Do you know what the difference between feeling excited and experiencing exhilaration might be? Young children seem to have a huge capacity for both of these emotions which is one of the reasons that it is so much fun to be with them. According to the dictionary, to be excited is to “stir into action or to put in motion”, coming from a Latin word which means “to call out”. Exhilaration comes from a Greek word that means “to make happy, cheerful”. When Paul wrote to his friends around Ephesus, you could say that he exuded both excitement and exhilaration because he embraced a God who was so incredibly great and so amazingly gracious and powerful. Rather than letting his imprisonment limit his enthusiasm and joy, it seemed to stimulate it. Maybe. Probably. No doubt my little world could use some evidence of this same kind of exhilaration and excitement – a real person making visible the character and “fullness of life and power that comes from God”. Let the adventure begin. . .
