January 23, 2026

For eight days I hiked and camped in Colorado and Wyoming last fall and there was one thing that I couldn’t get out of my head. Other than the Bible, I took one book with me. That book was The Deeper Journey by Robert Mulholland. I couldn’t get the book’s message off my mind. I found myself on the trails thinking about it. As I looked at beautiful waterfalls, mountain lakes, golden aspen trees, and sweeping vistas, this book dominated my thinking. I thought about it as I sat at my campsites and as I crawled into my tent at night. It was beginning to form and transform my thinking.

³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. - Colossians 3:3

This was the premise of Mulholland’s book. As Christians, our lives are now hidden with Christ in God. We are no longer our own. We have died to our old selves, and we have been raised new in Christ.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… -Ephesians 2:6

More than 100 times in his letters, Paul refers to the powerful and mysterious reality of our being in Christ. Jesus himself tells us that God will come and make his home in us (John 14:23). We are in Christ and Christ is in us. What a powerful mystery! This truth gives us reason to deny and fight against the false self. If our true self is hidden with Christ in God and his home is in us, then the false self is anything that tells us we are less than that. The false self tries to convince us that we need more; something other. The great battle of our spiritual lives is living out of our identity, our true selves, as sons and daughters of God. He is in us and we are in him.

For in him we live and move and have our being. -Acts 17:28

There is something else here. It began to occur to me on a certain trail in White River National Forest in Colorado one day that everyone around me is fighting this battle between the false self and the true self. Granted, not everyone is a Christian and therefore not everyone has been adopted as sons and daughters of God. But as each human being bears the image of God, he is present in some mysterious way in each of us.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them…

-Genesis 1:27

Each of us reflects God’s heart and nature and being. Each of us is fighting a battle to discover and rest in our true selves. This has begun to work on my heart and how I see others. Not just the people I live with, work with, or pastor. Everyone.

I’ve been reflecting on this deeply as I consider how Christians should respond to the happenings in Minneapolis and in cities all over the country. There are a lot of people who are scared, getting hurt, or worse. There are families who are being ripped apart and communities living in fear. If we are in Christ (literally, He is in us and we are in Him) … and if everyone around us bears his image and innate goodness… Christians have the responsibility to respond with compassion and love in word and deed. Our allegiance is to Christ, first. He is our first love. He is us. We are him. With this truth prominent in our hearts and minds, then people rise above labels like citizen or non-citizen, legal or illegal, guilty or innocent. They are simply and profoundly sons and daughters… men and women created in the image of God. They, too, are fighting the great battle that you and I fight every day (even if they don’t know it).

I encourage you to pray for our country and the people who are residing here. Pray for our leaders in government. Pray with compassion. Allow your heart to be broken. Speak up around your dinner table, breakroom, or in your friend group. Reach out with the hands of Jesus to heal, restore, and meet the physical and emotional needs of others. 

Every human life reflects a profound mystery of spiritual reality. It’s a beautiful thing! May we go forward in love accordingly.

In Him,

Nathan

Nathan Hinkle

Lead Pastor

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