanted Mary to know that she can be more than she could ever imagine.
Or the woman at the well, a woman of questionable repute, hiding in the scorching heat from the attention of others. Jesus, a rabbi, does not only talk to her which would have been outrageous and unimaginable at that time on its own, but he talks theology with her, a foreigner, a woman, a divorcee…And he calls this woman out of her hiding place and turns her into a preacher and an evangelist!
He calls and turns Mary into a disciple, he turned fishermen into ‘fishers of men’, Sauls into Pauls ….He calls us too. He calls us Belovèd and then he calls us for more. He invites us into a partnership with God, standing firm in his unfailing love for us, joining His work and mission.
Jesus calls us out of our comfort zone to Study his Word, nurture a deep and meaningful relationship with God through prayer and as his new creation, become everything he wants us to be. And this is what More Than Beloved is all about.
purpose · meaning · belonging 